One Day My Boyfriend Said He Didn’t Know Me Chapter 06
The video cut to the second segment.
The lights in the City Art Center shifted away from Sophie’s display wall and illuminated the images I had captured.
Sophie sat on the living room carpet, flipping through my photography portfolio.
“Her stuff is actually really useful. The hospital sequence is solid, but I still need a breaking point.”
Ryan sighed.
“If we have to, we push her a little harder.”
Sophie hesitated. “What if we push too hard and she actually breaks up with you?”
Ryan’s voice was confident.
“She’s shy and has no friends. You’re the only one. I’m her first love. And your parents adore you.”
“If she left us, what would she even have?”
Sophie relaxed.
Ryan smiled again, as if savoring something.
“Besides, she gave me her first time. Even if she finds someone else down the line, who’s going to treat her as well as I do?”
On the screen, he reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind Sophie’s ear.
Sophie leaned into his shoulder.
“Then when you propose, make sure you pull out every emotional stop you can.”
“Done.” Ryan said. “I’ll do it on my knees. She can never resist when I kneel.”
The room went dead silent.
Then someone swore out loud.
“What kind of garbage man uses his own girlfriend as a prop?”
“And that woman—teaming up with the girl’s own parents to torment her? That’s disgusting.”
Sophie panicked.
“Ryan, say something! Tell them I’m not like that.”
Ryan’s face was the color of ash.
“The evidence is right there. What is there to say?”
He looked at me, then at Sophie, and finally let out a long, heavy sigh.
“Seeing it from the outside like this… I guess we really did wrong by her.”
Sophie completely lost it.
“You agreed to all of it!”
Her eyes were brimming, on the verge of tears.
“You said as long as I could win, you’d do anything.”
Even the seasoned host looked uncomfortable, clutching the microphone with nothing to say.
At the judges’ table, someone was already cross-referencing Sophie’s submitted project description.
The written timeline matched perfectly—every phase of filming laid out in black and white.
I stood beneath the screen and pointed to the final photo.
In the image, a hospital corridor. I sat on a bench.
Ryan stood a few paces away.
Sophie held up her camera, flashing him a hand signal.
Below the photo, one line of text:
“When the person who is loved begins to doubt herself, the bystanders blame her first.”
The image froze.
Sophie’s face was washed pale by the giant screen.
I raised the microphone, and my voice carried through the entire hall.
“Sophie Lane, your piece is called ‘Truth.'”
She covered her ears, her voice pleading.
“Emma, you can’t do this.”
I smiled and continued.
“But every photo you took was real. Only the title was a lie.”
Then I turned to Ryan.
He stood below the stage, still holding that ring.
I said, “Ryan Carter. We’re done.”
The applause died completely.
Someone aimed a phone at him.
Others turned their cameras on Sophie.
Ryan forgot everything else and rushed toward me.
“Emma, calm down. Let me explain.”
I was calm.
But I didn’t want to hear it.
From the edge of the stage, I gave him a small shake of my head.
His mouth opened, but no words came out.
From the moment he’d walked in until now, this was the first time he couldn’t immediately find the words to defend Sophie.
I handed the microphone back to the host.
“All entries have now been presented.”
After a brief deliberation at the judges’ table, the head judge stood.
“Miss Miller, please leave us your original files and production records.”
Sophie lunged at me.
“Emma!”
She looked up, every trace of self-pity stripped from her face.
“Why do you have to destroy me?”
“Who destroyed whom?”
I looked at her.
“If you didn’t want to be filmed or recorded, you could have talked to me first.”
I nearly laughed.
Even now, she couldn’t see that she’d done anything wrong.
She stared at me and switched to playing the victim.
“Emma, I just wanted to win once.”
“You’re so smart. You’ve always been smart. Top of the class every time, first place in everything.”
“I wanted to be first just once. Is that a crime?”
Before I could open my mouth, the audience was already jeering.
“If you want first place, earn it yourself. Sabotaging someone else—what kind of person does that?”
“And here we thought she was some brilliant newcomer. Turns out she’s just a fraud.”
The judges’ expressions soured.
The way they looked at Sophie shifted to open contempt.
The same way that psychiatrist had once looked at me.
Ryan was silent for a long time. Then he reached his hand toward me.
“Emma, I owe you an apology for everything before. All the details—I’ll explain everything when we get back.”
I laughed coldly.
“Are you deaf? I just said we’re done.”
The results of the photography competition were announced on the spot.
My piece, Humanity, took first place.
Sophie stared at the rankings and glared at me with venom in her eyes.
“Emma, you think you’ve won?”
“Even if I can’t win, don’t think for a second that you will either.”
I ignored her.
I took my trophy and walked straight out.
Ever since the day Buddy went missing, I’d moved out of the house and rented a small apartment on my own.
Back at the apartment, I set the trophy on the shelf and was suddenly struck by the irony.
Photography had once given me a friend.
Now photography had cost me one.
Round and round it went, and in the end, only photography stayed by my side.
Just as Sophie had predicted, Mom called soon after.
The moment the line connected, her voice was already thick with tears.
“Emma, for your mother’s sake, please stop making trouble, okay?”
“Sophie put so much into this competition. Can’t you just let her have this one?”
She put so much into it?
Wasn’t I the one who’d given up everything?
My parents. My fiancé. Buddy.
If I hadn’t overheard the truth by accident, I’d probably be doing exactly what they’d planned right now—gratefully accepting Ryan’s proposal with tears of joy.
I asked, “In what capacity are you making this demand?”
Since we were past pretenses, I might as well say it plainly.
“If you’re my mother, what gives you the right to ask your own daughter to step aside for someone else?”
“If you’re Sophie’s Aunt Claire, then you should be over there comforting Sophie right now, not calling to make demands of me.”
The sobbing on the other end stopped.
Then Mom’s voice came through, seething with rage.
“What is wrong with you? How can you be so cruel!”
I let out a cold laugh and hung up.