The Fake Engagement Ring
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The day after I said yes to Isaac’s proposal, I accidentally logged into his messaging app on my laptop.
A new message popped up:
“Thank you for the ring, babe. In my heart, I’m already married to you.”
Attached was a picture of the ring–a perfect match for the one Isaac had used to propose to me.
Except hers was real. Mine was a cheap knockoff.
In that moment, I finally understood the distant, unfocused look in his eyes when he proposed. It wasn’t me he was looking at–it was her.
Without hesitation, I took off the ring and tossed it into the trash.
I’ve never cared for fake jewelry.
Or fake love.
1
Almost the moment I saw the message, a notification popped up on the screen: “You’ve been logged out.”
Then my phone started ringing–it was Isaac.
“Mia, why were you logged into my account?” he demanded, his voice sharp and accusatory.
“Were you trying to spy on me?”
I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. It was always the same. He was the one who couldn’t stay loyal, but somehow, he always managed to twist things around and make it seem like I was the one in the wrong.
But today… I didn’t have the strength to argue.
I hung up.
I was exhausted. Completely, utterly exhausted.
The phone immediately rang again.
“Mia, what the hell? Did you just hang up on me?” Isaac’s voice was furious.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and said hoarsely, “Isaac, let’s just end this.”
There was silence on the other end. Then, all at once, his voice exploded with rage.
“End this? Mia, who do you think you are to end things with me?”
“You still think you’re the same rich little daddy’s girl from back then? That you can just throw me away like garbage whenever you feel like
it?”
“Don’t forget–your mom is still in the hospital, and she’s relying on me to pay her medical bills!”
He wasn’t wrong. Years ago, he’d used my mother’s surgery as leverage to force me into staying with him.
But what Isaac didn’t know was that earlier today, my mother had passed away.
“It’s just a ring,” he sneered before I could respond. “You’re really breaking up with me over a stupid ring?”
His laugh was cold and filled with disdain, cutting straight through me.
3:07 PM
<
“Let me make something clear, Mia. You don’t deserve anything better than a fake ring. Women like you-”
His voice was like a swarm of buzzing mosquitoes, loud and unbearable, making my head spin.
Without thinking, I hit the end call button.
Then, I blocked him on everything.
For the first time in what felt like forever, the world around me fell silent.
I sat there in front of my laptop, staring blankly at the Scro
Minutes passed, maybe longer.
When I finally snapped out of it, I realized my face was wet with tears.
In a single day, I had lost my mother, and the man I was supposed to
marry had humiliated me beyond belief.
And yet, in this moment of overwhelming grief and betrayal, I felt strangely calm.
It’s funny how the human mind reacts when pushed to its absolute limit.
I don’t remember how I packed my things. I just remember looking around this cold, empty apartment and realizing that everything I truly owned fit into two suitcases.
Dragging them behind me, I wandered aimlessly through the streets.
With my mom gone, I felt like a tether inside me had snapped.
Later, when my father went bankrupt and took his own life, and my mother’s health began to fail, Isaac used her medical bills as keep me trapped by his side.
When she was alive, she had once threatened to take her own life unless I broke up with Isaac, who was then a struggling entrepreneur, and left the country to study abroad.
chain
10
For years, I’d been like a kite, bound by a string someone else was holding.
Now, the string was gone.
“Beep! Beep!”
A blaring car horn jolted me from my thoughts.
I looked up and realized, far too late, that I was standing in the middle of the street.
The headlights grew brighter, and the screech of tires tearing against asphalt filled the air.
I didn’t have time to move.
The impact sent me sprawling onto the pavement.
I opened my eyes to see a man stepping out of the driver’s seat. He looked panicked as he rushed toward me.
