He Called Me Toad, I Dumped Him

Chapter 3

A deafening buzz roared through my skull, exploding alongside a tidal wave of vicious insults.

Wendy has posted on X.

She claimed her 'best friend' had set her sights on her boyfriend while she was away across the country.

In the blink of an eye, my phone overflowed with toxic abuse, the notifications blowing it up completely.

A: [You went after your childhood friend's man. She gave you her heart, and you gave her man your body?]

B: [You're exactly the kind of 'friend' people warn you about, the one who'll steal your man the second you turn your back.]

C: [You love stealing other people's men so much? Why don't you just become a street hooker?]

My post-miscarriage abdomen throbbed with searing pain, and every inch of my body ached down to my bones.

I squeezed my phone so tight my knuckles turned white, scrambling to dig up every memory Nathaniel and I shared, anything to prove I was innocent.

That was exactly when he walked in the front door.

My whole voice shook as I spoke, "Nathaniel, we've been together for seven whole years!"

He turned his head, a heavy edge of irritation etched between his brows.

"I know I'm an asshole, but Wendy's the one I love. Who wouldn't take her side in this?" He paused, his voice softening like he was coaxing a misbehaving child.

"Summer, if you really love me, just compromise for me one more time. Admit you're the other woman. Wendy's already pregnant right now, she can't handle stress. You've been bullied with nicknames before, you're used to people talking s**t anyway."

I slapped him hard across the face.

Through the blurriness of my tears, old memories suddenly flooded back.

The nickname 'Toad' haunted me through my entire teenage years.

My acne cleared up eventually, but the scar it left on my heart never faded.

Even after I started working, I still wore a mask every day, too scared to show my bare face to anyone.

The year I met Nathaniel, he looked at my face under that mask, his eyes shining with nothing but genuine praise.

That was when he started pursuing me.

On the day he confessed, he told me, "Summer, you don't know it, but you're the cutest girl I've ever seen, one of a kind. I'll never let anyone insult you ever again."

Back then, I'd thought this man was so good to me.

My stomach flipped violently, and I wrenched away, dry-heaving.

"Nathaniel, I know you want a divorce. I'll give it to you. I won't add fuel to the fire. You go make a public statement, clear everything up, I'll let you and her have your happy ending. If you don't, I'll do it myself."

His Adam's apple bobbed, and he muttered an apology.

"About the divorce... we can talk about it later." Then he pulled out his phone and made a call.

Suddenly, a handful of men burst into the apartment. They tore through every corner of the space, turned everything upside down, and even frisked me from head to toe.

At the end of it all, they ripped my phone right out of my hands.

He wasn't going to let me have a single chance to clear my name.

I stared at the man standing in front of me, and he felt so horribly, terrifyingly unfamiliar.

"Nathaniel, you are absolutely disgusting."

A flicker of something unreadable crossed his eyes, but he said nothing more, only leaving me with one final line before he left.

"You don't look well. I'll send a nutritionist over. Think this over carefully for the next two days, Summer. I'm only giving you two days."

The door clicked shut behind him, locked from the outside.

I slammed against it over and over, but it wouldn't budge. I couldn't get out.

Every last thing I'd scraped together over seven years was completely destroyed by them.

I couldn't wrap my head around it. I refused to accept this.

I gritted my teeth, clinging to the last shred of dignity I had left.

But when two days passed, Nathaniel never came to see me.

The only person who showed up was a bodyguard he'd hired.

"Mr. Graves picked your grandmother up and brought her out today."

A deafening buzz exploded through my head, and I bolted for the door like a woman possessed, only to be pinned right in place by the group of men.

I dropped to my knees, throwing every last scrap of my dignity aside, sobbing and begging them to let me leave.

Not a single one of them moved an inch.

"Mr. Graves gave orders. You aren't allowed to go anywhere for the time being."

I snatched a shard from a broken drinking glass off the floor and pressed it hard against my throat.

Afraid I'd actually kill myself, the head bodyguard fumbled out his phone and dialed Nathaniel.

The second the call connected, I lunged and ripped the phone right out of his hand.

"Why did you take my grandma?! Do you have any idea what shape she's in after her car crash? She can barely even keep her head straight! I'm begging you to send her back!"

The line at his end was loud and chaotic, the faint buzz of interview mics and overlapping chatter cutting through.

Nathaniel went quiet for a long, heavy moment.

"Summer, I don't have a choice. You won't back down, so I need grandma to say a few words for me."

It felt like someone had smashed a sledgehammer straight into my skull.

It all clicked. I knew exactly what he was planning.

My voice came out raw, shaking with desperate pleading.

"Nathaniel, grandma's not mentally sound! She can't handle stress! You can't do this to her!"

Back when Nathaniel first started his business and almost lost everything, my grandma, that sweet, stubborn old lady, had sold her only heirloom jade bracelet to scrape together the money he needed to keep going.

"Nathaniel, if you go through with this and hurt her, I swear I'll kill myself right here, right now!"