I Saved 10,000 Points For Our Wedding, He Deducted 500 For Her Chapter 04

I Saved 10,000 Points For Our Wedding, He Deducted 500 For Her Chapter 04

The next day, I sat on the edge of my bed with one thought looping through my head.

Eight years of points had to be worth at least one goodbye.

On the ride over, I remembered meeting Ethan for the first time at eighteen. The sun had been high overhead, and when he smiled at me, he was all warmth and light.

I had carried that image in my heart for eight years. After today, it was time to delete it.

White roses blanketed the estate lawn. A huge LED screen read:

“Happy 25th Birthday. Always Adored.”

Sienna came toward me with a bright smile.

“Claire, you came! I knew Ethan could get you here.”

Ethan followed her over.

“Sienna’s been hoping you’d come to her birthday.”

Sienna tilted her head at me. “What’s wrong? Wait. Did you think he was proposing today? Ethan only apologized yesterday because he needed you to show up. He knew you might refuse if you were still mad, so he told you he’d “take care of everything.””

She leaned closer, lowering her voice until only I could hear.

“You didn’t actually think he was going to propose to you, did you?”

I looked at her, then at Ethan.

Ethan’s mouth opened, then closed. He said nothing.

I took out my phone.

The screen lit up. The points app was still open where I had left it the night before.

Ninety-five hundred points. Eight years of earning, eight years of swallowing every hurt, compressed into four digits.

My thumb hovered over “Delete Account.”

Ethan grabbed my hand. “Claire, don’t start.”

He snatched the phone, tapped a few times, then shoved it back at me.

“Look.”

I looked down.

The balance jumped from “9500” to “10000.”

Right in front of me, he had added five hundred points.

“Happy now?” He frowned, irritation creeping into his voice.

“I’ll propose another day. It’s Sienna’s birthday. Can you please not make a scene?”

I stared at the neat, restored ten thousand and almost laughed.

A few taps from him could restore what had taken me eight years to earn.

Then what did eight years of counting every point, swallowing every deduction, and walking on eggshells around both of them even mean?

Sienna leaned over, glanced at my screen, and covered her mouth as she laughed.

“Oh, Claire, I forgot to tell you. The old rules are gone. Starting today, ten thousand gets you a proposal. Marriage is twenty thousand. Take your time. You already spent eight years getting this far. What’s eight more?”

She blinked sweetly. “I was scared Ethan might stop taking care of me once he got married, so I made a birthday wish. No wedding until you hit twenty thousand.”

Ethan glanced at her and did not object.

“I promised her when we were kids that I’d make her wishes come true.”

“Claire.” Ethan’s voice carried a warning.

“It’s Sienna’s birthday. Don’t ruin her birthday.”

“Okay.”

I held up my phone and, with both of them watching, tapped “Confirm Delete.”

The app icon flickered once and vanished.

Eight years of points, gone in a second.

I slipped the phone into my pocket and raised my head to meet Ethan’s eyes.

“We’re done.”

“Claire!”

He took a step toward me, laughing once in disbelief before forcing his voice back down.

“Fine. Delete it. Minus three hundred. Go earn your way back to ten thousand before you talk to me about a proposal again.”

I did not stop. His voice chased after me.

“You wanted marriage. Earn it. I’m not handing those points back so easily this time.”

Sienna laughed behind me.

“Ethan, want to bet she comes crying back in two days? Didn’t she do the same thing last time?”

Ethan gave a quiet laugh.

“It’s been eight years. Who has she ever wanted besides me? She can say we’re done all she wants. She’ll go home, scroll through our pictures, reread our texts, cry, and cave first. Three days, tops. She’ll be back with her suitcase.”

He thought I would do what I always did: cool off, come back, earn back whatever he had docked, and keep chasing a ten-thousand-point finish line he could move whenever he wanted.

He did not know that this time, I was never coming back.