I stood behind them and asked, my voice flat and unbothered:
"Don't you even want to know what I was there for?"
That one sentence stopped Greta in her tracks.
She turned around and looked at me with shameless contempt.
Her voice dripped with disbelief:
"What for? What else would anyone be doing sneaking around an OB-GYN clinic?"
"Either you caught something, or you were getting rid of something!"
"You have the nerve to bring it up? I don't even have the stomach to hear it."
"The Weiss family is one of the most prominent families in the capital. You've dragged our name through the mud."
"Mark my words. The $500,000 betrothal gift gets returned in full. The house, the jewelry, and every cent of today's reception comes out of your pocket!"
I ignored her and fixed my gaze on Harrison.
"You don't want to know either?"
Harrison's face was flushed scarlet with rage, and the way he looked at me was the way you'd look at something filthy on the bottom of your shoe.
His fists were clenched. His mouth opened, then closed. He wanted to curse me out but couldn't find the words.
Greta immediately stepped in front of him, jabbing her finger at my face:
"You shameless tramp! Even now you're trying to play on my son's soft heart!"
"Even if he believed you, I never would! Don't you dare try to sink your claws into him again!"
Marilyn shuffled forward from the side, sobbing.
"I didn't want to cause a fight between you and Harrison."
"But I couldn't keep lying for you either, sis."
"This is all my fault. I should never have followed you that day. I wish I hadn't been so curious."
She reached for my hand as she spoke, as if begging me to forgive her.
Harrison watched the scene, and his expression softened instantly.
"Sandra Cobb, she's your own sister. One of you is pure and kind, and the other is cheap trash. I must have been blind."
Those words carved through whatever hope I had left, and the last scrap of it crumbled to nothing.
So this was who I'd been all along in the eyes of the man I'd loved for eight years.
We went from school uniforms to wedding gowns. I truly believed we'd be happy forever.
But everything changed the day Marilyn was found and brought home.
My parents, who once cherished me like the apple of their eye, started telling me to give way to my sister in everything.
They said she'd suffered so much during all those years she was lost.
Harrison, whose gaze used to orbit around me alone, began glancing her way more and more.
He'd toss out little comments: "Your sister is so much more innocent than you."
And maybe she was. I'd spent those years building a company, closing deals, single-handedly pulling my family into the upper echelons of the capital's society.
I'd seen too many mind games, too many schemes, too many transactions dressed up as relationships.
I wasn't innocent anymore. I weighed every cost and benefit. I kept score. I cared about winning and losing.
Compared to Marilyn, who called herself a "curious little darling" and played sweet and naive, I wasn't exactly endearing.
So I swallowed the explanation sitting on the tip of my tongue, pulled out the freshly issued marriage certificate, and tore it to pieces right in front of Harrison's face.
"If that's how it is, then today's wedding is off."
The sound of ripping paper cut through the silence.
As the certificate split in two, something complicated passed across Harrison's face.
I pulled the ring off my finger and threw it into his chest.
"Harrison Weiss, from today on, you and I are done. Completely."
Harrison clutched the ring and said nothing.
Greta let out a cold laugh:
"Anyone watching would think you were some kind of virtuous martyr!"
"Get this straight. You're the one who cheated on my son. If anyone's calling off this wedding, it's him, not you!"
"A tramp who's had eight abortions, dumped by my son for what she is. Who else would ever want you?"
"The betrothal gift? The property deed? The jewelry? Hand it all back. Every last piece!"
All of that was with my parents.
They rushed forward immediately:
"In-laws, how about you take a look at our younger daughter?"
