Our Anniversary, I Rejected Him

Chapter 3

I deliberately dragged my feet for two whole hours before heading home.

Turns out David was parked right outside my door, waiting for me. Before I could even say no, he practically hauled me into his car.

I really didn't want to go. His mom had never thought I was good enough for her son, anyway.

As far as mother-in-law was concerned, Anne was the perfect daughter-in-law she'd always wanted.

And as far as Jane was concerned, Anne was the only good enough sister-in-law for her.

When we arrived, mother-in-law and Anne were carrying dish after dish to the dining table.

Just as I'd expected. She was here too.

Jane caught sight of me and muttered under her breath, "Why'd you even bring her? She's gonna ruin the mood again. If she's in a bad mood, she should just stay home."

I didn't bother wasting words on her. I just found an empty seat and sat down without a word.

My mother-in-law spoke, her tone sharp with clear annoyance. "We've been waiting almost two hours for you. You're never this busy any other day, you just had to pick today of all days to be swamped?"

"I'll be this busy from now on," I said quietly.

Just then, I spotted David pointing at Anne's neck, murmuring something to her in a low voice.

Anne, though, spoke loud enough for me to hear every single word clearly.

"David, I thought you bought this for me! I saw it on the passenger seat, so I put it on."

It was a diamond necklace, sparkling against her pale neck.

'That had to be the wedding anniversary gift David was supposed to give me,' I thought to myself.

David must have caught me staring. He sauntered over slowly, looking so awkward he could barely meet my eye.

"Uh... that necklace I got for you? I really can't find it anywhere. After dinner, I'll take you to the jewelry store. You can pick out any one you like, okay?"

I stayed quiet, not saying a word. Beside us, mother-in-law fussed over Anne, urging her to sit down quickly.

"You're our guest, don't bother with all this work. Olivia can handle all these little things."

Anne smiled sweetly. "Auntie, it's no trouble at all! I'd love to come over and eat with you every day if I could!"

Mother-in-law's face softened into a pleased, satisfied smile, then she pulled Anne right over to stand in front of me.

"Olivia, Anne is family to us, just like Jane. Think of her as David's little sister, okay? Don't get any silly ideas. Sure, they grab meals together pretty often, but there's absolutely nothing going on between them!"

For all her warm words, her tone was sharp and unyielding, like there wasn't a single inch of room for me to push back.

Jane chimed in right away, her voice sickly sweet. "Yeah, Olivia? C'mon, you're always making such a big deal out of nothing. Guys hate that, you know?

"Your daughter, Alexa, just passed away not long ago, right? You should just focus on getting yourself together and sorting out your mood. That's all you need to worry about.

"My brother's swamped with work, obviously he's got a ton of client events and dinners to go to. Some stuff you just can't avoid. Look at Anne, she even helps my brother turn down drinks at every single one of those dinners! If there was actually something going on between them, people would be gossiping up a storm already."

Her little rant sounded reasonable on the surface, but I knew better than anyone that she was the biggest shipper of David and Anne out there.

She'd even forgotten to block me when she posted about them on her WeChat Moments before. God knows how she was gushing about them when I wasn't around.

Whatever, every time these two opened their mouths, it was either some holier-than-thou lecture or them snickering at my misfortune.

I zeroed in on the one thing that mattered in what she'd said, and asked coolly. "Dinners? Every single one? They make quite the team, huh?"

So David had been bringing Anne to every single work event.

And I'd been kept completely in the dark, clueless about all of it.

Jane finally realized she'd let the cat out of the bag.

She froze for a second, then let out a tight, awkward laugh and scrambled to switch the subject.