The Man She Left Behind

As soon as I finished speaking, everyone turned to Willow.

Her lips trembled.

Before she could say anything, her best friend, Aveline Sinclair, spoke up.

"Orson, are you still acting out after all these years? I've seen this ring before. The CEO of Winterburn Group bought it for $300 million back then. Are you seriously passing off a fake as your wedding ring? You're just embarrassing yourself."

She looked at me with undisguised contempt.

When Willow and I dated, Aveline never liked me. Whenever Willow and I argued over Gareth Wilde, she always took Gareth's side.

She even helped cover for them when Willow tampered with my college applications and had an affair with Gareth. Because of her, I believed Willow's lies.

I knew she'd always looked down on me. But this time, she was wrong. The ring on my finger was real.

"It's real."

Aveline immediately laughed.

"What, are you going to tell us your wife is the CEO of Winterburn Group? Sure, the CEO of Winterburn Group has a secret husband. But look at you. Do you really think you're good enough for her?"

Her mocking laughter echoed through the lobby. The classmates behind her were quick to pile on, laughing at my expense.

Willow, meanwhile, remained silent as always. She had just proposed to me, yet she simply stood there, allowing them to humiliate me.

Hazel Winterburn was indeed the CEO of Winterburn Group, but I wasn't some lowlife. Still, in their eyes, I was nothing more than a broke kid.

My thoughts drifted back to when Gareth first transferred to our school. Willow and I had only just started dating.

Gareth set his sights on her almost immediately. He even made a bet with the others that he'd win her over within a month.

Willow scoffed at him, even kissing me in front of Gareth.

Back then, I truly believed she would never waver. Then, Gareth began winning her over each day.

At first, Willow avoided him and made no secret of how much she disliked him. But little by little, Gareth came up more and more often in her conversations with me.

His likes and dislikes; what he liked to eat; or what he couldn't stand.

Willow knew all of it.

On the final day of the bet, Gareth made his move. He framed me for stealing a family heirloom that had belonged to his mother. He even made it look as though I'd smashed it myself.

Meanwhile, Aveline backed up his story.

No matter how much I tried to explain, Willow refused to believe me.

I was frantic, my eyes red, but she only looked at me with disgust. "You stole something that belonged to his mother, and now you're pretending you're innocent? Orson, you're disgusting."

In an instant, every classmate sided with Gareth.

It took Gareth one month to outweigh the three years I'd spent with Willow.

From that moment on, I knew there was no going back.