Chapter Two

Evelyn's POV

Mason looks stunned for a moment. Then his face hardens.

“Stop making a scene. You're ending our engagement just because I forgot the ring tonight?”

“Not because of tonight. Because of the last six years.”

“I already told you. I'll make it up to you next year.”

“I don't need you to make it up to me anymore.”

Mason looks at me as if I've just told him the most ridiculous joke.

He's known me for too long. He knows exactly how much I used to love him. Even when I tell him to his face that our engagement is over, he still doesn't believe me.

“Evelyn, you're angry right now. Once you calm down, you'll regret saying all this.”

Sophie lifts her head from my mother's arms and approaches me, her eyes red.

“Evelyn, please don't be mad. Mason only postponed the wedding because he wanted me to leave for London with some peace of mind. If it bothers you that much, I won't go.”

“This is all my fault. Please don't break up with Mason because of me.”

My mother immediately wipes away Sophie's tears.

“Sophie, none of this is your fault. Your trip to London for treatment was decided a long time ago. You can't just cancel it.”

My father turns on me.

“Evelyn, Sophie has already offered not to go. What more do you want? Apologize to Mason, then apologize to Sophie.”

Ryan steps in front of Sophie and looks at me with disgust.

“Mason forgets one ring, and you have to throw the entire family into chaos over it?”

I look at them and almost laugh.

Six engagement parties. Six public humiliations. Yet when they tell the story, it becomes one forgotten ring.

As if I wasn't the one standing onstage while the whole city laughed at me.

As if I wasn't the one who had to clean up Mason's mess and apologize to every guest, time after time.

Mason rubs his forehead impatiently.

“Evelyn, there is nothing going on between Sophie and me. I've always thought of her as a sister. That's all. Can you stop imagining things?”

A sister.

When we were children, Mason always put me first.

When I fell out of a tree, he carried me two blocks to find a doctor. When a storm flooded the road home, he wrapped me in his coat and ended up with a fever for three days. The first time someone called me spoiled, he stepped between us and said a daughter of the Parker family had every right to hold her head high.

Back then, he looked me in the eye and promised that no matter what happened, he would always choose me.

Then my parents took in the daughter of a close friend who had passed away.

When Sophie was afraid of thunder, Mason left me sick in bed to stay with her through the storm.

When Sophie wanted one of my birthday presents, Mason asked me to give it to her.

When Sophie found out we were getting engaged, she cried and said she was about to lose the most important person in her life. So the first ring that should have gone on my finger stayed at Mason's house.

For the next six years, whenever there was a choice between Sophie and me, every one of them chose her.

I just refused to admit that the boy who once carried me through the streets and protected me without hesitation was long gone.

I wasn't holding on to the Mason standing in front of me now.

I was holding on to the boy who once chose me without hesitation.

But those memories can't erase six years of humiliation.

“If she's only a sister to you, then keep taking care of her.” I look calmly at Mason. “But I won't be your fiancée anymore.”

Anger finally flashes in his eyes.

“Are you done with this tantrum? Who else but me would ever put up with that attitude? You put a ring on your own finger and staged a fake proposal. Did you really think that would make me give in?”

Sophie tugs gently at his sleeve.

“Mason, Evelyn only did it because she wants to marry you so badly. Don't be angry with her. Just say something to make her feel better.”

My mother immediately joins in.

“Evelyn, pick up the mess you made and apologize to Mason. We can forget tonight ever happened.”

“And then what?” I ask. “I wait another year?”

I slowly raise my left hand.

The ballroom lights catch the diamond on my ring finger, making it shine.

Everyone's attention shifts to it. Mason freezes when he sees it.

“You couldn't put a ring on my finger in six years,” I say coldly. “Someone else did.”

“Someone else gave you that ring?”

Mason stares at it as if he's just heard the most ridiculous thing imaginable.

My father is the first to scoff.

“Evelyn, you're so desperate to make Mason marry you that you'd pull a cheap stunt like this?”

My mother frowns at me, her face full of disappointment.

“Where did you buy it? How much did it cost? Did you plan this whole thing in advance just so you could put on a show tonight?”

Ryan doesn't hold back.

“You bought yourself a ring, put it on your own finger, and now you're pretending some man proposed to you. Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Evelyn?”

I stare at them as my fingers slowly curl into my palm.

The edge of the ring presses into my skin. The slight pain reminds me that this is real.

When Nate placed it on my finger, he told me he would respect my choice.

But to them, anything they refuse to believe simply isn't true.