The day after I proposed to my fiancée, she sent me a message out of nowhere saying it was over. I called her over and over, frantic, but she hung up every time. I sent message after message, and she read every one without replying. I even went looking for her, but she was nowhere to be found.

It was not until I collapsed onto the couch, completely drained and white as a sheet, that I finally saw a new social media post from her childhood friend.

[Only Ellery would actually go through with it. She drew the dare to dump her fiancé cold—no explanation, nothing—and she really did it. Absolute legend!]

I read it, then replied to her message: [Got it.]

I had been with Ellery Whitfield for five years. Yesterday, I secretly gathered every friend and family member we had and proposed to her.

She was overwhelmed, and she said yes with tears brimming in her eyes. I posted photos of us, with our fingers intertwined, across every social media. Countless strangers flooded us with congratulations and well-wishes.

Just when I thought I had finally reached the finish line to my happily-ever-after, I received a message from her.

[Reid, we're breaking up.]

There was no warning and no reason.

At first, I thought Ellery was joking, so I played along: [Fine. If you want to break up, at least give me a reason. Are you seeing someone behind my back?]

I even attached an angry reaction meme when I sent it.

An hour passed, and the smile on my face slowly faded. Ellery, who always replied to me within seconds, did not reply this time, which meant she had been serious about the breakup message.

Panic set in, and I sent her message after message.

[Ellery, why aren't you answering me?]

[That was a joke, right?]

[Where are you?]

[Tell me where you are. I'll come find you. Let's talk.]

[You said yes to my proposal yesterday. And now you want to break up today? What did I do wrong? Just tell me. Tell me and I'll change, okay?]

The panic, the helpless tears… All of it broke me completely. I called Ellery more times than I could count, and every single call went unanswered, ringing until it cut off on its own.

I called her closest friends. I called our mutual friends. None of them knew where she was or what had happened. Every one of them told me to calm down, to wait a little longer, that it was probably just a joke.

Two more hours passed. I sat on the carpet, completely spent. My face was streaked with dried tears, and my phone screen was full of cracks. Every last bit of life had drained out of me.

My hand moved absently across the carpet and brushed against my phone. Then, out of nowhere, I heard Ellery's voice.

I was certain it was not a hallucination. In an instant, I came back to life and scrambled to find where it was coming from. Finally, I pinpointed it. Ellery's voice was coming from the phone on the carpet. I picked it up with trembling hands.

On the screen was a video of Theo Ridley with his arm linked through Ellery's. It was posted just minutes ago.

"Today, our old crew got together to debate whether friendship matters more than love, and we played truth or dare. The rest of them were either too scared their boyfriends would mind or too worried their husbands would get upset. Not a single one could take a dare.

"They almost had me thinking our friendship of over ten years couldn't hold a candle to their measly few years of romance.

"Only Ellery was actually down for it. She drew the dare to dump her fiancé cold, no explanation, no nothing, and she didn't hesitate for a second. Total queen! Hahaha. Proof that friendship wins out. Love can take a back seat."

I watched the two of them in the video, laughing arm-in-arm and singing together. The pain in my chest was impossible to contain.

The video ended with Theo looking straight into the camera, a smug, taunting grin on his face.

It reminded me of three years ago, when I first met Theo. It was the first time Ellery brought me along to one of her friend group gatherings and introduced me to everyone. Theo was the only guy in the group.

He came up to me all smiles, planted himself in the seat next to mine, and started whispering about Ellery with exaggerated winks and nudges.

"Dude, I seriously don't know what you see in that oblivious girl. I've known her for years. You're by far the best-looking out of all her boyfriends, and you've got the best taste too. That earring of yours looks really unique. Honestly, if I were a girl, I'd fight her for you."

I was a little flustered by all of it, and I smiled sheepishly, genuinely believing that Theo was being sincere and welcoming me into their circle. My guard dropped completely. When I heard him compliment my earring, I took it right off and gave it to him as a gift.

Even Ellery, watching the two of us hit it off like old friends, chimed in with a hint of jealousy, "Theo, dial it back. Reid is my boyfriend. That makes him kind of like your brother-in-law. Don't forget who you actually grew up with."

He turned around and stuck his tongue out at her.

Half an hour later, Theo excused himself to use the bathroom. When he came back, his entire face was swollen. His ear was the worst of it, angry and red. The discomfort was so bad that tears were streaming down his face.

I asked him what happened and offered to take him to a hospital, but he stumbled back a step and pointed at me in disbelief.

"Reid, I welcomed you with open arms. Why would you do this to me? I literally just told you I'm allergic to any jewelry that isn't real gold or silver. Why didn't you warn me that the earring you gave me wasn't either?

"And here I was, trying to be nice. I wore it this whole time. Why would you do this to me? Just because you're jealous that I grew up with Ellery? I never imagined someone could be this cruel."

