A male teacher whom I was not familiar with patted Ryan on the shoulder.
"Ryan, you can't be soft on this kind of woman, just give her a good beating and she'll behave herself!"
Ryan's eyes stabbed into me like knives.
He raised his hand.
Bang!
A crisp sound.
My face was burning.
He hit me.
Ryan, my boyfriend of two years, slapped me in front of so many people.
Scarlett immediately started acting and pretended to hold Ryan's arm.
"Hey Ryan, why did you hit me? Let's talk it over nicely!"
As she spoke, she leaned close to my ear and whispered smugly in a voice that only the two of us could hear.
"Rose, for Ryan's sake, I'll give you a way out."
"Take out $20,000 now and forget about it."
I didn't have time to digest this blatant blackmail.
Ryan heard it and shook Scarlett's hand away.
He wasn't feeling guilty towards me, he was mad at Scarlett.
"Scarlett! Are you crazy?"
"She embezzled 100,000 from us, and you asked her to pay back 20,000?"
He stared at Scarlett as if he were a traitor.
"Where are you turning your elbow?"
It turned out that he was not angry at me for being "greedy for money", but was angry at Scarlett for extorting too little.
I looked up and met his face filled with greed and rage.
Using all his strength, he slapped him in the face.
Bang!
It was louder and crisper than the time he hit me.
Ryan was stunned, covering his face and looking at me in disbelief.
Everyone in the corridor gasped.
I looked at him, word by word.
“No money.”
"You can't change it even if you slap me again!"
After that slap, Ryan's world and I were completely separated.
My cheek was still aching, but my phone was vibrating wildly in my pocket.
It’s a group chat at summer camp.
I clicked it and a photo popped up.
In the photo, I was discussing the details of the activity with a male camper, and Scarlett captured it from an ambiguous angle.
The caption reads: "Some people manage money during the day and 'manage people' at night. No wonder the accounts don't match."
A group of followers followed closely below.
"Scarlett is right! I was wondering why she always talks to Mike!"
"Tsk tsk, it turns out that all the funds were spent on this."
Ryan also popped up and sent a broken heart emoji.
[Ryan: Rose, I didn't expect you to be this kind of person. ]
Truly the best actor of the year.
I sneered and was about to quit when a new message popped up.