He Set Rules for Me but Broke Them All for Her Chapter 03

He Set Rules for Me but Broke Them All for Her Chapter 03

Cora still had her arm looped through his, a bouquet of flowers in her other hand.

The ceramic spoon slipped from my fingers and shattered on the floor.

Our eyes met. Both of them froze, then slowly pulled apart.

Cora’s smile vanished instantly. The flowers dropped at her feet. Her voice trembled. “Marnie… I thought you went to work?”

“I called in sick with a fever.”

I wrapped the shards in a paper towel. A thin scratch opened on my finger.

Cora stumbled into an explanation. “It got so late last night. Remy didn’t want to wake you, so we just crashed at a hotel.”

My eyes stung.

I kept staring at the broken pieces in my hands.

It hit me that we’d made this dinnerware set together, the three of us. And now it was just rubble.

They weren’t wrong. I had that condition, the one that made me cry at everything.

But I never imagined this thing that caused me so much pain would become a joke between the two people closest to me.

I stood up and walked towards Remy. My voice was slow, but steady, no trace of sobbing in it. “Remy, we’re done.”

He looked up, startled at first.

Then the surprise quickly turned into that knowing expression he always wore.

“We’re about to get engaged. Stop joking around.” He cleared his throat, his tone ice-cold. “This isn’t how you throw a tantrum. Can you dial back the princess act for once?”

I held his gaze. “I’m not throwing a tantrum.”

So he knew we were getting engaged.

What he didn’t know was that every hope I’d ever had for our future had been crushed the moment he draped that coat over Cora’s shoulders.

I got up.

I picked up the steaming bowl of oatmeal and poured every last drop down the sink.

Then I turned and started packing. There wasn’t much.

“Marnie!” Remy’s voice came out as a low growl.

Cora grabbed his hand. Her eyes were red-rimmed, but she forced a smile and lifted up a cup she was holding. “Don’t be mad, Marnie. Look, Remy asked me to bring you this. Take a sip.”

She tore open the straw wrapper and blinked at me, all sweetness, like the old days when we were inseparable best friends.

My heart dropped. “I’m allergic to mango.”

Her hand froze mid-air.

I remembered everything about them.

Cora’s favorite fruit was strawberries, her favorite color blue.

I’d covered for her when she skipped class to go to concerts. I’d stayed by her side all night when she had acute gastroenteritis.

Remy ate with his left hand. He was allergic to peanuts. He loved gaming and I’d saved up for months to buy him that console.

And yet, after all that, they didn’t even know what I was allergic to.

Not one of them had ever bothered to remember.

Remy’s face twisted. He grabbed Cora’s wrist. “Why even go out of your way to be nice to her? Forget the engagement.”

The door slammed so hard the walls shook.

Cora opened her mouth to say something, but her words were swallowed by the sound of an engine firing up downstairs.

I moved back home.

My luggage was light, just one small suitcase.

My mom could tell something was off, so she made me a big dinner.

At the table, she asked carefully, “Marnie, sweetie… did you and Remy have a fight?”

I shoveled a forkful of mashed potatoes into my mouth and shook my head, holding back tears. “We broke up.”

I paused. “Mom, that person you mentioned before. I’ll go meet him.”

She’d brought it up once, before I told her about my relationship.

At the time, I’d turned her down again and again, only finally caving and confessing about Remy. She blinked in surprise, didn’t ask a single question, and just smiled. “Okay.”