Shawn was quicker to react, grabbing my wrist tightly.
He raised his voice. “So, this is why you never came home? You got yourself a rich backer, and now you think you’re too good for us? Do you really think someone like him would want a sickly young woman like you? Or is this just another act to get our
attention?”
While vitriol ran from his mouth, tears poured freely down his face.
1/3
I used to think this was part of his childlike nonesty.
However, in love, immaturity only erodes affection over time.
I still remember the day we graduated high school. Back then, the three of us snuck into a bridal shop.
I wore a white wedding gown, standing before the two of them.
They both dropped to one knee and proposed, fighting for me in a way that made the staff laugh out loud.
The scene right now was almost identical, but the story had changed.
With time, things had changed, and our love had been eroded to nothingness.
I toyed with the sparkling ring on my finger and said in a cold, detached voice, “Don’t show up in my life again. For Grandpa’s sáke, I won’t call security this time.”
Shawn looked stunned. It was as if he hadn’t expected me to actually throw them out. He stepped forward and demanded.
“Yvonne! Are you really doing this? Marriage isn’t a game! Don’t throw away your future just to spite us! Are you really going to betray the feelings for over a decade between us for some stranger?”
I nodded in amusement.
“Tell me who gave you the right to meddle in my life?”
When they let Queenie humiliate me, the Yvonne Sachman that once loved them both had died.
I had loved them with all my heart for over ten years and believed they would be a part of my life.
I imagined marrying one of them, having children, and tying the knot between the Langston and Sachman families.
I waited… and waited. For all my patience, all I got in return was betrayal.
It turned out that being childhood sweethearts was no match for shiny new toys.
The fiery love of youth was nothing but a story people laughed about over drinks as adults, and the partners they had were long
gone and replaced.
Yet now, they want to use the past to guilt–trip me?
What a joke!
For once, a crack appeared in Nigel’s usual calm appearance. His eyes were filled with pain and disappointment.
“Why, Yvonne? You promised you’d marry me. Is it because the Blackwell family has more power? Was the love between us worth
less than the allure of fortune?”
The ring on my finger was noticeably larger than the ones they gave Queenie.
2/3
I looked up at my reflection in the mirror.
Compared to the young wonian who once begged for love, the woman standing before me now shone so much brighter.
