The Ring He Gave Her Was Mine

Sidonie's POV: I had severe face blindness and no sense of direction. At our engagement party, my fiancé, Leander Whitlock, deliberately confiscated my location-tracking wristband. The lights suddenly went out, and a line of text flashed across the big screen. Find Leander within 10 minutes, or the engagement is off. His carefree laughter rang out over the microphone. "Ottilie loves this game of hide-and-seek. If you can't even recognize your own husband, you deserve to suffer a little in the dark." Ottilie Fenwick was his childhood friend, the woman he insisted was nothing more than a close confidante. In the darkness, I knocked over three champagne towers. Broken glass pierced my palm, and blood spilled across the floor. After wandering through the maze of the banquet hall for 30 minutes, I heard Leander's voice from the terrace on the second floor. "She's useless. She can't even tell north from south. Ottilie, you win." I looked up to see Ottilie slipping my engagement ring onto her middle finger. Leander held her close, his arm around her waist, while I groped desperately through the darkness below. I pulled a shard of glass from my palm and slammed my bloody hand against the fire alarm. As the alarm shrieked, I threw my engagement veil into the muddy water. 'If he loves playing games so much, he can play them without me. I'm not marrying him.' "Are you done making a scene? Ottilie has a weak heart. She can't handle a fright like that," Leander said reproachfully. He hurried down the stairs from the second floor, holding a pale-faced Ottilie protectively against him. Emergency lights flashed in the hall as the guests surged toward the exits. I stood amid the wreckage of the champagne towers, blood dripping from my fingertips. "Leander, the engagement is off." My voice was so quiet I could barely hear it myself. He stopped three paces away, his brow deeply furrowed. "Sidonie, are you out of your mind? It was a game of hide-and-seek. Did you have to go crazy over it?" He blamed everything on my supposed tantrum, as though there could be no other explanation. "Ottilie thought the ring was pretty, so she borrowed it to try it on. You can't even recognize your own husband, and now no one's allowed to joke about it?" Ottilie peeked timidly out from behind his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Sidonie. I didn't know you couldn't take a joke. Leander only wanted to see how well you two knew each other." She deliberately raised her right hand to smooth a stray lock of hair behind her ear. The ring that should have been mine, designed by Leander himself and set with a five-carat pink diamond, nestled snugly on her middle finger. It fit her remarkably well. "It fits me perfectly," Ottilie murmured. "Sidonie's fingers are so thin. Maybe she just can't pull it off." Leander's voice softened at once. "Keep it on if you like it. I'll have the jeweler send the matching necklace to your place tomorrow." When he turned back to me, his expression grew cold again. "Enough. Stop acting like you've suffered some terrible injustice. I'll have my assistant take you to pick out a bigger one tomorrow." He was certain I was merely jealous. I lowered my eyes to my right hand, its flesh torn and bloodied by the broken glass. 'This is the man I've loved for 3 years. He knows how severe my face blindness is. He knows I have no sense of direction. Yet to amuse his precious confidante, he confiscated my location-tracking wristband and abandoned me in a dark maze.' "Don't bother." With my left hand, I tore away the mud-soaked hem of my dress. "I told you, the engagement is off. Consider that ring my wedding gift to the two of you." Leander's expression finally darkened. "Sidonie, don't push your luck. The press is everywhere outside. If you walk out now, the share prices of both our families' companies will fall tomorrow." As always, he expected me to put our families' interests first and do what he wanted. "Admit you were wrong and apologize to Ottilie. Then I'll pretend none of this happened." "Apologize?" My lips twisted into a faint, incredulous smile. "Yes. You frightened her when you set off the fire alarm. You know how fragile her health is." Leander stared at me without a trace of warmth. "As long as you apologize, the wedding will go ahead next month." I looked at his face, and for the first time, he seemed like a complete stranger. "Leander, do you think I can't survive without you?" "Can you?" He sneered, his voice thick with ridicule. "Your bankrupt father is still lying in a hospital bed. Who else is going to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a month for his treatment?" He knew exactly how to use my father's illness against me and thought that would make me give in. I didn't argue. I simply turned away. "I'll pay you back every cent of those medical bills. From today on, we're done." I walked toward the doors, one step at a time, across the glass-strewn floor. "Sidonie, if you walk out that door, don't expect me to come after you and sweet-talk you again!" Leander shouted behind me. I pushed the door open and didn't look back.