“Last night you gave him our engagement ring.”
“To make him go away.”
I gestured to her friends. “Five minutes ago, they were asking you what happened, your closest friends. You couldn’t even tell them.”
“To make him go away.”
“I was trying to figure out how to tell you.”
“You had five years.”
Nobody in the room said anything.
I looked at the ring between us. She had given it away to protect the secret. I’d bought it back because I thought I was protecting her.
“I believe you quit because you loved me,” I said. “I believe what started as a scheme stopped being one… But the lying didn’t stop.”
“I was trying to figure out how to tell you.”
“Daniel, please.”
“I can forgive what you did at twenty. I can’t marry someone who had five years to tell me the truth and chose not to every single time.”
“Please don’t do this.”
“The wedding’s off.”
“I believe what started as a scheme stopped being one… But the lying didn’t stop.”
I picked up the ring, took her hand, and turned her palm upward.
I set it in her hand.
Her fingers closed around it, but she didn’t put it back on.
I walked out and closed the door gently behind me.
