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Chapter 4

Author: Sweet Feather
He had probably taken Moon shopping to cheer her up.

It was not until evening that Cameron and Moon returned from their shopping trip.

A short while later, Moon came into my room in tears.

“Mindy, my pink diamond necklace is missing! It was Cameron’s engagement gift to me…”

She held up her phone and showed me a photo.

My eyes widened.

I recognized that necklace.

A year ago, Cameron took me to an auction. He told me to pick the item I liked best from the catalog.

I chose that pink diamond necklace.

He placed the winning bid at an astonishing price.

I waited a long time, but he never gave it to me.

I could not help asking about it. He said, “I gave it to my cousin.”

So, it had belonged to Moon from the very beginning.

[Why does Mindy look so upset? She must be the one who stole it!]

[Search her room!]

Cameron looked at me coldly. “Mindy, you were the only one at home today. Hand it over.”

“I didn’t take it.”

My mother hurried over. Her tone was far from friendly. “We’re not saying you took it. We’re just asking whether you’ve seen it.”

“Yeah, Mindy,” Moon said softly. “That necklace was very expensive…”

She might as well have pointed at me and called me a thief.

Cameron looked at me. His eyes were dark. They held both suspicion and disappointment.

That disappointment pierced me like a needle.

A wave of exhaustion washed over me. I did not even have the energy to defend myself anymore.

“I’ve been in my room the whole time. I haven’t gone anywhere. If you don’t believe me, you can check the security cameras.”

I looked at Cameron. “There are cameras in the living room and the hallway.”

Cameron’s expression changed slightly.

Moon’s face stiffened for a moment as well.

“Oh, come on. Why check the cameras? It’ll only hurt everyone’s feelings…”

My mother tried to smooth things over.

At that moment, a maid came hurrying over.

“Ms. Moon! We found the necklace! It slipped into the gap under your bed. I put it away for you!”

The room fell silent.

[So, it really was a misunderstanding?]

[The way she reacted makes it seem like she never planned to take the engagement back at all. That’s kind of strange…]

A few comments drifted across the air. For the first time, people started to disagree with each other.

Cameron’s expression turned stiff.

A moment later, another transfer came through.

[I misjudged you.]

I accepted it.

After I returned to my room, I took out my phone and booked an appointment for an abortion.

[What’s Mindy doing? I can’t see clearly…]

[Who cares? She’s probably plotting something again.]

I turned off the screen and closed my eyes.

The Sinclair family hosted Moon’s birthday banquet with great grandeur.

Invitations were sent out to all the city’s elite families. My mother insisted that I attend.

“If you don’t show up, what will people think of the Sinclair family? They will think our biological daughter is too shameful to appear in public.”

At the banquet, Moon stepped onto the stage with tears in her eyes. She thanked the Sinclair family for raising her for twenty years.

The guests praised her one after another. “What a sensible girl. She is even closer to them than their own daughter.”

Someone glanced toward me in the corner and lowered their voice.

“She’s the biological daughter, right? Why does she look so stiff?”

“She grew up outside the family. No wonder she doesn’t fit in.”

Cameron stayed by Moon’s side the entire time. He wiped her tears, handed her the microphone, and looked at her with gentle eyes.

I sat in the corner. The glass of red wine in front of me remained untouched.

The noise around me surged like a tide. I struggled to breathe.

I left early and returned to my room.

The moment I opened the door, I froze.

The room had been turned upside down. Every drawer was left open.

I rushed to the bedside table.

The crystal bracelet my grandmother had left me was gone.

I ran back to the banquet hall.

In the middle of the crowd, Moon held up a green crystal bracelet and looked at it under the light.

She smiled at the woman beside her. “Mindy lent it to me. Isn’t it pretty?”

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  • I Said No To Reinstating An Engagement   Chapter 10

    I thought about it and shook my head.“I don’t hate him anymore. But not hating someone doesn’t mean forgiving them. Some people are not worth remembering.”“Do you still miss him?”“Why would I miss him? I have my studio, my friends, and my grandmother’s jewelry. I’m busy.”Zara laughed. “You are starting to sound more and more like me.”I smiled too.Yes. I was becoming more like myself.It was the version of me that did not depend on anyone, did not try to please anyone, and did not lower myself for anyone.News from Somera still reached me from time to time.I heard that Cameron had stayed single. There was a photo of me in his office.I heard that Moon had gone to Austoria and was not doing well. She often posted unhinged messages online, cursing the Sinclair family, me, and the whole world.I heard that my parents got divorced. My mother lived alone in the old house and kept repeating, “When will Mindy come back?”I heard all of this while I was eating breakfast.Zar

