At a company team-building event, during the fireworks show, my fiancée’s adorable assistant, Charlie Harbor, knelt on one knee in public, holding out a diamond ring he had prepared.
“Liliana Warner, marry me.”
He proposed to my fiancée right in front of me and my colleagues merely glanced at me before turning away, as if I were invisible.
“Marry him, marry him.”
As I stepped forward, Charlie shot me a provocative look. “You’re not even married yet. Trash like you doesn’t deserve Liliana.”
I stared at Liliana. “We’re not married yet, so you still have the right to choose. Choose—me or him.”
——
There was a moment of silence.
“What makes you think Liliana will choose you? Because you’re uneducated? Or because you’re a guard dog?” Charlie looked at me with smug disdain and laughter erupted from the crowd.
“Choose you? Why don’t you go look in the mirror and get a reality check? If it weren’t for Mrs. Warner, you wouldn’t even be a security guard.”
“That’s right. You relied on connections to become a security captain and now you shamelessly ask if she should pick you?”
At that moment, my colleagues all tried to flatter Charlie, fawning over him.
I said nothing more, quietly waiting for Liliana’s response. I had gotten engaged to her only because her grandfather had personally begged me. We agreed to cultivate our relationship for three years and if feelings developed, we would marry. But for those three years, I had failed to melt the ice around her.
Liliana didn’t speak, but she responded with action. She reached out her hand—to Charlie. Charlie placed the diamond ring on her finger and the two of them kissed, as though I didn’t exist.
I watched them calmly. I wasn’t sure if they were deliberately trying to disgust me, but the kiss dragged on. For three years, Liliana had constantly tested my boundaries, never keeping her distance from other men. I had grown used to it. I just felt numb.
After they finally pulled apart, Charlie looked at me and said, “Why don’t you leave already? Still waiting for an invitation to the wedding?”
I walked over to Liliana, took off my watch and handed it to her, “This is your engagement gift to me. Please return yours to me.”
Three years ago, at her grandfather’s suggestion, Liliana and I had exchanged watches as a symbol of our commitment.
“Anything you’ve worn is disgusting,” Charlie scoffed, shoving my hand aside. “Just deal with it yourself.”
“As for the watch Liliana wore, you’re not even qualified to take it back.” Charlie turned toward Liliana.
Understanding what he meant, Liliana took the engagement watch I had given her from her bag and handed it to Charlie. She had only worn it when seeing her grandfather and usually kept it tucked away.
Charlie flung the watch into the nearby lake, “You want a broken watch back? You’ll only ever be a clown.”
I looked at him calmly, “I suggest you go get that watch and pray it’s undamaged. Otherwise, even if I sold you, you couldn’t afford the cost.”
“A fake watch?” Charlie sneered. “You really think you’re the mysterious owner of a priceless timepiece?”
“Do you even know why Liliana hated you from the start? It’s because you gave her a fake watch. If it had been a cheap knockoff, that would’ve been fine. But no—you had to buy her a high-end replica of a world-famous brand for fifteen thousand. Do you know how long people laughed at her for that?”
“That’s because you don’t understand the value of things,” I said, unfazed. “I bought that watch for fifteen thousand. You’d better go retrieve it.”
“Listen, Liliana is the CEO, so sure, he can be the security captain,” Charlie said with exaggerated sarcasm. The colleagues nearby laughed loudly.
"Shane, I know you like me, but love can't be forced. I don't know how you convinced my grandfather to get engaged to you, but arranged marriages are outdated now."
