Betrayed During My Engagement Party Chapter 08

Betrayed During My Engagement Party Chapter 08

I was just about to get up after work when my phone rang.

It was Luna.

“Mel, it’s me.”

It was Luna’s voice, hoarse and tired. It was nothing like that sugary tone she used to have.

I kept quiet.

“C–Can you come out and see me?”

“Did something come up?”

Then, she added…

“I’m right downstairs outside your office.”

I gripped my phone and said nothing.

Her voice started to shake.

“Please.”

She was pleading.

“I really… really have no way out.”

I hung up.

I went downstairs.

She was standing by the front doors.

Thinner.

She’d lost at least twenty pounds.

That skintight red dress of hers wouldn’t fit anymore. Now, she had on a gray hoodie with her hair tied up any which way and no makeup.

She had dark and heavy circles around her eyes.

The second she saw me, tears spilled.

“Mel…”

She looked at me with plea.

“Go ahead.”

He looked at me for a few seconds.

“Would you have dinner with me? Not a work thing.”

I met his eyes.

They were sincere.

No testing me, no pity. Just straight–up sincere.

I thought for one second.

“Okay.”

He smiled.

“When?”

“You pick.”

I thought for a second.

“Tomorrow night?”

“That works.”

I got out and closed the door.

The headlights blinked once. He didn’t drive off.

I took two steps and looked back.

He rolled down the window and looked at me.

“Good night,” he said.

“Night.”

I went inside.

The elevator went up.

My phone buzzed.

It was a text from him.

“Tomorrow at seven, I’ll come pick you up.”

I sent one word back.

“Okay.”

“You also said we’d been like sisters for over ten years, and you didn’t want a guy to mess up our friendship.”

Her tears came harder.

“Now you’re here asking me for money. Where’s your true love? Where’s your meant–to–be?”

“Mel, I was wrong. I really was-”

“You being wrong is your problem. You don’t get forgiven just because you say you messed up.

She just stood there, stunned.

“You torched twenty years of friendship for a man.”

I said it, one word at a time.

“Now you want to buy it back. Too late.”

I turned away and hailed a cab.

“Mel! You can’t just leave me! If you don’t help me. I’m done!”

I didn’t stop.

“Mel!”

I ignored her, opened the door, and got in.

I took a deep breath.

There was nothing to be sad about.

Some people deserve to be dropped.

The wind outside the window brushed my cheek, soft with the evening.

The shackles of the past finally fell away for good.

A new life was slowly unfolding.