Lost the Bet on Our Anniversary, Ended the Relationship She Scripted Chapter 03

Lost the Bet on Our Anniversary, Ended the Relationship She Scriptted Chapter 03

Before my hand reached Evan, Sienna stepped between us. 

My palm caught her across the cheek instead. 

I froze with my hand still in the air. 

Evan immediately grabbed Sienna by the shoulders and bent down to check her face. 

“Sienna, are you okay?” 

She covered her cheek and waved him off. 

“I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt. I only told the truth. Maybe she 

thinks I’m targeting her, but I understand.” 

Then she turned to me with a strained little smile. 

“You can be mad at me, Aria, but don’t blame Evan. He really 

does love you. He just doesn’t know how to show it.” 

Before I could answer, Evan moved in front of her and glared at me. 

“Enough. Haven’t you made enough of a scene? Sienna knows 

this is my first serious relationship. She said those things 

because she was afraid I’d get played. But you actually hit her. 

Or are you just angry because she caught you?” 

For four years, he had taken her side in every fight. 

Whenever I was doubted or humiliated, he stood there while 

Sienna explained my own intentions for me. 

I was exhausted. 

“Everything about our relationship came from her. She 

taught you how to pursue me, how to win me back, and even 

what gifts to buy. You two understand each other so well. 

What exactly do you need me for?” 

Tears kept falling, but my mind was finally clear. 

“That’s it. Don’t contact me again.” 

I turned and limped toward the exit. 

I went to urgent care alone and needed seven stitches. 

I was sitting in the exam room when my phone suddenly 

started buzzing nonstop. 

A post about me had blown up on the university’s 

anonymous student app. 

It was filled with photos of me standing with different men, 

cropped and framed to make innocent interactions look intimate, 

In some, it looked as though I were leaning against them. 

In others, it looked as though we were holding hands or 

whispering to each other. 

Hundreds of comments had already appeared. 

“Isn’t this the senior who says she has face blindness? Funny 

how she can always find a different guy to hold onto. 

“She has a boyfriend and she’s still flirting with other guys. 

Guess she finally got caught.” 

“I heard her boyfriend treats her amazingly, and this is how she repays him?” 

My hands shook as I read. 

Then people found my personal account and started digging through my private life. 

They eventually uncovered old information about my 

mother and twisted it into something ugly. 

Someone dug up the fact that she had raised me alone after 

surviving a violent assault years earlier. 

Then strangers began spreading vile rumors about her character and mine. 

“Guess boundaries don’t run in that family.” 

“Now we know where she learned it.” 

I could deal with strangers attacking me. 

My mother had nothing to do with this. 

She had struggled with depression for years after what 

happened to her, but she had still chosen to raise me with everything she had. 

I couldn’t let the internet drag her through that trauma again. 

I reported the harassment to campus police, contacted an 

attorney to preserve the evidence, and started the process of filing a defamation claim. 

Then I rushed home. 

I was too late. 

There had been a medical emergency. 

I called 911 and kept shouting for Mom as the paramedics worked. 

“They couldn’t save her. 

For a long time, I could barely process what they were telling me. 

Mom was gone. 

A familiar scent reached me. 

I looked up. 

Evan was standing in the hospital doorway with a bag of fruit in his hand. 

“What are you doing here?” 

My voice came out hoarse. 

“You turned my life into a joke, and now my family has been 

dragged into it too. Wasn’t that enough? Why are you here?” 

He frowned. 

“Sienna’s been upset all week. I wanted to cheer her up, so I 

made that post and bet her that people would take your side. 

I just asked everyone what they thought. I never expected it to blow up like this.” 

He paused. 

“But if you know you didn’t do anything wrong, why do you care what strangers say?” 

I stared at him, shaking. 

The cologne that had once made me feel safe now turned my stomach. 

“My mother is dead.”