Chapter 41: Her swollen bottom lip
"What do you mean by this, Rick?" Orabela screamed, her voice shaking with disbelief. "Why are you breaking up with me? You proposed to me just a few days ago!" She couldn’t grasp how everything had changed so suddenly, how the man she thought she would spend her life with could say such things.
Her hands trembled as she ran her fingers through her hair, standing in the middle of a vast, empty field. It was early in the morning, and Roderick had asked her to meet him in this isolated spot, but she never expected their conversation to go this way.
"Because you forced me to drink that night," Roderick said coldly, his eyes distant. "I have no intention of staying involved with you. I never wanted to marry you. You’re good in bed, but you’re not wife material."
Orabela’s heart felt like it shattered in that moment. "What did you just say?" she bellowed, her voice growing louder as she stepped closer and grabbed him by the collar. "You think I’m just your mistress, don’t you? You can’t get rid of me like this! We’ve been together for six months, Rick. How can you forget everything we’ve been through? All the moments we shared?"
Tears welled up in her eyes, but they weren’t just from heartbreak—they were from the rage boiling inside her. She had given so much of herself to him, only to be discarded so callously.
"Hey, you’re forgetting why we even got together!" Roderick retorted, his voice cold and detached. "You were the one who clung to me every weekend at the bar, seducing me into bed. I told you I was committed to Layla, but you told me to think of it as an ’extra service,’ remember?"
Orabela’s face hardened, her anger mixing with desperation. "So what? You couldn’t keep your pants shut either! And I’m not Layla, Rick. I won’t just walk away. If you don’t marry me, I’ll make sure you regret it. Your mother knows about us, while Layla? You never even had the guts to tell her."
Her voice softened as she took his hands, hoping to sway him. "Rick, please, don’t do this. I love you. We’ve been through so much together. You can’t just discard me like this."
Roderick’s expression remained unmoved. "But I don’t love you," he stated bluntly, pushing her away. He roughly removed the engagement ring from her finger, the cold metal slipping away as easily as his promises. Without another word, he turned and began to walk off.