I had no way to defend myself. The earring was something I had given him in front of everyone just moments earlier, and he had mentioned his allergy during our conversation.

Both of those things happened right there in the open, so there was no way I could claim I was unaware.

In an instant, the way Ellery's other childhood friends looked at me changed. There was disgust, confusion, and even revulsion.

"Ellery, sure, we all pick on Theo. That's our thing. But we've never let someone from outside the group pull something like this. You owe us an explanation."

"Exactly. Look at his face. It's serious if he ends up scarred. I really don't know what you were thinking, bringing a guy like him here."

"I never thought anyone could be this awful."

I pressed my lips together and looked to Ellery, waiting for her to step in and tell them it was not intentional. I just wanted her to take my side and leave with me.

Instead, she waved over a waiter, ordered three different shots of hard liquor, and then mixed them into a single glass. She looked at me with a blank expression.

"Reid, I don't know whether you did this on purpose or not. But the fact is, Theo had an allergic reaction because of you. If it had been anyone else who did this to him, the least we'd do is break their arm or their leg. But you're my boyfriend, so just drink this and we'll call it even."

I stared at the oversized glass on the table, my face draining of all color and my voice trembling. "Ellery, you know my stomach's bad. Mixing three kinds of liquor like that could kill someone. Do you really want to do this to me?"

Ellery turned to glance at me with a slight frown, sighed, and walked over. Without any warning, she grabbed my jaw and forced my mouth open. I struggled, but she poured the contents down my throat anyway.

My throat and stomach burned like they were on fire. A few seconds later, the room began to spin. The last thing I registered before everything went black was the mocking smile spreading across Theo's face. He had done it on purpose.

...

The video on my phone was still playing on loop, but I had already calmed down.

I opened every social media app in silence, deleting the happy announcements from the night before one by one. Then, I booked a moving service to come to the apartment. After that, I opened the messaging app, pulled up the breakup message Ellery had just sent, and replied: [Okay. Let's break up.]

I put the phone down and went into the bathroom. Calmly, I lathered my hands with shower gel. The ring was on too tight, and this was the only way to get it off. After struggling with it for what felt like forever, it finally slipped free.

I looked at the ring on my palm. I had made it with my own hands. At this moment, all I could do was laugh at myself.

Three different gemstones were set into the band, and each one was Ellery's favorite. I had designed and crafted a matching pair specifically for the proposal.

"Ellery, you once told me these three gemstones were your favorites. Ruby for wealth, sapphire for love, topaz for something precious. So, I spent a long time finding six perfect stones and set them into our matching rings. I wanted to tell you that our love is my most precious treasure."

The emotion from the night before was still vivid, but now, all of it had turned to nothing.

I looked up at my own wrecked reflection in the bathroom mirror, thinking to myself that love and happiness were nothing but a joke.

Ellery and Theo did not come back until the middle of the night. A whole group of their friends trailed in behind them. The moment the door opened, they walked right into the movers packing up the last box.

Ellery froze at the sight of the apartment stripped bare, then her brows furrowed sharply. "Reid, what are you doing?"

It was not until one of the movers passed by her that she snapped out of it and blocked his path. "Wait. Who said you could take anything out of here?"

I heard the commotion and came out. A crowd of people was at the doorway. "I did. Ms. Whitfield, we've already broken up. Is there a problem with me moving my things?"

The second Theo saw me, he clapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes glittering with barely concealed delight. "Oh no, what happened to you? You look terrible. Don't tell me you're actually upset over a dare?"

Ellery looked like she had just heard the funniest thing in the world. "Over a dare? Reid, can you stop being so childish?"

Theo pouted and draped an arm over her shoulder, taunting, "Your man's got a fragile little heart. He's not like us. You'd better hurry up and apologize."

Ellery looked me up and down with complete indifference and let out a scoff. "It was just a game. Fine, I'll apologize. There. It's over."

A few of the friends behind her chimed in, "Come on, it's not that big a deal. Is this really worth all this? Ellery had too much to drink. You know how she gets when she's drunk."

That was when I noticed the watch on Theo's wrist. It was the same one Ellery had kept in her shopping cart. It was worth over a hundred thousand dollars, and she had bought it for Theo without blinking.

Yet after I gave her 880,000 dollars worth of wedding gifts as her family had requested, she claimed her family was struggling financially and could not even manage 30,000 dollars worth of gifts.

When my parents raised a mild concern, she turned around and snapped at me, accusing me of having no sincerity and nickel-and-diming the marriage.

Her heart had never been with me.

I let out a bitter laugh and held up my hand, pointing to the bare finger where my wedding ring should have been. "My ring's gone. Do whatever you want with yours."

That finally rattled her. She stepped closer, her frown deepening. "I already apologized. Theo was worried about you, so he came all the way back with me just to check on you. Why do you have to keep being so unreasonable about this?"