My Fiancé Chose Her,So I Buried Them Both

The day I took over my family's branch in Monterra City fell right on the water festival—and I barely made it out of the banquet before a crowd closed in around me, blasting me with high-pressure water guns.

The one spraying hardest was Gloria Fox, my fiancé's childhood sweetheart.

The jet hit my gown and soaked it through in an instant, the fabric clinging to every line of my body.

I stepped forward and slapped the water gun out of Gloria's hands, my voice hard.

"There's a line, even on a holiday."

I didn't even finish the sentence before tears were already streaming down Gloria's face.

"The whole point of the water festival is getting soaked through! Why do you always have to pick on me…"

Brent's expression changed the second he saw her crying.

He pulled Gloria into his arms and glanced back over his shoulder.

A dozen high-pressure water guns swung toward me at once and opened fire.

Every jet targeted the same parts of my body—chest, hips, thighs.

The pressurized water hammered through the front of my dress in seconds, the outline of my bra showing clear as day.

The crowd around us kept growing.

My eyes burned red as I screamed.

"Brent Delgado, keep this up and I'm calling the police!"

"The police?!"

Brent let out a cold laugh, grinning wider.

"Wake up, Maya. This is Monterra City, not Kingsport. This is my turf. The king of heaven himself could show up and he'd still have to call me daddy."

I forced a thin, cold smile and slowly reached into my pocket for the secure smartphone, dialing the only number saved in it.

"Send every industrial water cannon truck in Monterra City to Starhaven Plaza. Immediately. And seal the area."

——

The words had barely left my mouth before the crowd erupted into deafening laughter.

Brent stepped forward, snatched the secure smartphone out of my hand, and laughed even louder.

"Maya, are you out of your mind?! You pull out some fake vintage phone and make a little scare call? You think that's going to work?!"

He turned the screen toward the crowd, showing it around.

"Hey, look at this. A four-digit phone number!"

"Tell me, has anyone here ever seen a four-digit phone number in their life?!"

Another wave of piercing laughter tore through the crowd.

The amusement in Brent's eyes deepened. He grabbed my chin, fingers digging in.

"Drop the Kingsport act, Maya. That shit doesn't scare me."

Gloria stepped forward and leaned right into Brent's arms, her eyes bright with triumph.

"She's right, you know? This is Brent's territory. That whole queen-bee routine you run back in Kingsport? Nobody's buying it here."

"Don't waste your breath on someone like her, Gloria."

Brent held Gloria tighter against him and pointed at me, his voice sharp as a blade.

"Apologize to Gloria."

"Or you're not walking out of here comfortably today."

Dozens of men closed in around me, high-pressure water guns leveled and ready.

Their eyes dragged over the outline of my body through the soaked fabric, slow and deliberate, every mouth twisted into the same ugly grin.

I scrambled to grab the shawl that had fallen to the ground, trying to cover myself.

Brent ripped it out of my hands.

He clamped down on my wrist and yanked so hard my knees slammed into the ground at Gloria's feet.

"You're not deaf, are you, Maya?! I said apologize to Gloria!"

Gloria stepped closer. The point of her stiletto came down on my palm and ground in.

But her voice was all wounded sweetness, pouring out in one syrupy breath.

"Maya, I really was just trying to be nice—it's the water festival, you're supposed to get wet, so why do you have to twist everything around? I feel so awful right now. Brent's not too angry yet, so you'd better just hurry up and apologize to me before he is…"

The crowd kept pressing in tighter, pointing at every curve and line the soaked dress gave away, picking me apart out loud like I was something on display.