Chapter 8 — When My Past Became Their Anger

After my ex called my parents, they looked at me and asked,
“What is this? What happened?”
Then they said something I wasn't expecting.
“If you want, we can talk to his parents.”
But I immediately said no.
"I don't want to marry him.”
I had already made up my mind.
I also told my brother the same thing.
"I don't have feelings for him.”
For me, what I felt was never love. I didn't believe love was supposed to begin with lust, pressure, or forcing someone to stay.
And if you truly love someone, why would you force them to be with you when they don't want to?
I kept thinking about that.
But then my past started getting dragged into everything.
My ex had become involved with my Snapchat friend too. He started hearing things about me through him—things about who I was, what I was like, and whatever he was being told.
Then somehow, some of my pictures reached my ex.
Even today, I don't know exactly who found those pictures or who sent them.
But I knew what happened next.
He sent them to my brother.
And along with those pictures came words that hurt even more.
He called me horrible names.
Then he called my father.
And what he said to my father was the moment everything exploded.
"This is how you raised your daughter?”
And then—
“If not me, another. If not him, another. How many people does she need?”
Those words hit my family differently.
They were already dealing with the shock of everything they had just found out.
Now they were hearing someone talk about me like that.
And suddenly, my past wasn't just my past anymore.
It had entered my home.
My mistakes had entered my family.
And every name, every person, every picture, every old decision was suddenly being brought back.
I knew I had made mistakes when I was younger.
I never denied that.
But there was one thing I was completely sure about.
I did not want to marry him.
And no matter how many pictures he sent, how many things he said, or how many people he involved...
he couldn't turn my “no” into a “yes.”
I didn't know it yet, but those words had only started the biggest storm my family and I were about to face.
To be continued… ❤️