The Girl I Fed For Five Years Stole My Fiancé Chapter 02
Five Years of Charity, One Knife in My Back
Mia peeks up from Kane’s chest, voice small and quivering.
“Ronnie, don’t be mad at Kane.”
“It’s all my fault. I couldn’t help falling for him.”
The sheer nerve knocks a laugh out of me. My hand flies up—I’m about to slap her clean across that fake little face.
Kane grabs my wrist mid-air.
“Are you done making a scene, Ronnie?”
“I already told you—you can still be Mrs. Griffin. What more do you want?”
“You really wanna make this ugly in public?”
Looking at their smug, twisted faces, I feel bile crawl up my throat.
I turn to walk out—and my phone explodes in my purse.
The hospital.
I yank my wrist free and hit answer.
The nurse’s voice, panicked, high-pitched.
“Is this Rose Sanders’s granddaughter?”
“She just had a stroke. She’s in the ER right now.”
“It’s critical. Get to Central City Hospital now and sign the consent forms!”
My brain goes white noise. All the blood in my body slams into reverse.
Grandma. Grandma’s healthy. She walks two miles every morning. How—
I stammer into the phone, “What… what happened?”
The nurse sighs, tired.
“She was scrolling on her phone. Just collapsed.”
“Screen was still lit up. Looked like Instagram. Some vacation post.”
Instagram.
I’m shaking so hard I almost drop the phone. And that’s when Mia gasps behind Kane—a perfect, theatrical little gasp.
“Oh no, Grandma? How could—”
“Kane, it’s my fault… While we were waiting, I posted our Maldives photos. A whole photo dump. With a caption…”
“I swear I hid it from Ronnie’s family. I must’ve… I must’ve missed Grandma by accident.”
I get it. Instantly.
She “accidentally” left Grandma as the only person in my family who could see it.
Grandma who adored Kane. Grandma who’s been counting down the days to this wedding. Grandma who just watched her precious grandson-in-law grinning on a beach with another woman.
I stare at both of them. Every word drips ice.
“If my grandmother dies, I will bury both of you.”
Kane’s stunned for a split second. I shove past him and bolt out of the courthouse.
The second I collapse into the back of a cab, the armor cracks.
I press both hands against my face. The sobs come out anyway. Ugly, choking, uncontainable.
Grandma is the only family I have left in this world.
Mom and Dad died when I was a kid. Grandma raised me picking cans out of dumpsters.
When Kane’s company was going under in year one, it was Grandma who emptied her savings account to save him.
And now the man she loved like her own grandson has put her in an ER bed.
The cab jerks to a stop outside Central City Hospital.