After My Best Friend Stole Two Men From Me, I Took Back Everything

As the elevator doors were halfway closed, Ethan Walker reached out and stopped them. The metal doors struck the back of his hand, then slowly slid open again. "Claire Bennett, do you really have to make this into such a big deal?" He squeezed into the elevator and reached for me. I avoided his hand and pressed the button for the first floor. "The night before our engagement, you were in a hotel room helping my best friend get dressed. And now you're saying I'm the one making a scene?" "Her zipper was broken. I was only helping her pull it up." Ethan stood in front of the buttons and lowered his voice. "We weren't the only ones in the room. Jason Cole was there too. What could I have done?" I looked up at him. "So the three of you needed to share one room?" Ethan paused, and the patience on his face quickly disappeared. "Tessa Reed got drunk and threw up on her dress. That's all that happened." "But just now, you said it was a moment of weakness." His lips moved, but no words came out. The elevator doors opened again behind us, and Tessa chased after us. She had changed into a hotel bathrobe and was barefoot. The corners of her eyes were slightly red. "Claire, don't blame Ethan. This is my fault." Tessa walked over and tried to touch my arm. "Tomorrow is the engagement reception. The elders and clients from both companies will be there. Let's go home first and talk about this later, okay?" Every word she said sounded like an apology, but every word also reminded me of the consequences of calling off the engagement. My father had cut short his recuperation to come back. The Walker family had just invested thirty million dollars in our jewelry studio. As long as I endured tonight, tomorrow's engagement reception could proceed as planned. Tessa knew me too well. She knew that I had been afraid of causing trouble for others since I was a child. She also knew that whenever someone was disappointed, I blamed myself first. But she had forgotten that three years ago, I had lost my dignity because of this very kind of "consideration." I took off my engagement ring. Ethan frowned. "What are you doing?" I slipped the ring into his suit pocket. "Tomorrow's engagement reception is canceled." His face darkened. "All because of something this trivial?" I stared at him for a few seconds. Only after catching them in the act did I understand that what he cared about most was not me, but tomorrow's guests, the Walker family's reputation, and the money already invested in the studio. He did not care about our marriage at all. "Yes. Because of this." As I stepped out of the elevator, Ethan tried to follow me. Tessa called out to him from behind. "Ethan, my stomach hurts." He stopped. I did not look back. By the time I returned to the home Ethan and I had prepared for our marriage, it was already two in the morning. The lock notified me three times that the passcode was incorrect. I called the property management office and learned that Ethan had changed the smart lock that afternoon. "Mr. Walker said Miss Bennett always forgot to bring her keys, so he specifically registered your new fingerprint. Didn't you know?" Of course I did not know. After the property manager let me in, I saw a pair of silver high heels in the entryway. They were not my size. In the bedroom closet, my gown had been shoved into a corner. Hanging in the center was the champagne-colored evening dress Tessa was supposed to wear tomorrow. There was also a jewelry box on the vanity. Inside was a gold bird brooch. It was the only brooch I had designed for the engagement reception, called "Homecoming." The design had been based on a sketch my mother left behind before she died. Ethan had said that the finished piece was in the safe and that he would put it on me himself tomorrow. But now, the engraving on the back of the brooch read: "To Tessa, may you always be free." It was signed by Ethan. I took a photo and called the production supervisor at the studio. "How many Homecoming pieces were made in total?" The production supervisor was silent for a long time before answering in a low voice. "Miss Bennett, Mr. Walker told me not to tell you. Director Reed used your design drafts to produce twenty-seven finished pieces. The new collection launch is the day after tomorrow. She said that she is the lead designer of the Homecoming collection."