Jasmine's Pov

It is frightening how quickly a day can twist. One moment I had been dreaming of spending forever with the love of my life, the next I was planning my flee from him as if from a disease.

I should have seen the truth always there, lurking behind his empty words and easy smile. But I had been too in love and blind to see only what I wanted.

My fingers clenched around the small velvet box that once symbolized our love. I had thought of sending the ring back through a dispatch rider, but the coward in him didn’t deserve that convenience. No. Landon would face me and the new reality of what he had destroyed.

Dragging my feet to his doorstep, I rehearsed the bitter words in my mind. Echo, my best friend, had begged me not to stay home drowning in tears as I had all afternoon after uncovering his betrayal. She had invited me out, promising distraction. But before meeting her, I had to end this sham of a future.

I raised my hand to press the bell when voices slipped through the half-open window.

“Stop acting like this, Evelyn. Jasmine is not my type and you know that. She isn't pretty as you are or does she have a hot sexy body. I told you my plans from the start. Why are you being jealous and unreasonable all of a sudden?”

I froze. Evelyn. The name slammed into me like a stone. Landon’s ex. The on and off girlfriend he had sworn he’d left behind three years ago.

Her voice trembled through the air. “I know, Landon. With Jasmine, I accepted it. But now… her sister too? That whore who throws herself at everyone?”

The blood drained from my face.

“You’re no different, Evelyn. Don’t forget it. The only reason I let you back in is because you’re pregnant with my child,” Landon’s voice answered coldly.

My hand trembled against the doorknob, aching to throw the door wide and confront him, but his next words held me still.

“Don’t make this harder on me than it already is. Jasmine is just the Bloom’s adopted daughter. Chairman Bloom would never allow her to marry someone like me. I’m not in their financial bracket. He’ll force her into a business alliance and when she refuses because of her love for me, he’ll pay me to walk away. That day is coming soon. Until then, play your part and stay low until this charade is all over”

The world tilted under my feet. So that was his plan? To use and exploit my love while waiting for a payday.

Evelyn’s voice sharpened. “And Lisa? Was sleeping with her also part of your master plan?”

He scoffed. “I sent you ten thousand dollars yesterday. How else do you think I got it? Lisa paid me to sleep with her. And even if she hadn’t—look at her. What man would turn her irresistible body down?”

A guttural laugh tore itself from my throat, though no one heard it. Just yesterday, he had professed his love to me, begged for money to cover wedding expenses and sworn he couldn’t live without me. All while bedding my sister and selling himself to another woman.

I jabbed at the doorbell with a trembling finger.

The door swung open. Landon stood there with shock written across his face as his eyes raked me up and down. Behind him, Evelyn’s expression crumbled when she recognized me.

“Jasmine…” His voice was a whisper.

“Here.” I pressed the ring into his palm, my hand steady despite the storm inside me.

“I came to tell you I’m calling off the wedding.” My voice cracked, but I turned swiftly, unwilling to let either of them see the tears burning my eyes.

Behind me, Evelyn’s panicked whisper broke the silence. “Do you think she heard us?”

I didn’t wait to hear his reply. I only heard the sound of footsteps as he hurried after me.

“Don’t be like this, Jasmine! What you saw earlier in the afternoon was a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes!. Don't tell me you're calling off our wedding because of that one mistake”

I spun, rage blazing through my grief. “A mistake? Was Evelyn showing up at your house in the middle of the night also a mistake?!”

“She’s been stalking me ever since she heard about our wedding,” he lied smoothly, desperation twisting his face. “I came home and found her waiting. She wants compensation for breaking her heart, though she’s the one who broke mine. Come on. She isn't smart like you are. What sort of man in his right senses would settle for a liability like her when I have an asset like you my side?"

I barked out a bitter laugh. “And Lisa? Was that stalking too?”

His eyes darted. “That’s the past, Jas. Your sister is immoral—she seduced me. But I swear, it won’t happen again. I won’t let any woman lure me away from you again.”

Marriage is a gamble, they say. And I had almost bet everything on a fraud. Staring at Landon and his pathetic excuses, I felt only gratitude that I had discovered the truth before binding myself to him forever.

“I’m not marrying you, Landon. That’s final.” My voice rang sharp, louder than my pounding heart.

I turned from the gate, but he still followed.

“Jas, wait—”

I stopped, whirled around and let the fury pour out. “Fuck you, Landon! Fuck your proposal, fuck your lies!”

“Stop being disrespectful to me, Jasmine! I already admitted it was a mistake and I told you it won’t happen again! Why are you dragging this out and making it bigger than it is? It’s not that deep. Men and women sleep around all the time. Even you!”

“You think your sister didn’t tell me how many men you’ve been with? You think I don’t know? Still, I didn’t care about your past or what my boys might say about me being with a used-up woman. But look at you now acting ungrateful.” his voice rang loud in his defense.

