He Terminated My Lease So I Terminated Our Wedding Chapter 08
In the third week of my new job, a former coworker I’d been friendly with reached out.
There’s something I think you should know.
She told me Owen and Cass had turned on each other.
After getting the lawyer’s letter, Cass had tried to prove she was only an accomplice by sending the entire “Lila Line” chat history—the betting screenshots, the Venmo receipts—to their mutual friends.
She painted Owen as the mastermind, claiming every line I had was crossed at his direction.
Owen bit back, fast.
He said the wedding website video and the lease-termination bet had been Cass’s ideas. He even claimed leaving me on the tidal island was her “cooling-off game.”
The two of them were posting screenshots back and forth in their old group chat, each scrambling to prove the other was more vicious.
The friends who used to egg them on started leaving the chat. Wedding guests stopped answering their calls. Some people publicly told them to never contact them again.
After I finished reading, I replied with just four words.
Thanks for telling me.
Then I silenced my phone and went back to revising the design plans on my desk.
It was the first community redevelopment project I’d been assigned since joining the firm. Its theme was Safety and Openness.
At the center of the original blueprint was an old, enclosed tool shed.
I removed the high walls and the lock and turned it into a row of public mailboxes facing the neighborhood. The canopy was transparent. The entrance was wide. From any direction, you could always see an exit.
Mateo walked past with his coffee and stopped in front of the plans.
“Turning a place that once trapped people into something that connects them.” He looked at me. “That’s a powerful idea.”
Then he paused and asked, “Want help building the model? If you’d rather do it yourself, that’s completely fine, too.”
I was about to answer when my phone lit up again.
My old coworker had sent one last message.
They found your new company’s address from the wedding guest list. I don’t think they’re going to let this go.
I looked at it for two seconds, then turned my phone facedown on the desk.
“Let’s build the model together.”
I took up my pencil and drew the first line of that open entrance.