After Sixty-Six Proposals

Liam Thorne chased me for three years. He proposed sixty-six times.

The day I finally said yes, he sank to his knees and wept with joy.

Everyone said I was the jewel he treasured above all else.

Until I saw him holding an umbrella for his pretty underclassman in a downpour.

They were kissing in the rain, lost to the world.

I filmed it all, quietly, and sent it to the entire campus.

Then I deleted my accounts and left the country.

He searched for me like a man possessed, kneeling outside my familys home for three days and three nights.

Forgive me, he begged. I just made a mistake any guy could make.

Later, I returned with a new man on my arm.

He asked me, his eyes red-rimmed, Then why did you accept my engagement ring?

I smiled, twisting the new diamond on my finger.

Oh, that?

I threw it away.

Turns out, my mother was right all along.

1

My mother once told me that for a boy like Liam Thorne, love wasn't about affection. It was about conquest and the thrill of the new. For a family like ours, for a girl with a face like mine, I was nothing more than a respectable, easily controlled stepping stone.

The story of Ava Reed and Liam Thorne was the stuff of campus legend at Kings University.

He was a Thorne heir, born with a silver spoon so firmly in his mouth it was a wonder he could speak. He was campus royalty, worshiped and feared, a reckless star no one dared to cross.

I was Ava Reed. From an ordinary family, with little to my name besides a decent face and a permanent spot at the top of the Deans List.

He pursued me with the subtlety of a flash flood. It was a campus-wide spectacle.

Breakfast delivered to my door every morning, seats saved for me in crowded lecture halls, gifts piling up in my dorm room until it looked like a high-end department store.

Every time I rejected him, he came back twice as hard the next day.

Come on, Ava. Just say yes, hed plead, blocking my path after class with that infuriating, wolfish grin.

Three years. Over a thousand days.

He got into fights for me. He pulled all-nighters to catch up on the coursework hed blown off, just to impress me. For my birthday, he hijacked the campus bell towers digital display to scroll Ava Reed, Marry Me in glittering lights.

Sixty-six proposals in total.

For the sixty-sixth, he knelt by the fountain in Centennial Plaza, drenched to the bone, clutching a diamond ring custom-made by a Parisian master. His eyes were as red as a rabbits.

Ava, he choked out. Ill die without you.

The crowd around us was a roaring sea of voices. Say yes! Say yes!

In that moment, the plaza lights shattered in his eyes, reflecting a galaxy of desperation.

Maybe, I thought, this is what love looks like.

I finally nodded.

He spun me around, laughing and crying like a child, asking again and again, You really said yes? Ava, youre going to be my wife!

He was genuinely happy then.

And he truly did, for a time, treasure me above all else.

Which is why, when our mutual friends saw the post I dropped on my private Instagram storythe high-definition video, filmed from a damningly perfect angle that captured every raindrop clinging to Liams eyelashes as he kissed her, followed by a series of crystal-clear screenshotsour entire world exploded.

2

It took less than a minute.

My phone began to vibrate like a disturbed hornets nest, threatening to leap from my hand. The screen vanished under a tidal wave of notifications.

HOLY SHIT, AVA! IS THIS REAL?! Is Liam insane?! I thought he was obsessed with you!

Ava, where are you? Pick up the phone! I need the tea, NOW!

I always knew there was something weird with him and that Sienna girl. At every party, his eyes were glued to her!

Ava, are you okay? Dont cry over a scumbag like him!

LMAO, Liam Thorne is FINISHED! This is gonna be the Kings University story of the year!

The messages flooded in. An avalanche. The digital equivalent of sharks smelling blood in the water.

I could picture them on the other end of the screenshocked, gossiping, reveling in the drama, or draping themselves in flimsy cloaks of feigned sympathy.

What a spectacle.

The sincerity of their past congratulations now felt like a prelude to the biting mockery and pity of the present.

I didnt reply to a single one.

I just opened my contacts, found Liams name, and blocked him.

WhatsApp. Blocked.

Every social media connection we shared, severed with a single tap.

Then, I began to cleanse the space that had been built on lies.

