Livia and Andrew

My phone buzzes with an incoming message. I shouldn’t be glued to my phone, not on the night of my bachelorette party, which my best friends and cousins, Allie and Silvia, have spent a lot of time planning. What I should be doing is having fun, but tonight, I am anxious. I usually feel like this when I am away from Andrew for days. He has been out of town because of work, and I haven’t seen him for a week. Of course, he calls me each day, but it’s not the same. 

I quickly open the message, knowing it is from Andrew. He is probably missing me just as much as I was missing him, and he was probably checking on me.

I expected a sweet message from him. What I didn’t expect was for him to shatter my heart.

The message isn’t from Andrew but from an anonymous number. I also delete the message until I realize it is a video of my fiancé, so I retreat to a quiet place to watch it.

“Each time I think about marrying Livia, I get a knot in my stomach,” a drunken Andrew said to Cade, his best friend from high school. “She ain’t the one man.”

Now, I am the one with a knot in the stomach.

Cade furrows his brow. “So why haven’t you broken things off with her?”

“God, have you seen how clingy she is? It makes her so unattractive.”

My heart dropped to my stomach. My anxiety makes it look like I am clingy but Andrew has always promised me that it didn’t bother him.

“I don’t know, man, Livia is cute,” Cade shrugs.

“Average at best. Each time we have sex, I have to close my eyes and pretend she is someone else so I can stay hard. Ever since she got together with me, she let herself go. She even put on weight.”

I feel like throwing up.

Andrew not only broke my heart, but he also stomped all over it before setting it on fire. Every intimate moment between us is forever tainted, and I feel dirty.

I am so shocked by what the man who claimed to love me says that I can’t muster a word or make any sound. Only keep watching.

“So what you mean is that you are settling?” Cade asks.

Andrew gulps down a glass of whiskey. “We’ve been together for four years and she will be a good mother. She even has a decent job.”

Decent job. That’s what he thought of all the years I spent working hard to become a dentist.

“If you weren’t with Livia, then who would you want to date?” Cade casually asked.

Andrew didn’t hesitate to answer. “Jess.”

Jess. The one friend he told me not to worry about.

Jess. The only woman in his friend group who doesn’t like me and constantly flirts with him.

Jess. The one he hooked up with before he got together with me.

Jess. Who is everything I am not.

“Tell you what. You should break up with Livia and start dating Jess,” Cade suggests.

“Jess is fun, but she is not the type to settle down and start a family. Besides, Livia cooks and takes care of me. It makes living with her easier.”

And there we have it, ladies and gentlemen, the reason why Andrew wants to marry me—because I cook and take care of him. Oh, and because I want to start a family.

Well, not anymore. At least not to him.

“I don’t know, man, you shouldn’t get married if you are not in love with Livia.”

Andrew refills his glass and takes a long sip from it. “I would call the wedding off, but the idea of seeing Livia cry and beg for me fills me with dread. And don’t get me started on the nagging.”

He thinks I’m going to beg? Well, he can’t be more wrong because I might have been a fool to believe that he loves me, but at least I have some dignity.

Andrew keeps talking. “Why do you think I asked you to let me stay at your place this past week? I can’t deal with all her nagging about the wedding right now.”

Not only does he not love me, but he also lied about where he is and went to hide at his friend’s house while leaving me to deal with all the last-minute preparations.

Andrew finishes his drink. “Tomorrow I will go back and pretend that I’m deeply in love with her and that I can’t wait to get married to her.”

By the time he returns home, he won’t find me there.

While I am still in shock, I go look for Silvia and Allie. I don’t allow myself to cry, because if I do, I won’t stop for a long time.

My cousins know right away that something is wrong, and when they ask, I tell them everything.

“Fucking bastard!” Silvia hisses. “I am going to make sure no one will ever find his body.”

“I don’t want you to kill him, only help me move all my stuff tonight.”

Silvia pulls out her phone. “Let me call Sawyer. He and his boys will erase any trace of you from Andrew’s house.”