Chapter 3 - THE SECRET BEHIND THE BRUISES
The room went completely silent.
The other woman looked at me with a strange confidence.
Like she knew something I didn’t.
Jason noticed it too.
His face changed.
“Don’t.”
One word.
But everyone heard the fear behind it.
Linda looked between them.
“What secret?”
Nobody answered.
I felt my stomach tighten.
Because suddenly I realized the betrayal wasn’t just about another woman.
There was something else.
Something darker.
“Jason,” his father said slowly, “what is she talking about?”
Jason rubbed his face.
“This is ridiculous.”
But nobody believed him anymore.
The woman walked closer.
“Emily doesn’t know, does she?”
I stared at her.
“Know what?”
She smiled.
“Ask your perfect fiancé where he was three months ago.”
Jason stepped forward.
“Stop talking.”
“Why?”
She laughed.
“Because she’s finally hearing the truth?”
My heart started racing.
Three months ago.
That was when Jason suddenly changed.
That was when he started coming home late.
That was when he stopped talking about the wedding.
“Jason?”
He looked at me.
For the first time, he looked scared.
And that scared me more.
“What happened three months ago?”
He stayed silent.
Then his mother whispered:
“Jason…”
Everyone waited.
Finally, he spoke.
But the words that came out changed everything.
“I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
My breath stopped.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“I was going to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
Jason lowered his eyes.
And then he said the one sentence I never expected to hear.
“The wedding wasn’t supposed to happen.”
The room erupted.
“What did you say?”
My hands went cold.
The man I loved.
The man I trusted.
Had never planned to marry me?
Jason stepped forward.
“Emily, please listen—”
But I couldn’t.
Because at that moment, my phone suddenly buzzed.
A message appeared.
From an unknown number.
I opened it.
And my blood ran cold.
There was a photo attached.
A photo of Jason.
A photo taken months earlier.
With a woman.
A woman I recognized immediately.
And beneath the picture were six words:
“Ask him who paid for everything.”
I looked up slowly.
Jason was staring at my phone.
And the fear on his face told me one thing.
May you like
He knew exactly who sent it.
TO BE CONTINUED...