My photo gallery held thousands of pictures of us, from awkward beginnings to intimate moments. Delete all.

Our chat history, filled with the goodnights and sweet nothings that once made my heart race. Clear.

Every trace of him on my social media profiles. Erase.

It felt like excising a tumor, one digital snapshot at a time. Cool, precise, surgical.

Outside, the sky began to pale. The nights rain had stopped, leaving the air with a clean, crisp, and utterly false scent of renewal.

I zipped up my last suitcase and took one final look around the apartment, a place that had once been the backdrop for so many of my hopes and dreams.

Everything in itthe furniture, the decor, even the lingering scent of his signature cedarwood colognewas suffocating me.

The phone was still buzzing relentlessly. A new, unknown number flashed on the screen.

I knew who it was without having to guess.

I powered the phone down, popped out the SIM card, snapped it in two, and dropped it into the trash.

My eyes fell on the gaudy diamond ring sitting on the table. It felt cold to the touch. I picked it up, weighed it in my palm for a second, then tossed it into a box of scrap paper.

Then, I dragged my suitcases to the door, opened it, and walked out.

I didnt look back.

The elevator descended, the numbers dropping away. On the ground floor, the lobby TV was playing the morning news. The anchors polished voice was a world away from the silent chaos in my head.

At the airport, I made my way to the international departures terminal. I handed my passport and boarding pass to the customs officer.

Maam, are you traveling to Berlin for tourism or

Im moving there.

He stamped my passport. I was through.

As I walked down the jet bridge, the city I had lived in for over twenty yearsand the man I thought I would spend my life withreceded behind me.

The plane ascended, and a familiar sense of weightlessness pressed down on me. I stared out the window at the city shrinking below, a miniature model in a life that was no longer mine.

The storm-ravaged landscape of my heart had, strangely, fallen silent.

You see, Liam.

What you treasured, another could throw away like trash.

And me? I no longer wanted it.

3

Life in Berlin felt like it was on fast-forward, set to an entirely different rhythm.

I rented an apartment with a small balcony that caught the sun until three in the afternoon. My days were a blur of German language classes, prep courses for my master's program, and navigating a foreign citys streets and transit systems. I filled every waking moment, leaving no room for memories to seep in.

Occasionally, during sleepless nights, Id open a secondary, almost-abandoned social media account known only to a handful of my closest friends back home. I had blocked everyone connected to Liam.

But ghosts from the past still flickered across my feed.

The social circle we once shared, a pot of hot oil that had been doused with cold water, was now sizzling more violently than ever in my absence.

At first, it was an overwhelming chorus of support for me and condemnation for Liam.

Where the hell did Ava go? Liam, you bastard, you drove her away!

Sienna is such a snake. I always knew she was trouble, with that pathetic damsel-in-distress act!

Liam Thorne is officially the biggest disgrace on campus!

Then, the tide began to subtly turn.

About two weeks after I vanished, a new post appeared, written by a girl from one of my classes who thrived on stirring up drama.

Unpopular opinion, but wasnt Ava a little too harsh? Didnt even give him a chance to explain, just nuked his reputation with a video and then skipped off to Europe to live her best life? Yeah, Liam screwed up, but its not like he killed someone. Hes been a complete wreck, looks like he hasn't eaten in days.

A few comments below echoed her sentiment.

Yeah, relationships are complicated. Maybe it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing.

The Thornes are a powerful family. Liams never been humiliated like this. I almost feel bad for him.

I scrolled, my fingertips cold against the screen, a bitter laugh caught in my throat.

There it was. The fickle nature of public opinion, the instinct to side with power and punch down.

The same people who had put me on a pedestal were now eager to find a new angle, to showcase their own rational and unbiased perspective.

A few days later, Liam seemed to have recovered from the initial shock and chaos. He began his counter-offensive.

First, he used his familys influence to scrub the video and photos from the Kings University online forum and most social media platforms.

Then, he made an appearance at a mutual friends birthday party.

Someone snapped a candid photo of him in profile: sitting in a shadowy corner, a drink in his hand, his expression dark, his jaw clenched.

