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634words2026-01-27 09:12

I'd been secretly dating my mom's wealthy best friend, Vivian Shaw, for five years.
One day, Mom suddenly said to me,
"Later, Vivian's is bringing her secret boyfriend here to meet us. The one she's been hiding for five years."

"What about you? Don't you have a mysterious girlfriend too? Where is she?"
I was instantly speechless. I quickly made an excuse and went to my room to call Vivian.
She hung up on me and sent a text saying she was in a meeting.
The doorbell rang. I opened the door to find Vivian standing there, arm-in-arm with a young man.
The moment Vivian saw me, she froze.
Her smile stiffened as she asked me.

"What are you doing here?"
"He's my son, where else would he be? What a strange question."
Mom blurted out, immediately stepping forward to usher Vivian and her young boyfriend inside.
The whole time, Vivian kept shooting me frantic looks, silently begging me to play along.

Seeing their intimate gestures hurt my feelings, but I forced a smile anyway.
At the dinner table, they chatted and laughed easily.
Vivian openly accepted bites of pasta the guy fed her, never once looking my way.
Suppressing my anger, I maintained my composure, even adding that young man named Leo on Facebook.
Finally, the dinner ended. I cleaned the table hastily and went back to my room.
I grabbed my phone, desperately hoping Vivian would give me a reasonable explanation.
But until night, and her call never came.
I couldn't hold back anymore.
I called her. It rang for ages before she finally picked up.
"Don't you think you owe me an explanation?"
After I spoke, silence stretched on the other end.
Just as my anger was about to boil over, Vivian's voice finally came through, slow and measured.
"Lying to you was my fault. But there's a reason for this. I need you to understand."
"A reason? Then explain it to me!"
I was furious.
But Vivian acted like she hadn't heard.
She didn't say anything.
A deep sense of helplessness washed over me.
She was always like this.
Whenever things got tough, she'd be silent, just waiting for it to pass.
But that only made me angrier.
After an unbearably long silence, Vivian finally spoke.
"I have something to do. I'm hanging up now."
With that, she ended the call.
Listening to the dial tone, I felt like my throat was blocked, struggling to breathe.
For five years, I'd cared for her meticulously, cherished and love her.
Yet I remained a secret lover, hidden from her life.
She never let me into her world; even our dates were always in places where no one knew us.
Maybe it was because of my mom. Maybe other reasons.
As I lost in thought, my phone buzzed.
I picked it up. It was a message from Leo, Vivian's young boyfriend.
He sent me a location pin of a jewelry store.
I was confused when his next message arrived.
"Evan, Vivian asked if you could pick up the custom ring from the store tomorrow."
Leo's words kindled the hope inside me again.
I didn't care about the time, just threw on a jacket and rushed out.
Soon, I was at the jewelry store.
The clerk saw me and quickly handed over a custom ring box.
"You must be Leo. Vivian called ahead, saying to give this to you when you arrived."
"It's top-grade South African diamonds! Each one is seven carats!"
"And here, inside both bands, we engraved Vivian's and your names, just as she requested."
I stood frozen.
Picking up the ring, I examined it closely.
The word 'love' was elegantly engraved on the inner band in a stylized font.
The handwriting was beautiful.
Butit felt like a knife to the heart.