4

The wedding planner notified me that the final payment for the reception had been declined.

I checked our joint account.

Of the original eighty thousand dollars, only two hundred and ten remained.

Fifty thousand of that had been my savings, built up over years.

I called Ethan.

“Where did the money go?”

He was quiet for a moment. “I lent it to Rena.”

“How much?”

“Seventy-nine thousand. Her father needs emergency surgery. I figured saving a life comes first. She’ll pay it back in a couple of months.”

“Send me the transfer records.”

“Quinn, don’t you think it’s a little heartless to bring this up right now?”

I went straight to the hospital he’d mentioned.

There was no record of Serena’s father in the inpatient ward.

A mutual friend told me her father was back home, fishing. Nothing wrong with him.

Serena had used the money to take over a flower shop.

The shop was right below Ethan’s office, and the five-year lease was in Serena’s name alone.

When I got there, Ethan was up on a ladder hanging the sign for her.

Serena held the ladder, looking up at him with a smile.

I pushed the door open.

“So this is what my seventy-nine thousand looks like.”

Serena’s expression shifted. “Quinn, this is a misunderstanding.”

I placed the hospital inquiry form on the counter.

“Which room is your father in?”

Ethan climbed down from the ladder.

“I was the one who told her to say it. I knew you wouldn’t agree to lend her money for a shop.”

“So the two of you lied to me?”

“Rena just lost her job. She needs something to do. It’s a good location. She won’t lose money. Once she’s making a profit, she’ll pay you back.”

“Today is the day our parents are meeting to set the wedding date. Do you remember?”

The color drained from Ethan’s face.

He pulled out his phone. More than ten missed calls.

“I lost track of time.”

I nodded. “Then don’t bother going.”

But he grabbed his jacket, and on his way out still reminded Serena to close up early.

Not once, from start to finish, did he ask what that fifty thousand dollars meant to me.

That was the money I’d been saving for my grandmother, Ruth.

I’d planned to rent an elevator apartment near her place after the wedding.

Ethan knew.

He’d just never cared enough to remember.

By the time we reached the restaurant, both families had been waiting for over an hour.

Ethan’s mother, Diane, turned on me, her face hard. “Men get busy. As his fiancee, it’s your job to remind him. If you can’t even manage something this simple, how will you run a household?”

Ethan tried to explain. “It’s not her fault. I was helping Rena put up the sign for her flower shop.”

His mother frowned. “Is she still living with you two? An unmarried woman living in your marital home. Not even worried about what people will say.”

“She doesn’t have family here. Don’t talk about her like that.”

His defense came so fast that the entire table went silent.

I pulled the wedding cancellation receipt, the dress order, and the bank statements from my bag, and laid them on the table one by one.

“The wedding is off.”

Ethan pressed his hand over the statements. “We’ll discuss this at home.”

“That’s not my home.”

I looked at the parents on both sides of the table.

“Ethan let another woman move into our marital home for five months. He gave her his car. On my birthday, he left me to be with her.”

“And without my permission, he took seventy-nine thousand dollars from our joint account to fund her flower shop.”

“This wedding is not happening.”

My uncle shot to his feet, but I held him back.

“It’s all right.”

“Look what he’s done to you!”

“That’s why I’m done with him.”

For the first time, panic flickered in Ethan’s eyes.

“I’ll get the money back right away. Serena will move out. We can postpone the wedding. We’ll work it out.”

“You still don’t understand.”

I pulled my hand free.

“I don’t want a postponement. I want this to be over.”

At the door, he caught up with me.

“Quinn, you’ve loved me all these years. How can you just stop?”

I stopped and turned to face him.

“It wasn’t sudden.”

“Every time you set me aside to go to her, you took a piece with you.”

“Today, there’s nothing left.”