A Clean Breakup

Ian once said that I was cold as ice and that he could never get close enough to me. I explained that I didn’t need him to get close to me to know my thoughts. All I needed was his loyalty and unwavering companionship. My mother’s marriage to Sebastian turned sour right before my eyes. One minute Sebastian was in love with my mother, the next he was parading his side chick, Rowena to my mother during her chemotherapy.I had lost faith in men. The idea of love was a delusion to me. For a man to betray his partner in a heartbeat showed that the heart was a fickle thing. Thank goodness I held back a part of myself, so when things went wrong between us, I was able to stay composed. I had no idea when Ian became acquainted with Roxy. In fact, the very mention of Roxy threw me off—she made my skin crawl. Roxy and Rowena were forbidden subjects for me. During our three years together, there were moments of raw honesty where I bared my soul to Ian. I told him that I hated Roxy and Row

Baron found it hard to believe that Ian would cheat on me. Still, he trusted that I wouldn’t lie to him. He sighed as he poured me a glass of my favorite drink. Focusing on the bubbles in my drink, I recalled how Ian looked at me at the engagement party. He was furious, stunned, baffled, and ashamed. His patience and kindness toward me in the past were a stark contrast to the pettiness he had for me now. Rowena and Roxy were the reason my mother was dead. He had no idea about the pain I carried with me every day, yet he expected me to forgive and forget? I couldn’t. There was no chance in hell I could ever let things go. If Ian were in my shoes, and his stepmother left his mother with no will to live, I wondered if he would be so gracious to be family with his stepmother. As if that would happen. Human nature was selfish at its core, and Ian’s mask finally cracked after three years of deception. Despite that, I was relieved that things happened when they did. Lucky for me, I

I had always believed that women should be the ones to dump the men. Things were over between me and Ian. “You better be joking, Naomi. Did you inform Baron that you want out? He was the one who set us up together, and now, you call it quits out of the blue. Have you considered his feelings?” Ian was convinced that Baron had played the matchmaker. From his perspective, Baron was concerned that he wouldn’t go after me, given that he was a good catch. Unbeknownst to Ian, Baron thought the world of me. “Grandpa is aware, so save your concern.” I downloaded and saved a copy of the footage. The visuals were so jarring that I had to exit the surveillance app. After I ended the call, I pixelated the faces in the saved footage and shared the video across all my social media.I was an influencer with a decent following. My followers had been with me throughout the entire process of turning the new house into a home—from renovation to design and furnishing. Even with the faces b

I had always thought Rowena was Sebastian’s one true love, given that he abandoned his wife of decades for her. Despite the mounting evidence I sent of Rowena embezzling his money and relocating their joint assets in the three years they were married, Sebastian kept blinders on for her. It was bad enough that Sebastian did not believe the hard evidence I had sent him. He even turned around and accused me of setting Rowena up. However, I had a backup plan ready in case he didn’t believe me again. To think he was actually convinced this time. The news threw me off a little. If Sebastian had kept a clear head right from the start, maybe my mother wouldn’t have died. “Happy now, Naomi?” The next time I ran into Roxy and Rowena, they were waiting to board the plane. I never thought our paths would cross again. We came face to face. “Not really,” I responded while checking Roxy, who was furious, out.My mother lost her life because of Roxy and Rowena. They were simply back to