They Played a Game to Make Me Beg, I Played a Game to Make Me Gone Chapter 04

They Played a Game to Make Me Beg, I Played a Game to Make Me Gone Chapter 04

My parents were thrilled. They said I was finally acting mature.

That night, while I was packing, Derek came into my room looking relieved. “I’ve been going back and forth on whether I should go through with this engagement.”

“You’ve got a temper, you’re timid, and you can’t even handle a few childish pranks from Savannah.”

“But seeing you even got her a gift… I think I’ll push forward with this relationship after all.”

My hands stopped moving. I stared at him. “So this whole time, you were teaming up with her to prank me as some kind of test?”

He didn’t deny it. “Come on. If you can’t even handle your own sister, what kind of wife are you gonna be?”

With that, he walked out, looking completely satisfied.

The morning of the engagement party, Savannah pulled me aside. “Natalie, take the white car, okay? I had it detailed just for you. Consider it my little good-luck charm for you and Derek.”

Mom and Dad nodded in agreement. “Savannah got up early to have it detailed for you. Don’t break her heart now.”

I smiled and nodded back. But I had absolutely no intention of driving to that venue.

After the whole family and Derek took off in the other car, a black sedan, I grabbed my luggage. Before I left, I stopped by the parking lot to inspect the white car Savannah had been so insistent about.

Three out of four tires had deep slashes in them. If I’d actually tried to drive that car to my engagement party, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what could’ve happened. A shiver ran through me.

Then I turned around without a second glance and climbed into a taxi heading in the exact opposite direction.

Meanwhile, at the venue, my parents were busy greeting guests. To satisfy Savannah’s cruel sense of fun, they’d made sure to invite every single person who’d ever known me. From my kindergarten classmates to a security guard I’d spoken to exactly once.

Everyone was about to get a front-row seat to Savannah’s special highlight reel.

Derek checked his watch. Three minutes until showtime. He leaned in close to Savannah’s ear and kept his voice low. “You sure about the car? What if she doesn’t make it?”

Savannah was beyond confident. “Relax. Even if she crashes, she’ll crawl here on her hands and knees.”

She paused, then shot him a sly smile. “You wanna know why I’ve been able to prank her for over twenty years?”

Derek tilted his head. “Why?”

“Because I grew up right here with Mom and Dad. She didn’t get brought home until she was five. She’s been desperate for love ever since, always sucking up to Mom, Dad, you, me. It doesn’t matter how much she gets hurt. She always comes crawling back like a lost puppy.”

Savannah was completely sure of herself. It had always worked that way. I always came back.

The engagement party kicked off. Ten minutes in, every seat was filled, and I was still nowhere to be found.

My parents checked with building security. The white car with the slashed tires had never even left the parking garage. Savannah pulled up the home security cameras. The house was empty. Derek called over and over. No answer.

While he was frantically searching, he ran into my old supervisor, who was standing there holding the invitation, totally confused. “That’s odd. I thought Natalie had transferred to our Milan office. Why would she be having an engagement party here…”

Derek didn’t even have time to process those words. Because right then, the big screen at the front of the room flickered to life. The content that started playing made my parents and Savannah turn ghostly pale. Their legs gave out, and they collapsed straight to the floor.