  • I Said No To Reinstating An Engagement   Chapter 9

    The secretary came in with some documents. He saw Cameron staring into space and called out to him several times before Cameron finally came back to himself.“Mr. Grant?”“Leave it there.”He never contacted me again.It was not because he did not want to, but because he knew he would never get a response.…Three months later, my “Rebirth” collection was finished.I used the broken crystal from my grandmother’s bracelet as the inspiration for an entire jewelry collection. It included a necklace, a pair of earrings, and a bracelet.The cracks were filled with gold thread. They looked like scars after a wound had healed.I said, “Scars are not ugly. They prove that you survived.”The collection caused a sensation at the school design exhibition.My tutor recommended me for the All-United Kindom Emerging Jewelry Designer Competition.I did not have high expectations. I simply submitted my work.A month later, I received an email.I had made it to the finals.Zara was even

  • I Said No To Reinstating An Engagement   Chapter 8

    My mother was crying so hard that she could barely catch her breath.“I just found out. I was wrong… Can you come back? I’ll make it up to you…”I leaned against my bed and looked out at the moonlight.“Mrs. Sinclair, I don’t need compensation.”“Mindy—”“Do you have anything else to say? If not, I’ll hang up.”“Wait!” Her voice turned urgent. “Your father knows he was wrong too. He’s going to kick Moon out. Please come back. This family is yours—”“That family was never mine.”I hung up.I blocked the number without hesitation.Some things could never be forgiven.Some places could never be returned to.Later, I learned what had happened in Somera during those days.Moon had finally reached her limit.While Cameron was in Rondon, she secretly accessed his computer and found photos of me he had taken from the past five years.There were photos of me in a rented apartment, at school, and by the seaside. In them, I was smiling, sleeping, and cooking.She took those photos

  • I Said No To Reinstating An Engagement   Chapter 7

    “Start over?” I could not help but laugh.Rain drowned out my laughter. My expression must have looked especially ironic in the rainy twilight.“Cameron, how can we start over? What’s left of us? You said you gave those five years to me out of pity. You said it yourself. Have you forgotten?”His face turned pale.“You also said Moon was more suitable for you. You said you were a perfect match. She grew up in the Sinclair family for twenty years. Me? I was just something you kept on the side.”“I didn’t—” he tried to explain.“You did,” I said, cutting him off. “You hit me in front of everyone. That slap sounded louder than my grandmother’s bracelet breaking. Don’t you remember?”He had nothing left to say.I stepped back and lifted my umbrella slightly so I could see his face clearly.“Leave. Don’t come here again.”“Mindy—”“I said, don’t come here again.”I turned around, swiped my card, and pushed the door open.The door closed behind me.He did not follow.I heard hi

  • I Said No To Reinstating An Engagement   Chapter 6

    Rondon time was seven hours behind Somera.When I landed, it was 2 p.m. local time.No one came to pick me up, and no one knew where I was.I stayed in a hotel near the airport for one night. The next day, I went to register at the college. After that, I rented a small apartment near campus.The apartment was not big, but it faced south.There was sunlight.I took out the broken crystal pieces my grandmother had left me and placed them one by one on the windowsill.Sunlight fell on them. The cracks were clearly visible, and they reminded me of my broken heart.However, I would not cry anymore.The day I left the hospital, I had already decided that I would not shed another tear for Cameron ever again.After I settled down, I registered a new phone number and new social media accounts.The old ones, along with the SIM card, were left in the airport trash bin.I did not tell anyone my new contact information—not the Sinclair family, not Cameron, and not those so-called relati

  • I Said No To Reinstating An Engagement   Chapter 5

    “Give it back,” I walked over and said with a quiver in my voice.Moon jumped in shock and let go.The bracelet hit the marble floor.It cracked and broke into several pieces.The whole hall went silent.Moon’s tears instantly fell. “Mindy… I didn’t mean it…”The guests whispered to each other. They looked at me like I had lost my mind.Cameron walked over. He looked at the broken pieces on the floor and said in a perfunctory tone, “It’s just a bracelet. Is it really worth this?”I crouched down and picked up the shattered pieces one by one.The fragments cut my fingers. Blood dripped onto the crystal shards, but I did not feel any pain.“This was left to me by my grandmother,” I said. My voice shook.“Her last words before she died were for me to keep it safe.”Cameron’s expression changed.No one understood its meaning better than he did. He had been with me when I sent my grandmother off.However, Moon only cried harder. She threw herself into his arms.He paused, the

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