I Was Left Behind at the Altar

Cheating Wife

My hand was hurting from the pulling and the needle poking around, but I did not answer right away. "Why do you want the ring?"

Designing that ring took me a lot of time and effort. For months, I did the project by hand. It was proof of our unbreakable and eternal love.

"Jonathan says he likes it. He wants to wear the same model I'm wearing. Just give it to him. This ring isn't worth much anyway. There's not even a diamond anywhere."

She then saw the ring that was sitting on the corner of my desk, and without hesitation, she grabbed it and walked off. I tried to get up and take it back, but I'd forgotten that my leg was in a cast. Still, I kept my hand tightly wrapped around the ring.

"Give it back!"

Rachel looked at me, disappointment evident in her eyes. "I thought you were a more generous person than this, Leonardo. What happened? Why would you fight me over something this worthless?"

I snapped, "If you take this ring, then we're done. We're breaking up."

Rachel froze for a moment and quickly got on her knees. In disbelief, she asked, "W-What?" Her voice faltered. "But we've had ten years together. You can't just… break up! You know I can't live without you! We are not breaking up!"

I looked at her icily, the fire in my heart dying down. "You ditched me over Jonathan."

Rachel slid into my arms and held me tightly. "No! I was just… That was pity! Yeah, pity! He was going to kill himself, and I had no choice but to assuage him. When he gets better, I'll hold a wedding for us. Trust me!"

She was getting a little worked up, so I nodded. "Fine."

A sigh of relief escaped Rachel's lips, and she left, her worries thrown away. She took the ring, though. I touched my empty ring finger and called my colleague, who was working abroad.

"Hey, does the professor still need someone at the lab? I'd like to pick up my research where I left it."

My colleague was overjoyed. "You're coming back? Man, the professor was heartbroken when you left. He's going to be ecstatic if you're coming back. I'll need to ask him, though. Say, I thought you were getting married. Are you sure LDR is going to work?"

I was going to find an excuse and cover for Rachel, but then again, that thought was ridiculous. I said, "Yeah, it won't get in our way. The land of the dead is the kind of LDR where you can't reach anyone anyway."

I hung up and booked a flight abroad, after which I went through the paperwork for my discharge and got back home to recuperate.

…

Jonathan spent all his time showing off his shiny relationship on social media. He posted the new watch and sports car he got from Rachel. I saw how he and Rachel were holding hands with their fingers intertwined. The ring he was wearing? The one Rachel took away from me.

They took sets of wedding photos, and Jonathan captioned them, 'Three years being a side piece. Now I can finally be the main guy.'

Rachel reposted it, but she deleted it just in case I saw it.

Yet, I did.

However, she tried to cover it up by sending me an invitation to her mother's sixtieth birthday. Before the wedding, Rachel told me about this celebration and kept telling me I had to be there. We'd see her mother as a couple then.

Melanie Winters, her mother, happily held my hand and invited me warmly to her house. The wedding didn't go through, but still, I got her presents for the event.

And the first thing I saw when I got into her house was something I never expected. The banquet was underway, and the Larsons' relatives were here. There was someone sitting between Rachel and Melanie, and he was surrounded by a lot of people.

Jonathan.

Melanie filled Jonathan's plate up with prawns. "You've lost a lot of weight. You need protein."

Rachel glanced at her mother. "He can be spoiled, Mom. He wouldn't eat any prawn unless I peeled it for him." Though she was complaining, Rachel still peeled the prawns and fed them to Jonathan herself.

I was standing there, alone and forlorn. But then someone noticed me.

"Leonardo?" they gasped.