On Our Anniversary, My Boyfriend's Childhood Friend Ate My Dog

I took Tommy's remaining body to the crematorium and came back with a small box of ashes.

The once lively and playful Border Collie was now sadly confined to this tiny box.

Holding the box, I returned home feeling heavy-hearted, only to unexpectedly find Charles there.

Seeing me, he frowned in displeasure.

"Where have you been messing around? The house is a mess, and you haven't cleaned it.

"Do you still want to live like this?"

He sat at the dining table, which was still littered with trash just as I'd left it.

Yet even so, Charles showed no intention of cleaning up.

Even though my heart felt cold, I still smiled submissively.

"I went to send Tommy off for the last time. Bear with me for a bit."

Charles raised his eyebrows in surprise, seemingly caught off guard.

He knew how much I cherished Tommy.

I never spared any expense when it came to Tommy's care, tending to him meticulously.

All because I saw Tommy as a symbol of our love.

Since my whole heart was set on Charles, I naturally treated Tommy like a treasure.

Now that Tommy had died because of him, my continued docile demeanor unsettled Charles.

At the very least, I should have been hysterically questioning him.

But now, there was only a dead calm in my eyes.

Charles, a little flustered, reached out to stop me from cleaning the table.

"Cora, it's not necessary, is it? It was just a dog.

"We're about to get married. We can just get another one, right?"

He truly didn't understand why I was making such a big deal out of it.

What he didn't know was that my interest in him had all begun with Tommy.

Now that the source of my love was gone, how could anything last?

I smiled without revealing my thoughts and avoided his hand.

"After all, I had him for five years. I need to send him off properly."

My face remained calm, as if I truly didn't care about Tommy's death.

But it was precisely my attitude that made Charles feel even more uneasy.

Like performing a magic trick, he pulled out a glass bottle from behind him, filled with shimmering sand.

"Cora, I got this sand from the beach just for you. You love the beach, don't you?"

I looked at the bottle, with tiny seashells scattered inside. It was indeed beautiful.

But I was overwhelmed by a sense of bitter irony, and tears began to fill my eyes.

He only knew that I used to love the beach, unaware that it was because Tommy loved playing in the water.

The sand he had supposedly collected just for me had actually been casually gathered during his trip to the beach with Anna.

In fact, just five minutes ago, Anna had posted an update on Facebook.

"Even sand that a dog doesn't want can make some people happy for a long time!"

In his eyes, I would always be the cheapest.

Even though I had already given up on Charles, I still couldn't stop my tears from flowing at that moment.

Yet Charles thought he had hit my weak spot, and his arrogant attitude returned.

"Huh! I knew what you were up to. You just wanted to get my attention!"

I held back my tears and looked at him. His face was full of disdain and smugness, but there wasn't the slightest trace of regret.

He had never regretted the way he hurt me.

"Charles, you really are beyond saving."

As if he sensed that he had me under his control, Charles finally spoke condescendingly, "Anna's been bored lately. Have your mom give her a job at the company.

"It should be a high position, but an easy one, so she won't get bullied!"

I was stunned for a moment before I realized that Charles was asking me for a favor.

Seeing how he acted like it was perfectly reasonable, I couldn't help but laugh in anger.

"Charles, we're about to get married, and you're always hanging out with Anna. But now you can't even show my mom some respect?!"

When Charles had struggled in his career, it was me who begged my mom to give him a job at her company.

The company was hard to get into, and Charles being given a position caused rumors to spread internally.

But Charles had no awareness of his privileged entry, and he openly bragged at the company.

If I hadn't begged my mom, he would have been fired long ago.

Now, how did he have the audacity to want to bring Anna into the company?

Seeing that I didn't respond, Charles impatiently threw something into my lap.

It was a cheap ring made from a soda can tab.

"Fine, all this fuss over a pair of rings? You're so petty!

"Your hands are ugly anyway, so it doesn't matter what you wear!"