He Terminated My Lease So I Terminated Our Wedding Chapter 15
Half an hour before the groundbreaking ceremony, Owen appeared at the construction site entrance.
He had changed into a clean coat, his hair neatly combed. If I hadn’t seen him in the snow the night before, it would have been hard to believe he’d spent years talking to an empty chair in a café.
Cass stood behind him, holding up her phone.
The camera was pointed straight at me.
“Lila’s finally willing to come out,” she said, her voice breaking as she read comments from the screen. “We just want people to hear the other side of the story.”
Several reporters immediately swarmed them.
Owen didn’t kneel this time. He didn’t pull out a ring. He held the island photo to his chest, his voice eerily calm.
“Three years ago, she voluntarily agreed to a pre-wedding reflection retreat. We told her we’d be back, but instead she broke into a tool shed, called the Coast Guard, and turned a lovers’ quarrel into attempted murder.”
The crowd around him grew quiet.
“After that, she packaged the experience into a design concept, won awards, started a firm, and now she’s using the same story to win public projects.” He looked directly at me. “I just want to ask if she told any of you that she has been exploiting your sympathy all along.”
The project director hurried to my side.
“Ms. Hart, the donor committee has asked us to suspend the ceremony. We need to verify this first.”
The backdrop behind us displayed the rendering of the community center.
A transparent entrance. An open courtyard. Exits visible from every room.
Three years of work, put on hold by a few sentences from Owen.
Mateo asked quietly, “Do you want me to have them removed?”
I shook my head.
“Keep the livestream running.”
Cass’s phone wobbled.
I walked to the equipment table and connected the files I had given my lawyer the night before to the projection system.
The first image that filled the screen was the social media post Cass had deleted three years ago.
Someone had a pre-wedding panic spiral, so we had to give her a little “desert island therapy” to calm her down lol.
Owen’s like was still visible beneath it.
A low murmur went through the crowd.
Cass immediately swung her camera away.
“That was just something I said when I was angry.”
“Don’t turn it off.” I looked at her. “Didn’t you want everyone to hear the other side of the story?”
The second image was the final bet from “Lila Line.”
$1,000 says she calls to apologize before the tide comes in.
I bet she doesn’t last two hours.
The names beneath the messages were unmistakable.
Owen lunged toward the equipment table, his hand raised to yank the cord.
Security blocked him.
From behind the guard’s outstretched arm, he shouted, “Screenshots can be taken out of context! No one wanted to hurt her that day!”
I didn’t argue. I just put the hospital diagnosis, the police property receipt, and the Coast Guard rescue report up on the screen, one by one.
Every document was from the file I had given my lawyer three years ago.
The last one I displayed was the transcript of Owen’s own voicemail.
I was wrong. I shouldn’t have left you there alone.
The color drained from his face.
Cass burst into tears.
“I didn’t rent the boat! Owen arranged it! He said if we scared her once, she’d never dare talk about canceling the wedding again!”
Owen whipped around.
“You were the one who shoved her onto the boat!”
“You stole her phone!”
“You tore off her coat!”
They stood there in front of the cameras, fighting to pin each step of that day on the other.
The livestream comments were moving too fast to read.
I didn’t put up another slide.
I didn’t need to.
They were finally saying everything for me.