My Fiancé Came Back Too Late

Synopsis

Twenty minutes before the engagement party, I stood in the bridal suite, staring at the Instagram post that had popped up on my phone. A beach. A sunset. The silhouettes of a couple. The caption was only five words: [Vacation with the right person.] The man in the photo was my fiancé, Ethan. And the woman with her arm wrapped around his was his ex, Emily. The makeup artist asked softly, "Do you want me to touch up your lipstick?" Outside the door, Olivia, Lucas's mother, was already laughing with the guests as she explained, "Young people, you know how it is. Traffic must've been bad. He'll be here any minute." She was covering for him, but in doing so, she was also brushing my humiliation under the rug. I set my phone down, slipped off my engagement ring, and placed it inside the jewelry box. Then I texted a number: [You can come up now.] Today's engagement party wasn't going to be a game where Ethan showed up whenever he felt like it and left me hanging whenever he didn't. If he wanted to treat our engagement like a backup plan, then I would settle the score with him in front of everyone.