TWISTS OF FATE

CHAPTER FOUR

How can he do this to someone who gave him her own world? I knew I needed to confront him. The sooner the better.

I didn’t realize I had fallen asleep. I woke up with Oliver still sleeping beside me. I stared at him and a tear fell in my eyes. “I love you,” I whispered.

“But I love myself more,” I thought to myself.

I went back to lying beside Oliver, but I couldn’t help but sob. My throat hurts so much, for keeping my cries so he won’t be awakened by my ugly cry.

I didn’t realize I had fallen asleep again, and when I looked beside him, He wasn’t there anymore, but there was a note on the bedside table.

“Sorry, didn’t wake you up. You seem to have a good sleep, love you,” he wrote on a piece of paper.

_

I decided to meet up with my friends, Lisa and Maureen, tonight. We will be hanging out at Maureen’s place.

I wore something simple. As soon as I got into Mau’s place, she immediately hugged me. “Where’s Lisa?” I asked.

“She’s on her way. By the way, how are you? Glad to be back here for good,” she said excitedly.

“For good? Oh my gosh, for real? I’m so happy,” Mau has been in and out of the country to travel with her boyfriend, but now that they’re getting married too. They planned to settle here in our city and just continue the business they built.

“You’re getting married, I mean, we are, isn’t that exciting?” she continued, squealing.

“Umm. Mau…” I said, trying to think about the right words to say, but just before I spoke again, Lisa came inside the room.

“Hey, guys,” she said excitedly, “I want to cry, you two are getting married,” she chuckled.

“Uh.. guys, I have something to tell you,” I said.

“Are you pregnant now?” Lisa said, being unserious,

“No, I’ll be canceling the wedding,” I said truthfully, and they couldn’t talk for some minutes.

“But why?” Mau said.

“Guys, listen to me first, I haven’t told anyone yet about this, but I was planning to cancel our wedding on the day of our engagement party, and Oliver doesn’t know anything about this plan of mine,” I said.

“B-but why?” Lisa asked.

I took a deep breath, “He’s cheating on me, and he doesn’t know I knew it already,” I said, trying to keep my cool.

“But with whom?” Mau said, looking as devastated as I am. I know that she was excited for me in the beginning.

Before I told them who the third party was, I showed them the photos and the message Jacob sent me. The proof that he’s cheating on me.

“On the day of our engagement party, when it was my time to talk. I will tell everyone what I knew was going behind my back.”

“That was a badass move, Sofia,” Lisa smiled, “But are you okay now?” she asked.

“I’m trying to be okay, but the seven years I spent with him have gone to waste,” I said sadly.

“I’m so sorry to hear this, but let me see the photo of the girl,” Maureen said, and I showed her again.

“She looks familiar, like I’ve seen her somewhere,” she said.

“Her name was Mandy,” I said.

“Oh, gosh! You got to be kidding me, I knew her,” Maureen said, which sparked my curiosity.

“He’s the daughter of my father’s friend. I met her a couple of times. Oh, I didn’t know she was a b***h,” Maureen said in disgust.

I can feel the anger of my friends towards Mandy, but most especially towards Oliver.

“How could he do this to you?” Lisa rolled her eyes.

“I don’t even know. We were okay. I don’t know where I lack. I thought everything was perfect,” I said, wondering what went wrong.

“I feel so bad for you, Sofia,” Maureen said.

“So, help me,” I said.

“Heck yeah,” Lisa said.

The two of them planned on how we would execute the plan of exposing the cheating of Oliver. I feel bad for doing this to Oliver, but I don’t deserve to feel this either, especially because in the seven years of our relationship I did everything to make it work, to not let the spark go.

I drank some alcohol on that night. It’s been a while since I last drank. I am not a good drinker, but I know that I’ll be safe here at Maureen’s place.

I cried all night with them, to the point where they were crying with me too. It looks funny, to be honest, but I appreciate our friendship more because of this.

The next morning, I woke up on Maureen’s couch, wrapped in a blanket, with a slight headache and puffy eyes. The house was quiet except for the faint clinking of plates from the kitchen. I sat up slowly, the weight of last night’s conversation still fresh in my chest.

Lisa came out of the kitchen holding a tray of toast, eggs, and coffee. “Look who’s up,” she smiled gently, placing the tray in front of me. “Eat something. You cried enough tears to drown us all last night.”

I let out a dry laugh, my throat still sore from crying. “Thanks, Lis.”

Maureen appeared a few seconds later with her messy bun and pajama shorts, holding her own mug. “Okay,” she said, sitting down across from me. “We’ve come up with a plan.”

“You guys really stayed up for that?” I asked, surprised.

“We did,” Lisa nodded. “We wrote it on Maureen’s whiteboard, like an actual operation.”

“Operation Exposé,” Maureen added proudly, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

They outlined the plan like it was a spy mission. Lisa was going to record the whole engagement party “speech” secretly with her phone just in case things escalated, or I needed proof. Maureen, on the other hand, would stay close to Mandy, to make sure she wouldn’t walk away, because I knew for sure that she'd be there at our engagement party.

They even coordinated with a trusted friend who would be in charge of the music and mic setup.

“You don’t have to make a scene, Sof,” Lisa said seriously, “But if this is how you’ll finally feel free—then we’ll be there, backing you up.”

I took a bite of toast, my stomach finally accepting the food. “Thank you,” I whispered. “For not judging me. For staying. For… everything.”

“You’re our girl,” Maureen said. “No guy, no betrayal, no Mandy can change that.”