I proposed to my pregnant girlfriend, but she looked at me like I was dirt beneath her shoes.
“Don’t flatter yourself. I won’t let a child tie me down, and I sure as hell won’t spend my life with a broke loser like you.”
I had never imagined that the woman I had loved for so many years could be so shallow, so cold.
Before I could utter a word about my finances, she snatched her luggage and walked out without so much as a glance back.
…
The next time I laid eyes on her was at a business dinner.
She was crying, clinging to her husband, an aging man at least twice her age, wailing that I had been stalking her.
Her so-called husband turned to me with a smug grin and said, “I’m about to close a deal with the richest man in the country. You’d better drop to your knees and apologize now or get ready to cry later.”
At that, I smiled. Then, without a word, I pulled out my phone, made a call, and said calmly, “This deal is off.”
——
1
I held up a custom diamond ring and knelt on one knee, my eyes fixed on Blair Bellemont with quiet hope.
“Marry me. I’ll love you and the baby forever. I will…”
Before I could finish, Blair frowned with visible irritation. She snatched the ring from my hand and scoffed coldly.
“Lol. You’re proposing with a fake diamond ring?”
“If you’d at least bought a real one that matched your supposed status, maybe I’d have thought better of you. But this? What is it, some cheap knockoff the size of a quail egg?”
I stood frozen. The woman who had always appeared gentle and sweet was gone. Her mocking tone cut deeper than any blade.
Still, I convinced myself it was just the pregnancy. Hormones could change a person, right?
So I smiled and tried to explain that the ring was real.
But Blair didn’t even let me speak. “What’s with that stupid grin? Who are you trying to fool? Forget the proposal; I’m not marrying you.”
“You’re not marrying me?” My voice cracked. “But we’ve been together for so many years. And you’re carrying my child…”
I was growing anxious, but Blair only laughed harder, her voice dripping with mockery.
“Who says getting pregnant means I have to get married?”
“Have you looked in the mirror? Do you really think I’d marry someone like you and actually have your child? I only dated you because you were easy to flaunt, decent-looking, and obedient like a dog. Sure, you only make a few tens of thousands a month, but at least you spent every cent on me.”
“But dating? That’s just for fun. Marriage? That’s a whole different game.”
With a toss of her hair, she let out another smug, scornful laugh.
“Oh, and by the way, I had the baby aborted yesterday.”
“Did you honestly think I’d let a pregnancy chain me to some broke loser? Raise a bunch of little nobodies and live a miserable life forever? Not a chance.”
2
Blair was always calculating, a master of mind games. She liked to test me, to see if my love was real or if I’d obey her every whim like some loyal dog.
Once, she returned from a business trip and deliberately left a pair of men’s slippers by the bed just to see if I’d get jealous. Another time, she called her best friend and pretended to be talking to a man, calling him “darling” while watching my reaction from the corner of her eye.
So when she told me she had aborted the baby, I thought it was just another test. If I got angry, she’d accuse me of treating her like a walking womb. If I looked relieved, she’d say I was dodging responsibility.
So I smiled.
“Blair, stop it. There’s no way you’d do that. You’re just testing me again, aren’t you? Seeing whether I’d lose it or not?”
“Come on, don’t mess with me. I love you. This ring…”
