3
Halfway through the meal, my phone started buzzing nonstop. Every call was from Harry.
It was getting on my nerves, so I just turned it off.
I sat through the rest of the dinner calmly with my parents.
After dropping them back at the Pruitt mansion, I went straight to the penthouse I'd been sharing with Harry.
We'd paid for this place in full too, only it was in his name.
Now that I thought about it, it really had all gone to that ungrateful wretch for nothing.
Not that it mattered.
He'd be paying for everything he'd done soon enough.
I took out my key, unlocked the door, packed up everything that was mine, took our framed photo down off the wall, cut it to pieces, and dropped it in the trash before I left.
I was wheeling my suitcase out the door when I ran right into Harry, just back from the hospital.
The exhaustion on his face was obvious. He opened his mouth to apologize.
Then he caught sight of the suitcase in my hand, and his expression went dark in an instant.
"Ruby, what's this supposed to mean?" He blocked the elevator, anger he couldn't keep down in his voice.
"I did one nice thing, took a subordinate to the hospital. Are you seriously throwing a tantrum and running off over that?"
Seeing that Harry still hadn't figured out what he'd actually done wrong, I let out a helpless laugh.
I bitterly regretted wasting three good years on an idiot like this.
I said coldly, "Let's break up," and hauled my suitcase toward the door.
"Break up?" Harry's brows knotted tighter, like he'd heard something impossible.
"You want to break up with me over something this small? Ruby, can't you be a little more generous about it?"
"Ha. I'm not being generous?" I pulled out my phone, found the photos my best friend had sent me a little while ago, and shoved them in Harry's face.
"If I weren't being generous, I'd have gone to that hospital and killed the two of you the moment I saw this photo!"
Harry glanced at the photo, and his face went white in a heartbeat.
It was the photo of him at the hospital, holding Renata's hand and feeding her medicine.
"Ruby, you were spying on me?" Harry tried to flip it back on me, using the spying angle to steer away from the point.
"Spying on you? As if you're worth it." I couldn't help it, I snorted a laugh.
"Harry, did you forget? That private hospital you went to belongs to my best friend!"
Harry's face went from green to white, his throat bobbing twice, and then he was back to preaching morality. "Babe, Renata had an IV in that hand, she couldn't lift it, I was just being kind and helping out. There's really nothing between me and her. Are you honestly going to sentence me to death over one moment of kindness?"
"Nothing between you?" I folded my arms and watched him perform, taking my time.
"Harry, you don't actually think I'm some lovestruck fool who'll be smoothed over by a few sweet words, do you? If there was nothing between you, would you have blown off meeting my parents? Would you have fed her medicine with your own hands? Enough, quit the useless act. Move, before I slap you again!"
Every word came out sharper than the last, until the last shred of dignity slid off Harry's face.
He reached out to grab me. "Babe, today was my fault, I shouldn't have blown off your mom and dad, I shouldn't have upset you. Don't be mad, okay? We're about to get engaged. If it gets out that you broke up with me now, how do you think that looks... Even if you won't think of me, you should think of your mom and dad!"
The moment Harry said that, all I felt was how absurd it was.
The foot I'd already started to lift came back down, and I looked at him with a raised brow. "Think of my mom and dad? Harry, how do you have the nerve to say that? Where was your consideration for them when you stood me up? When you took Renata to the hospital right in front of me, where was your worry about how it looked? And another thing..." I paused, and gave him a look full of amusement.
"When did I ever agree to get engaged to you? Why don't you go take a good look in the mirror? A social climber like you, engaged to me?"
