A Clean Breakup

That was right.

Three days ago, I saw the shopping cart on Ian’s phone.

While planning for our engagement, we had been staying in our new home for the past week. The shared living arrangement would make the engagement discussion easier for us, but we stayed in separate rooms.

I stumbled upon his phone, purely by chance. At first, I assumed that he had bought something for me. However, I was never keen on the color red, and I didn’t want to compromise my preferences just to please him and the guests. Hence, I took it upon myself to contact the seller to talk about changing the color of the dress.

To my dismay, I tapped on his order details to find he’d been buying two of every gift he’d given me in the past six months. One delivery was made to my former home while the other was sent to my rented place. The packages were addressed to me and Roxy.

I recalled thinking it was a mere coincidence that the recipient shared the name of my half-sister. However, once I verified the phone number, I realized that Ian had been in touch with Roxy behind my back.

Overwhelmed with shock and disbelief, I tapped on his chats for the first time. Seemingly, upon discovering that Ian and I had been going out for a year, Roxy added Ian on social media under the pretense of mending our relationship.

Roxy and Ian were polite and distant in the beginning. With Ian showing off his lifestyle and posting videos and photos of how happy we were, Roxy switched it up and came on to him.

Apparently, Roxy got me a gift for my birthday last year, so Ian went out to meet her late at night after dropping me home. It had been a year, but I hadn’t seen or received the supposed gift, and the chat history showed that things got hot and heavy between Roxy and Ian that night.

For the following year, Ian played the role of my boyfriend while making time for Roxy. Ian even attended Rowena’s birthday celebration with the family as Roxy’s partner.

Roxy shared a family photo with Ian, featuring them together. Sebastian and Rowena sat in the front, Ian and Roxy stood behind them, and a three-tiered birthday cake was placed in front of them.

They looked at the camera, their faces beaming with happy smiles. The family of four looked good together.

I remembered a phone call from Rowena on her fiftieth birthday. However, I hung up the moment I heard her voice.

Ian played it cool once, asking whether I was available during the weekend to visit Sebastian, and I declined without hesitation. Back then, I assumed it was just small talk. Little did I know, he attended Rowena’s birthday celebration, which I had skipped out on, and today, he extended an invitation to Rowena and Roxy to our engagement party without informing me.

He was trying to force my hand and push me to accept the family back into my life. However, since I had always been accommodating, he didn’t think I would rip Roxy’s dress off her in public. I even went so far as to attack Rowena and Sebastian.

Thinking back, I wished I had been more ruthless. All Sebastian got was a glass of wine poured on him while Rowena got her toe stomped on.

“Ian is the son of a fellow comrade. He comes from a strict family, so he should know better than to pull that stunt. I guess I can’t keep up with the times.

“Just follow your heart, sweetheart. I won’t interfere anymore.

“Just remember this: don’t let anyone push you around. Your mother has suffered enough at the hands of your father. Do right by her and yourself.”