Landon was the one who took my virginity. He knew it. That night, he’d praised me, calling me untouchable, the first and only woman he'd seen being so.

Whether Lisa ever whispered poison into his ears or not, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that he was twisting the story, turning it around to stain my name and lower me while defending himself. I saw it in the way strangers glanced at me, the quick dart of their eyes, the murmurs I could feel even if I couldn’t hear. He wanted me humiliated.

“Jasmine!” He kept shouting my name like a broken record.

“It was just a one-time mistake! Don’t tell me you can’t forgive me for this once! You know me—you know I’ve been good to you. Do you even understand how many women I turn down every single day? How many of them throw themselves at me, begging for just a moment of my time? And I ignored them all, all for you! Doesn’t that count for anything? Doesn’t that prove my loyalty?”

I stared at him. My lips refused to part because there were no words left to give. No excuses to make for him. No energy to waste on convincing myself he wasn’t what he clearly was: a smooth-tongued manipulator. A gaslighter who made betrayal sound like sacrifice.

I should have walked away the first time Evelyn crawled back into the picture. I should have left the moment he asked me for patience while he “handled things with her.” I gave him space. I gave him time. I gave him trust. And all of it turned out to be a trap. I stood in the dark waiting for a man who never planned to choose me.

How blind was I? How desperate to hold onto love that wasn’t even real?

I flagged down a taxi and climbed in without hesitation. The slam of the door felt like closure.

Through the glass, I saw him still running and shouting, his voice cutting through the traffic and the night air, chasing me with more lies and hollow promises. But I didn’t look back. I refused to.

I was done. Done being easy. Done being the girl who endured and endured while people carved pieces out of her. Done playing the people pleaser.

As the car pulled away, taking me closer to the club where my friend waited, I made a decision.

I was finished with Landon. No apology or grand speeches would bring me back.

Yes, I had loved him but now, I loved myself more. And that was the difference that would save me.

*****

“Come on, babe, stop thinking about him already,” Echo’s voice slid into my storm of thoughts.

I tried. God knows I tried to act fine and pretend as though my heart wasn’t in shreds. But no matter how hard I pushed, the ache lingered.

I had even forced myself to down two glasses of alcohol, me, who never drank. Me, who had sworn off clubs. Yet here I was, stumbling through my first time in one, trying to drown the hurt Landon carved into me.

The bitter irony wasn’t lost on me. He had once told me he respected me because I had never been to a club, unlike his ex and my sister, Lisa. He praised and used me as some shining example of purity and restraint when all along, he was the filth I should have run from.

How could I have been so stupid? The signs had been there glaring in my face. Every time he spoke about Lisa or his ex, I should have known.

Maybe if I had, I wouldn’t be standing here tonight trying to pretend my world wasn’t in ruins.

“Come on, Jasmine. I hate seeing you like this.” Echo’s voice cracked again . “You’ve always been better than that cheapskate. From the start, I knew he didn’t deserve you. But you… you looked so happy with him and I couldn’t bring myself to take that away from you.”

She sighed, “I’m sorry, Jas. I really am. But that was the first time I’d ever seen you glow with happiness, even if it wasn’t real, even if he didn’t deserve an ounce of it.”

I swallowed hard and forced a laugh that scraped my throat.

“Come on, Echo. This is a celebration, remember?” I said, though my voice trembled.

I raised my glass, forcing cheer into my tone. “We came here to celebrate that I found out the truth before marrying him. Imagine if I hadn’t. Who knows what worse heartbreaks I’d be facing now?”

“Right,” Echo whispered, watching me carefully.

I lifted my half-finished third beer. “So tonight we party. We party all night and you’re not leaving my side.”

Before she could respond, I pushed myself into the crowd, letting the thrum of bass and flashing lights swallow me. I began to move my body clumsily, swaying whether in rhythm with the music or not, I didn’t care. I just wanted to forget.

But then something pressed hard against my backside.

My body stiffened instantly. I spun around and my blood boiled when I saw a man standing too close to me.

I wasn’t drunk so I knew what he was doing. Trying to take advantage of me assuming I was weak and an easy prey in the chaos of sweat and music.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Echo rise from her seat, panic etched across her face, her hands raised as if to stop what she knew was about to unfold.

The music pounded too loud for me to hear her words, but I didn’t need them. My focus locked on him, the predator behind me, who had pressed his arousal against me as if I were nothing but flesh to grope.

My hand flew before I thought.

Crack!

The slap echoed against his cheek.

His eyes widened. I raised my hand again, rage fueling me, ready to strike him harder and make him regret ever touching me. But another hand caught mine midair.

I whipped my head around, confused when I saw that it was Echo. But her face blurred before me, her lips moving in words I couldn’t grasp.

The music, the lights, the crowd.

All of it slipped away as if someone pulled the world out from under me.