Hiding Me in the Name of Love Chapter 08
The next morning, I made a post on my social media.
For the first time in seven years, I typed out Jared’s full name. I didn’t complain or insult him. I simply laid out the timeline with cold, surgical precision.
I shared about his confession in college, our seven-year relationship, and ùs living together. I also talked about our joint bank account, him meeting my parents, and his promise to marry me.
I also told them that he had started dating Yvette three years ago and made their relationship public on social media.
He had introduced her to his friends and mother, and flaunted her to everyone while telling me he was “away on business” or “waiting for the right time”.
Finally, I attached the video from that night at the hotel. In it, Jared said, “I’ll marry you, but I’ll have a wedding with her too.”
After hitting upload, I turned off my phone and went grocery shopping with Mom. She held my hand the whole way, just like she did when I was little, and she was terrified I would get lost in a crowd.
She didn’t ask a thing. When we walked past a shop selling warm cinnamon rolls, she bought one and pressed it into my hands.
“When you were little, this always made you feel better when you were upset,” Mom said.
I pulled off a piece, the warmth seeping into my fingertips. As the sweetness spread across my tongue, my eyes suddenly welled up with tears.
It was a quiet, sudden realization. When you were truly loved, you didn’t have to keep proving that you were worthy of it.
When I got home at noon, I turned my phone back on.
Messages flooded in all at once.
Jared’s friends finally lost their aggressive arrogance. Some apologized, swearing they had genuinely believed Yvette was his actual girlfriend. Others awkwardly explained they hadn’t meant to target me at the hotel that night and had just been misled by Jared’s lies. The cowards who had left mocking comments on my old posts deleted them entirely, pretending they had never spoken at all.
Even Yvette sent a massive wall of text. She claimed she had been told that Jared and I had broken up years ago. When she saw the evidence I posted, she completely broke down.
She even told me she was sorry.
I stared at her message for a long time.
I knew she wasn’t entirely innocent. After all, how could there be absolutely no signs at all over the course of three whole years?
But none of it mattered anymore. I didn’t want to waste any more energy deciding who deserved pity or who deserved to be hated.
I just wanted to walk away from this farce of a relationship.
That afternoon, Jared’s mother called me. It was the first time in seven years that she had ever reached out to me.
When I answered, her tone was awkward and stiff. “You’re Tasha Wagner, right? I honestly didn’t know you existed before this.
“Jared made a mistake, but the two of you have been together for many years. It really isn’t good for anyone to air this kind of dirty laundry in public.”
I asked quietly, “You want me to delete the post?”
She let out a heavy, put-upon sigh. “You’re a young woman, and your reputation matters too. What do you honestly stand to gain from making this an even bigger scandal?”
Listening to her, I suddenly understood why Jared was capable of lying so seamlessly. Some people truly never believed that hurting others was wrong; they only believed that getting caught was unfair.
“Mrs. Jackman, my reputation is exactly why I posted it. I need the world to know that I wasn’t the mistress who came between your son and his girlfriend.”
She fell silent.
Soon, Jared snatched the phone from her.
“Tasha, are you satisfied now? Yvette broke up with me, and my mom’s blood pressure skyrocketed from the stress. My business partners are all calling to demand explanations!”
His voice was filled with a mix of restrained anger and profound embarrassment.
Before today, he had always been the one entirely in control. Even when I caught him red-handed, he could still brush it off with a simple, “You understand, right?”
But this time, he was finally desperate.
I asked, “Wasn’t this what you wanted? To make it public?”
His breath caught sharply.
I continued, “You said loving someone means you can’t help but show them off to the whole world. Well, now everyone knows.”
The only sound on the other end was his heavy, ragged breathing.
After a long pause, his voice cracked, dropping into a hoarse whisper, “Tasha, I really did love you.”
I closed my eyes.
If he had said those words three years ago, or even a day earlier, they would have completely brought me to my knees. But it was too late. The woman who had spent seven years desperately waiting to hear those words was gone.
“I really did love you too. So let’s end it here.”
