Betrayed By My Fiancée

Chapter 1: Not What It Seemed

I said "yes" to a man I thought I knew. Now I am staring at a screen. It shows me that our four-year love story was a big lie he carefully hid from me.

“You’re staring again,” I said, smiling into my glass more than at him.

“I’m allowed to,” he replied. “You’re still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

I rolled my eyes, but I could feel my cheeks getting warm anyway. He always did that. Made me feel like I was something rare, something worth looking at twice.

Outside of this table, life was messy and normal. He had hospital shifts that ate him alive. I had toddlers whom I looked after in Vane City, which made me question my sanity daily. But here, it felt like none of that existed.

Then he got quiet.

Not his usual tired quiet. This was different. He reached into his pocket, and I noticed his hand wasn’t steady. That small detail made something in my chest tighten without me even understanding why.

“Dante?” I asked, softer this time.

He didn’t answer. He just stood up.

I remember the exact sound of the chair scraping the floor. It felt too loud for a moment, and suddenly didn’t feel like ours anymore.

He walked around the table, and my stomach dropped before I even knew what was happening. Then he was in front of me, dropping to one knee.

My brain kind of stopped.

He opened a small velvet box, and the ring caught the light like it was alive.

“Jade Harvey,” he said. His voice was steady, but I could hear something underneath it. “Four years ago, I met someone who changed everything I thought I knew about love…”

I wasn’t even fully hearing the words anymore. My heart was going too fast, like it couldn’t keep up with what was happening. My hands started shaking under the table, so I pressed them into my lap so no one would notice.

Tears showed up before I could even hold them.

“I don’t just want to love you,” he said. “I want a life with you. A shared one. Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” I said immediately. Too fast. I didn’t even let him finish. “Yes, Dante. Of course.”

It came out as a laugh and a cry at the same time, which honestly embarrassed me for half a second, but I didn’t care. Not when he slid that ring onto my finger.

It felt unreal, like it belonged on someone else’s hand until I looked at it properly. People started clapping around us, and I barely noticed.

He stood up and pulled me into him, and for a moment everything felt… complete. Like I had been waiting for something without knowing it, and now it was finally here.

Then his phone buzzed.

Once.

Then again.

I felt the shift before I saw it. His whole face changed in a way I’ve learned to recognize over the years. Doctor mode. Emergency mode. The world was shrinking into something only he could see.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly, already stepping back. “Emergency.”

I nodded without thinking too much about it. I’d lived with this part of him long enough to understand it. It didn’t make it easier, but I got it.

He leaned down and kissed me—slower than usual, like he was trying to hold onto the moment even as he was leaving it.

“I’ll call you later.”

He hesitated for half a second, then added, almost lightly, “Don’t worry. Payments were sorted.”

I let out a small laugh without meaning to. “You never let me pay for anything.”

He smiled like he was trying to keep things normal, then he was gone.

I sat there for a while after that, staring at my hand. The ring kept catching the light every time I moved. My chest still felt tight, but in a good way this time. Like something big had finally clicked into place.

Four years of being together, and somehow he still made me feel like I was just falling in love with him.

I finished my meal slowly. No rush. When the waiter came, he smiled at me politely.

“Everything has been taken care of, ma’am.”

Of course it had.

“That man really doesn’t let me pay for anything,” I said with a small laugh.

“He cares a lot,” the waiter replied.

I nodded. “Yeah. He does.”

Outside, the air felt cooler than I expected. I called a cab instead of waiting for him, even though part of me instinctively looked for his car.

The ride home was quiet, and I kept touching the ring on my finger like I needed to make sure it was still real.

By the time I got to my apartment, everything felt calmer again. Like the world had settled back into place. I ran a bath, mostly because I didn’t know what else to do with all the energy still buzzing in my chest.

The warm water helped. It always did. My thoughts slowed down, but they didn’t stop.

I kept replaying the way he said my name. The way his hands shook just slightly before he asked. It made me smile without meaning to.

“Mrs Thorne,” I whispered to myself, testing it out.

It sounded right. Scary, but right.

I got out of the bath and moved around my apartment in a kind of quiet daze. Soft clothes. Wet hair. The ring still on my finger like it belonged there. I was halfway convinced I might fall asleep and wake up still feeling like tonight was the happiest kind of real.

Then my phone buzzed.

Unknown number.

I frowned a little and picked it up, a photo loaded instantly.

My stomach dropped so hard it felt like I physically lost balance.

It was Dante. Outside the hospital. His arms were wrapped around a woman I didn’t recognize. Not casual. Not distant. Too close. Too familiar. The kind of close that doesn’t need explaining.

My fingers went numb around the phone. I just stood there, staring at it, as if I blinked it would turn into something else. But it didn’t.

It stayed the same.

And suddenly, the warmth from earlier didn’t feel like it belonged to me anymore.