Chapter 3I Helped My Fiancé’s Female Best Friend Become the Bride

The pain in my arm was nothing compared to the ache in my heart.

I wrenched my arm free and slapped him, hard.

“Who’s the one causing trouble?” I seethed. “Are you blind? Can’t you see this is all a performance to force you to marry her?”

“I’ve already given you what you want. Why won’t you just leave me alone?”

The three of them exchanged a look, then put on their masks of innocence.

“Cara, you must have misunderstood,” Jenna’s mother said, her voice trembling. “We were just worried about Jenna. We’re so happy for you and Alex!”

Jenna’s father adopted a stern tone. “You owe us an apology for these wild accusations.”

Jenna just stood there, biting her lip, silent tears streaming down her face.

Alex touched his reddening cheek, his eyes blazing with anger. “Look what you’ve done, Cara.”

“I told you I was still going to marry you! The agreement was just to calm her parents down. Why do you have to turn everything into some twisted conspiracy?”

“Take your anger out on me, not her mother!”

“If you want our wedding to happen tomorrow, you will apologize to her mother. And then you will apologize to Jenna and her whole family.”

The rage I had been suppressing erupted.

Jenna’s father, seeing my fury, stepped in. “That’s right! You will apologize. And if you don’t, I will have no problem letting Alex sponsor my daughter!”

“And that five thousand a month? You can pay it. As a token of your sincerity.”

I was stunned. Then, I burst out laughing.

In that moment, I had never been more grateful that I hadn’t legally married Alex yet. My parents had insisted we wait until after the ceremony, convinced Jenna’s family would pull something. They were right. If we had signed the papers, I’d be stuck, forced to go through a divorce to escape this nightmare.

I pointed to the security camera on the corner of the street. “First of all,” I said to Alex, “I’m not apologizing for something I didn’t do.”

“Second, you and I are over. You can marry whoever you want tomorrow.”

My ride arrived just then. I got in without a second glance. In the rearview mirror, I saw Alex run after the car for a short distance.

The driver kindly rolled down my window. “Should I stop, miss?”

I shook my head.

I could just make out Alex’s furious shouts. “Cara, come back here! Her mother is an old woman! Why would she lie about a little girl like you?”

“Come back and apologize, and we can still have our wedding tomorrow!”

“Speed up,” I told the driver.

Alex’s voice rose to a desperate roar. “Cara! Fine! You want to be stubborn? I’ll marry Jenna tomorrow, just like you wanted! And you’ll be sorry!”

Sorry?

The only thing I was sorry about was not listening to my parents and breaking up with him sooner.

When my parents saw me walk in with my suitcase, they didn’t ask any questions. They just wrapped me in a hug. Then they started calling our relatives, one by one, to tell them the wedding was off. They handled every awkward question with grace, simply saying we weren’t a good match, never once attacking Alex’s character.

I hid in my room, curled up in a ball, and let the tears come. Tears for loving the wrong person. Tears for the shame I’d brought on my family. Tears for five wasted years.

Before I could even process my grief, my phone started buzzing relentlessly. It was a flood of notifications, all of them filled with vile, hateful messages.

So that’s why she posted about being a sugar baby! She was calling YOU out as the real homewrecker!

You bitch, give him back to her! Crawl back into your hole and never come out!

How dare you drive a good woman to beg for a sugar daddy online? Why don’t you just die?

It clicked. The messages were connected to Jenna’s post.

I ignored them and went back to her social media page. Her “sugar baby” post now had over a million likes. The initial negative comments were gone.

Pinned at the very top was a new comment. From Alex.