My Fiancé’s Love Was Just a Test?! Too Bad I Passed by Leaving Chapter 08

My Fiancé’s Love Was Just a Test?! Too Bad I Passed by Leaving Chapter 08

Vanessa flinched at his tone.

“How am I supposed to know?”

Spencer leaned back. His voice was perfectly level, which made it worse.

“You were pretty confident this morning that she’d show up.”

Every pair of eyes in the room landed on Vanessa. She shrugged it off, but her voice came out sharper than

she meant.

“How should I know what goes on in her head?”

“And look at you right now. You’re panicking. That’s exactly what she wanted.”

“Even if she did go to Harboridge, one call from you and she’d come running.”

Vanessa was reaching for the same playbook that had always worked.

This time, Spencer wasn’t buying it.

“And what makes you so sure she’s coming back?”

That stopped her for a beat. Then she pushed through.

“Of course she’ll come back.”

“She’s a gold digger, Spencer. You really think she’s gonna walk away from a guy like you?”

Spencer closed his eyes. Something shifted across his face, doubt turning into something sharper.

“Vanessa, you’ve been calling her a gold digger since the day you got back.”

“It’s been years. I want to know. What actual proof do you have?”

“What did Elise ever take from me?”

Before she could answer, Spencer turned to the rest of the room. His voice dropped.

“You all said the same thing she did.”

“So think. In seven years, what did she ever get from me?”

Dead silence.

They thought about it. Really thought about it.

Not one of them could name a single real gift he’d given me.

Every cheap thing Spencer had funneled through Graham as part of the con–I’d added it all up and wired the

money back after the breakup.

Spencer slammed his palm onto the table so hard the glasses jumped.

“Say something!”

“You always have so much to say. Why is everyone quiet now?”

Heads stayed down. Mouths opened, but nothing came out.

The tension in the room kept building until Vanessa cracked.

“So what, this is our fault now?”

“Every time we called her a gold digger, you never said a word.”

“You agreed to the proposal setup that night two years ago.”

“Every plan, every test, every scheme. We told you everything, and you never once told us to stop.”

Every word landed like a fist.

When he’d first heard I was gone, he’d panicked, but somewhere underneath, he’d told himself this wasn’t his

fault. He hadn’t planned any of it.

He’d told himself I’d forgive him eventually.

But Vanessa had just ripped that lie apart.

The group had always orbited him.

Every cruel thing they’d done to me, they’d done because they believed he wanted it.

And he’d never told them to stop.

The realization hit him all at once, and it was the worst thing he’d ever felt.

He grabbed his phone.

“Find her. I don’t care how. Find out exactly where Elise is.”

“Now. I need to know now.”