The Day I Chose My Parents Over My Fiance Chapter 05
I cut her off.
“Mrs. Hayes, Tristan and I are over.”
“If he needs someone, call Lily. Don’t call me.”
“You never had much respect for my family anyway, right?”
Her voice turned razor-sharp.
“Excuse me?”
“Do you have any idea what my son has sacrificed for you?”
“He nearly cut ties with his own family to be with you. And now he’s lying in a hospital, and this is how you act?”
I didn’t answer. My mind drifted back to the beginning – when Tristan and I first got together. I’d known his family had money. I just hadn’t realized how much.
Three months in, his mother showed up. No dramatic check slid across the table like in the movies. She just
sat across from me and looked me over like furniture she was thinking about buying.
She took a slow sip of her coffee.
“Mrs. Brooks, I understand you’re from a small town?”
“Then I’m sure you understand the concept of marrying within your own world.”
“You’re a pretty girl. I’ll give you that. I can see why my son threw away every plan we made for him.”
“But pretty doesn’t last. And a trophy – no matter how shiny – is still just something you put on a shelf.”
Back then, I wasn’t far enough gone to swallow an insult like that. I pulled out my phone, right there in front of her, and texted Tristan that we were done.
On my way out, I stopped and looked her in the eye.
“Mrs. Hayes, I got into Crestwood’s top CS program on my own merit.”
“I don’t think your trophy could’ve pulled that off.”
I meant it. I was ready to walk. But that same afternoon, Tristan blew up his whole life for me.
He stood outside my dorm in the rain all night. Didn’t say a word. Just followed me everywhere I went the next day, soaked and silent, looking at me like a dog abandoned on the side of the road.
He had his roommate drop off a heating pad and chocolate whenever I had awful cramps.
If I stayed on campus too late, he’d walk behind me in the dark – never beside me, just close enough that I’d know he was there.
When a truck jumped the curb and came straight for me, he didn’t hesitate. He shoved me out of the way and took the hit. He ended up in the ICU. I sat beside his bed for days, his face swollen beyond recognition,
begging him through my tears to wake up.
When he finally opened his eyes, the first thing he did was reach for my face – barely strong enough to lift his hand and try to wipe my tears. Then, voice breaking with every word, he apologized.
“Au… Audrey, I’m… sorry…”
“For putting you… through all this…”
“Can you… give me… one more chance…”
I held his hand so tight I thought I’d break it, and I said yes. He’d saved my life. After that, I was his. Completely, irreversibly his.
So when his parents kept looking through me, I bit my tongue. When they went out of their way to humiliate me, I swallowed it – because I didn’t want to make things harder for him.
When he forgot our anniversary and took Lily to watch a meteor shower on a mountaintop instead, I told myself it didn’t mean what it looked like.
I got upset. He talked me out of it. And it worked. Every time. Then it was him holding his umbrella over Lily while I walked home soaked.
He canceled on my birthday for her. Every time I pushed back, he chose her. At first, he’d still try to smooth things over.
But eventually, whenever I brought up Lily, his patience just… vanished. He’d look at me like I was the problem.
“I literally almost died for you. What more do you want from me?”
“Why can’t you just trust me?”
“God, Audrey. When are you going to stop keeping score?”
He’d slam the door on his way out, and I’d sit on the couch, eyes raw, asking myself if he was right.
Was I really that insecure? Was I the one making everything worse?
Then, half an hour later, I opened Lily’s Instagram. There was a photo of her and Tristan at the airport faces close, fingers intertwined.
[Tristan literally started a fight with his girlfriend just so he could take me to see the northern lights. Be honest… don’t we look like the real couple here?]