He Called Me Toad, I Dumped Him

Chapter 4

But after a short silence at the other end of the line, he turned me down flat.

"Summer, don't worry. I'm watching over Grandma, nothing's going to happen to her."

The line went dead.

That was the final straw. My temper exploded completely.

I smashed every single thing in the room. Shards of flying glass sliced deep into my arm and my neck.

Blood gushed out in thick, warm spurts, soaking all the way through my hands, turning them bright red.

Finally, I spun and pointed the knife straight at the bodyguards. The sheer unhinged fury in me scared them stiff.

I broke free and ran out, my legs shaking so hard I could barely stay upright.

The second I burst into the venue, I froze solid.

Nathaniel was right in the middle of proposing to Wendy, in front of every single person there. The pink diamond he held out was worth hundreds of millions.

It wasn't anything like the plain silver ring he'd given me when he proposed to me all those years ago — a plain silver band he'd picked out himself, that only cost four hundred dollars.

Back then, he'd gone down on one knee, his eyes glistening red, and said, "Summer, one day I'll buy you the best thing in the whole world."

I'd worn that cheap little band like it was a treasure for seven whole years.

Now he could afford the most expensive ring in the world without breaking a sweat.

But cheap things stay cheap forever, don't they?

I pushed past the numb, crippling ache in my chest and searched every corner for Grandma, but I couldn't find her anywhere.

I didn't spot her until the proposal was over.

Nathaniel pushed my own grandma out onto the press conference stage.

"This is her grandmotherin this whole scandal. Having her clarify the truth will be far more convincing than anything we say."

My breath caught in my throat and stopped completely.

The tiny old woman was quaking so hard her knees knocked together at the sight of all the staring strangers, but she'd been drilled on her lines a hundred times over. She opened her mouth mechanically, dragging out each word one by one.

"I didn't raise my granddaughter right… She chased after him one-sided and ruined another person's relationship…"

Watching my only family forced to spit out words like these, I felt like a giant iron fist had clenched around every organ in my body. The pain was so sharp I couldn't even stand upright.

But then, all of a sudden, something shifted in Grandma's eyes.

A wobbly, aggrieved cry burst out before she could stop it.

"My Summer is a good girl… They were already married… She didn't destroy anything…"

Chaos erupted throughout the venue.

Reporters caught a whiff of explosive gossip and came swarming forward, craning out microphones and popping flashes nonstop.

Nathaniel's face dropped instantly. He wrenched at Grandma to force her to correct herself, snapping, "Grandma, that was a slip of your tongue..."

Between Nathaniel's sharp shouts and reporters' chaotic chatter over the juicy story, the whole venue dissolved into total bedlam.

Grandma couldn't handle the overwhelming stress. She completely broke down, screaming uncontrollably, and her bladder gave out from sheer terror.

She shrieked and scrambled to get away from the crowd. But the reporters blocked her path, shoving even harder to get closer.

My face drained of all color, and I couldn't brute-force my way through that wall of bodies, no matter how hard I shoved.

"Stop upsetting my grandma… Please…"

No one paid me any mind.

Then, suddenly, a dull thud rang out, and the room went dead silent.

The crowd scrambled back on their own to clear a space. Grandma lay crumpled on the ground. She'd hit her head on the step, and a dark, spreading pool of blood gushed out from under the back of her skull.

I felt for her breath and found it gone. In that second, all sound around me vanished completely.

Someone called the police, someone else yelled for an ambulance.

I moved like a hollow wooden puppet, numbly climbing into the ambulance after her.

Nathaniel, whose face as white as a sheet, came running after me.

"Summer..."

I stared at him blankly, my words coming out slow and mechanical.

"Nathaniel, you've always wanted a divorce, haven't you? I'm not going to give it to you that easily."