"A cliché. Her life had officially turned into a damn cliché."
That was the only thought pounding in Vanessa's head as she stood frozen at the doorway, staring at the scene unfolding in front of her. In her house. In her bedroom. In her bed.
Her one and only fiancé. With her one and only sister.
Perfect. Just perfect. It was as if she had stepped straight into the opening chapters of one of those romance Webnovels she sometimes read to kill time.
Only this time, she wasn't the reader. Nope. She was the discarded heroine. She felt a pang of irony.
She'd always thought that if she ever ended up in one of those books, she would be the villainous side character. But even as she felt the tears filling her eyes, she realized she had somehow turned into a pitiful female lead.
And, of course, it couldn't stop there. Fate apparently had a dark sense of humor.
It wasn't enough that she had walked in on the betrayal and was already mentally debating how she'd ever manage to clean up this memory and her house, but she also had to stand there, unnoticed, listening to the two people she cared most for in this world, trash talking her.
How she was nothing more than an inconvenience he had to tolerate because she happened to be the CEO of Grant Studios...
Ethan... the man who had claimed to love her and wanted to cherish her forever had actually only ever wanted to ride on her coattails and achievements. Vanessa scoffed under her breath.
He spoke as if he were the victim. As if she had ever been the one to chase him down. As if she had ever begged for his ring. As if she had forced him..
When the truth was the complete opposite? He had been the one who had trailed her after the success of her movie by sending flowers she didn't ask for, gifts she hadn't wanted, letters dripping with promises she hadn't dared to believe in. After all, her own parents had never loved her so how could someone else?
But, he had persisted, and persisted, until she finally- against her better judgment-let her guard down and agreed to let him into her world and into her heart.
He had forced his way into her life, not the other way around.
And now this? This was her reward for being a fool!
Her fingers curled against the doorframe as she leaned against the frame silently. She should have turned and walked away, and later announce a break up. Or she should have barged in now and hit the two people...
But some masochistic part of her needed to hear it all. Needed to hear every rotten word that tumbled from their mouths so that she would remember that she was not lovable. So that she would not fool herself a second time.
"What about the engagement party?" she heard her sister's voice-Lynette's voice, dripping with the same saccharine sweetness that made her now want to puke as she asked, "Are you really going to go through with it?"
"Yes. And no."
Vanessa blinked. The answer was absurd. How did he plan to have an engagement with her and not have it? Typical Ethan.
"What do you mean, Ethan?" Lynette pressed, and Vanessa nodded. Yep. She wanted an answer to that question too. "Are you going through with it or not?"
There was a pause. She could almost see his face, the way he'd probably be wearing that infuriating little smile he used whenever he thought he was being clever. Even that smile, she suddenly realized she hated it...
"Lynette. I'm not going to cancel the engagement. But I'm also not going to be getting engaged to her, either."
Vanessa's grip tightened on the door knob until her knuckles ached as Ethan continued in a careless and amused tone. "She's planning the engagement party of the century, isn't she? Let her plan it. For you. You are the only one who deserves it. She wants all those flowers and fairytale magic. Does she think she is some sort of a fairy?"
"With her plain looks, it is even a wonder that I looked at her. And she is thinking of being a disney princess. Oh please. Not even 'The Beast' would be interested in her."
In that moment, Vanessa felt her heart ache. So, this is what he thought of her. Just because she was not the 'gentle' beauty that Lynette and the others in her family were, did she deserve to be hurt like this?
Her hands clenched. She wanted to barge in and slap them both across the face. She'd always known that in terms of look, Ethan was far above her league and Lynette was too beautiful.
But how did that give them the right to do this to her?
She took a step forward, ready to end this farce right away but it seemed her humiliation was not yet over. They had more to say.
"You are right, Ethan. I don't know what grandfather sees in her. I even doubt she is a Grant. Look at her! She looks so different from the rest of us. What does grandfather see in her that he has named her the heir? I think it is a great idea for you to dump her then. She'll be made the laughing stock of the country and grandfather will also look down on her for being so foolish." Lynette continued with glee in her voice.
"Wait wait. I'll tell you what. My driver? Why abandon her publically. Just announce that you want to pass the marriage onto anoher relative. You have that distant cousin, don't you, the one with the large horse- like teeth? Pass the engagement onto him!"
That caused another loud round of laughter from the two of them and this time Vanessa did not wait to hear more. She stepped back and walked out of the house, utterly humiliated and heart broken.