Chapter 130 130

Chapter 130 130
Ashley POV

"So, you're telling me," Mom started, pinching the bridge of her nose, "that you are in love with Jayden? And that's the reason why you did not want to marry Jared?"

I sighed as I looked down at my phone. The conversation that had been going on since Jayden's departure had switched to a video call, where Mom felt she could fully show her disappointment.

"Yes," I answered her, though the confession made my face heat up. "That's just it."

"And are you sure? You won't regret breaking off your engagement again?"

She made it sound as if it was my fault that things had turned out this way. And in some ways, maybe it was. But I definitely was not responsible for canceling the first engagement.

"Yes," I replied with another long sigh.

She was staring at me in a literal sense, because she had her iPad on her lap, which she was using to talk to me. She was sitting on a balcony somewhere, or maybe by the pool, because she was wearing a bathing suit. Dad's head would occasionally pop up to the screen, but he kept his distance from Mom as usual. Or, what any sane person would do.

Out of the blue, Mom reached out her hand to the spot above her screen. Her hand vanished from sight, and her eyes focused on something in front of her. "Give it to me," she said.

I frowned. "What-"

When her hand went back into the screen, my eyes widened. But only for a short while. My shock was quickly switched to irritation.

"Seriously?" I groaned. "Another bet?"

The sound of rustling candy wrappers filled the kitchen where I was sitting as Mom lifted a chocolate-dipped wafer to her lips. "What else?" she asked crisply, her eyes narrowing.

I slapped myself on the forehead as I heard Dad's booming laughter draw near. "You're the worst," I said as both their faces filled my phone screen. "You will never win the best parent of the year award."

Mom's eyebrows shot up. "There's a competition for parents?"

"Of course," I replied with a groan.

Her eyes narrowed at my response. But when Dad placed his hands on her shoulders, she melted and held back what surely was a harsh retort. Dad gave her a long, loving smile before he looked at the camera instead of the screen. "Even if there were - and I highly doubt it - we don't need to be the best parents in the world to get the award," he tells me as his smile widens into a wide, happy grin. "We just need to be the best we can be for you, sweetie."

"Daddy..." I could not help but smile. "If you keep betting with Mom on chocolate prizes, she will get fat."

She snorted while Dad just winked. "Well," he started, "I don't mind her getting a little-" He was hushed by an elbow in his groin area and vanished from the camera's view, his face twisted in both pain and amusement. I felt both.

"Ashley," Mom snapped, her teeth gleaming even after eating a wafer. "You had better make this work. It was already hard convincing Jayden and Jared's parents about the change of plans the first time - now they are going to believe you are playing some kind of game."

"No," I protested right away. "Why would I-"

"There are people like that in this world," she cut in, her voice suddenly becoming grim. "You will meet them eventually, if you have not already. They are extremely self-centered men and women who will stop at nothing for a glimmer of happiness. And as much as I know you're not one of them, the others are not."

Her expression softened all of a sudden, and a smile broke out on her lips. "I'm proud of you, Ash. I'm glad you followed your heart."

"Mom..." I said softly, her surprisingly kind tone warming my chest.

"But," she said, cutting me off again. "I did not raise you to be a coward. Neither did your father."

I furrowed my brows. "What do you mean?" I asked, feeling the parental demands in the air.

She lifted the iPad screen closer to her face. Her tone was sharp as always, but I thought I spotted a hint of sympathy in her eyes as she went on. Sympathy that was not aimed at me.

"You should tell Jared about breaking off the engagement yourself."

"I can do that," I replied instantly, even though it felt like my heart was sinking to the bottom of the ocean. I really did not want to tell Jared. In the bliss of the aftermath of my reunion with Jayden, I did not want to tarnish that feeling.

That feeling of absolute warmth.

"You had better do it quickly then," she said, her doubt plainly visible. "Isn't he on leave right now?"

"What? No," I frowned. "He said he had to go to a meeting. David and I even dropped him off after the photo shoot outside the headquarters and saw him come in."

My mom mimicked my expression. "That's impossible. According to Joe, he applied for vacation at the end of May. Are you sure he told you he was heading to a meeting?"

A chill ran down my spine as I nodded.

"Do you remember what day his vacation was supposed to start?" I asked, a hunch growing more and more vivid in the back of my mind.

"I would say... a few days before you went to Milan."

The chills crystallized into icy hands, which pricked my skin and wrapped around my heart. "I have to go," I told her, and hastily hung up before she could answer.



It took almost an hour before I arrived at his hotel from the apartment. I had to waste a few minutes talking... quietly, perhaps - to the hotel clerk about which room he was staying in, and another precious few minutes as I found my way to the right door number. With my breath catching and sweat dripping down my neck, I knocked on the door three times, ready to see another betrayal, an act of infidelity, but this time from his brother. I was furious and on the verge of breaking down the door when it finally cracked open, revealing his anxious eyes. As his eyes locked with mine, my mouth opened to scream at him, lashing out at him harshly or perhaps tossing away another of that engagement ring of his - as he opened the door fully.

What he revealed would haunt my nights for years... no, decades to come. Because it's worse than finding out that he's been lying to me for the last two months. It was worse than catching him, watching him cheat on me with another woman - or another man, for that matter. Ten thousand times worse. I could barely bear to look, to see, to realize what was there.

"Jared..." I whispered, my voice thin and brittle with fear. "What happened?"