Chapter 3
Right in front of Linda and Sophie, I pulled Ryan out of my blocked list and dialed his number.
He picked up almost instantly.
"Emily, you finally answered. Please, just hear me out. My mom is just—" Ryan stammered, sounding desperate.
"Ryan," I interrupted, my tone cold and steady. "Come pick up your mom and your sister."
There was silence on the other end.
I could imagine the shock and panic on his face right now.
"And one more thing," I said, pausing, my words cold as ice. "This engagement? I'm ending it. Consider this official notice."
"Come on, Emily." Ryan's voice jumped, a hint of pleading in it. "Can we please just talk? We can all sit down and talk things through."
"Alright," I let out a cold laugh. "You want to talk? Then let's hear exactly what your mom said."
I put him on speaker and hit play on the recording I'd just made.
Linda's and Sophie's sharp, sharp voices rang out loud and clear from my phone.
"My mom just wanted to test you. She just wanna see if you really love Ryan, not just the money."
"Always watching what you can take. Always thinking about money. Don't pretend this was ever about anything else."
Ryan went completely silent on the other end.
When the recording ended, the whole hallway was dead silent.
Linda's and Sophie's faces went ghostly pale.
"Did you hear that?" I asked into the phone, my voice icy. "Is this the 'test' you were talking about? Is this your idea of 'family'?"
"I..." Ryan was speechless, totally lost for words. After a long, awkward silence, he finally squeezed out something that killed every last bit of hope I had.
"Emily, my mom's old now. Can't you just let her have her way? Why do you always have to make things so hard?" Ryan said, his voice full of exasperation.
At that moment, I felt like the biggest idiot on the planet.
I couldn't believe I was still clinging to the hope that he'd actually stand up for what was right.
I hung up and then blocked every single contact for all three of them.
With all the force I could muster, I jabbed my finger toward the door.
"Get out," I shouted, my voice echoing off the walls.
"Get out of my house," I yelled, not holding back for a second.
Linda and Sophie were scared stiff by my fury. They bolted down the stairs, stumbling over each other in their rush to escape.
The news that I'd called off the engagement spread through the neighborhood like wildfire. It was all anyone could talk about before the sun even set.
I became the laughingstock of the block.
People started calling me the girl who was dumped before the wedding or the gold digger who had tried to marry up and failed.
My parents were so stressed that they couldn't eat for days, and my mom's hair seemed to turn even whiter right before our eyes.
The air around was so thick with tension that it felt like I could barely breathe.
It wasn't until the afternoon of the third day that I got a call from an unknown number.
The caller said she was the assistant to Richard King, a big shot businessman in town.
She told me Richard wanted her to check up on me.
I was stunned.
She explained that on that very day, Richard happened to be driving by the neighborhood. He saw everything—the cops showing up, and me cool as ice, whipping out my bank card and handing back every cent right there in front of everyone.