Chapter 1
778 Words
The champagne tower at the engagement party glowed golden, and the hall was filled with a crowd of glamorous, well-dressed guests.
I wore a custom designer gown, but I couldn’t force a single smile onto my face, no matter how hard I tried.
Charlie was gone.
Since that afternoon, he'd vanished completely from the home security cameras.
I called Liam, and all I got on the line was his annoyed, gruff voice as he said, "I'm at a work event right now. Stop making a fuss."
But I ignored him, replying, "Where is Charlie? I haven't seen him all afternoon."
Clinking glass and porcelain echoed through the phone, tangled up with the soft laugh of a woman.
"He's probably just running around the garden somewhere. It's just a dog, he can't get lost," he answered. Then he hung up on me without a second thought.
Unease bloomed in my chest, spreading like wild weeds through my veins.
"Hey Olivia, where are you going?" my best friend Chelsea suddenly asked.
I didn’t answer her.
I hiked up the skirt of my gown, slipped through the sea of clinking glasses and mingling guests, and finally spotted Liam in a shadowed corner of the banquet hall.
He was holding a wine glass, grinning charmingly at a woman in a champagne-colored long gown.
That woman was Sienna Posey, a famous and wealthy socialite well-known in our circle.
I caught Liam's next words clear as day.
"For you, I'd get rid of anything. Not just a stupid dog."
My vision went white, and all the blood in my body roared straight up to my head.
I stormed over and grabbed his arm hard, but my voice shook so badly I could barely get the words out.
"What did you do with Charlie?"
When he saw me, the smile melted off his face instantly, replaced by that same annoyed look he'd always given me whenever I confronted him like this.
He dragged me into an empty break room and ripped his arm out of my grip.
"Are you crazy? Can't you see I'm busy closing a deal?"
I ignored his question. "I am asking you, where is Charlie?"
He loosened his tie, and his face held a coldness I'd never seen before.
"Sienna is allergic to dog hair. I dropped him off at a friend's kennel. It’s a nice place, just quit making a scene," he said so casually, like he was just talking about some useless old thing he'd thrown out.
A kennel?
That was never supposed to be Charlie's home.
Seven years. Seven whole years. He'd grown from a tiny fluffy ball of fur into my big, warm-hearted boy, and this place was the only home he'd ever known!
"How dare you decide this for me!"
My whole body trembled with the force of my words.
Liam's brow furrowed, his eyes sharp with irritation at what he saw as my childishness.
"A one hundred-million dollar contract, or a dog. Which one do you think is more important? Can't you just grow up?"
Grow up?
As I stared at his ice-cold face, something in my chest died instantly.
Seven years of love, seven years of companionship. Every bit of it had a price tag hanging on it in his eyes.
My Charlie, in his eyes, was nothing more than a stumbling block to his 100 million dollar contract.
An invisible hand squeezed my heart so tight I couldn't breathe. The pain was crippling.
I raised my hand and tore that eight‑carat, goose‑egg‑sized diamond right off my ring finger. "I choose Charlie."
I poured every last ounce of strength I had left into the throw and slammed the ring hard into his face and said, "Get the hell out, you and your 100 million dollars both!"
The sharp edge of the ring sliced across his smooth, unblemished cheek, causing a glaring bright red scratch to appear.
He froze solid right where he stood, his eyes blown wide with shock and utter confusion.
He'd probably never imagined that I, the always mild and meek Olivia, would go this far just for a dog.
I didn't spare him a single extra glance. I spun on my heel, hitched up my skirt, and bolted straight for the exit.
As I passed through the banquet hall, I shouted one final, unflinching line, for the emcee waiting at the podium to give his speech, and for every shocked guest staring back at me across the whole room.
"Our engagement ends here!"
These words, carried away by the wind, were my final closure for him, and for the seven years of love we'd shared.
- Writer