The caption read: Liam Thorne is not in the mood. Approach with caution.

A brave soul commented below: Still thinking about Ava?

He, who rarely engaged, replied personally. Three words.

She lied to me.

Even through the screen, I could feel the venom, the raw, wounded fury of a man betrayed.

I lied to him?

I lied through three years of his pursuit, through sixty-six proposals, through his grand declarations of love?

What a fucking joke.

4

A month later, Sienna started appearing by his side.

Or rather, she started appearing in photos, strategically placed by his side.

At a charity gala, she wore a revealing evening gown, her arm looped possessively through his, a practiced smile on her face.

At the polo club, he was pictured teaching her how to ride, his arms wrapped around her from behind in an intimate embrace.

Someone even photographed them entering his downtown penthouse together late at night.

The gossip blogs ran wild with sensational headlines: Liam Thorne Heals Broken Heart with Underclassman Rebound? Ex-Fiance Ava Reed is Yesterdays News!

The comments section was a battlefield.

Of course. A man cant stand to be alone for five minutes.

This Sienna girl knows how to play the game way better than Ava. Look how she dotes on him.

Family status matters. Ava was never going to fit into the Thorne family anyway.

Ill bet a hundred bucks this one doesnt last either.

I stared at the photosat Liams blank, emotionless profile and Siennas triumphant smirk that practically screamed from the screen.

The dead lake of my heart couldnt even be bothered to produce a single ripple.

It was all just noise.

The incessant, irritating buzz of flies.

I closed the browser, shut my laptop, and picked up my German textbook.

I had a three-thousand-word essay to write and a presentation to prepare for next week.

I was busy.

Too busy to care about the cheap drama unfolding an ocean away.

5

The call came on a new number, an international one.

It was Liams best friend, Ethan. His voice on the other end was heavy with exhaustion and anxiety.

Ava I finally found you. Are you are you doing okay?

Im fine, I said, my voice flat.

Listen Liam hes He paused, searching for the right words. Hes in a bad place. Hes drinking every day, and when hes drunk, all he does is say your name. Hes ignoring his work at the company, his family is freaking out

Oh, I cut him off. And how is that my problem?

Ethan was taken aback. His tone shifted to one of pleading. Ava, I know he was an asshole. I know what he did was unforgivable. But you two were together for three years. He knows he was wrong. Cant you just give him a chance? Even just to meet, to talk things through?

I looked out my window at the gray-blue Berlin sky, where a few pigeons were landing on my balcony railing.

Ethan, I said slowly. Do me a favor and give him a message for me.

What is it?

Tell him to stay the hell away from me.

I hung up and blocked the number.

The world was quiet again.

6

I thought the drama would eventually fade with time and distance.

Then, one weekend, I was coming home from the library and saw a figure at the entrance to my apartment building. A ghost who had no business being there.

Liam.

He was leaning against the wall, wearing a wrinkled trench coat that was completely wrong for the weather. A few cigarette butts lay scattered at his feet. His hair was a mess, his eyes were sunken, and a dark stubble shadowed his jaw. He was so haggard and broken, he looked like a different person.

His eyes lit up the moment he saw me, like a dying man spotting a lifeline. He stumbled forward, reaching for my arm.

Ava!

I took a step back, avoiding his touch, my gaze calm and steady.

His hand froze in mid-air. The hope on his face shattered, replaced by a raw, painful vulnerability.

Ava I I finally found you His voice was a harsh rasp, thick with emotion. Im sorry. I know I was wrong, I really, really know Forgive me. Please, just forgive me this one time, okay?

I said nothing.

He seemed to take my silence as encouragement, or perhaps it pushed him further into desperation. He continued, his words tumbling out in a frantic rush. I was an asshole! Im not human! I was drunk that day I wasn't thinking straight! The only one I love is you, Ava. Its only ever been you!

He tried to step closer, but my icy stare pinned him in place.

Ava, dont be like this Look at me. Please, just look at me, he begged. Hit me, scream at me, do whatever you want! Just dont ignore me I cant live without you

Are you done? I finally spoke, my voice devoid of any warmth.

He froze.

If youre done, you can leave.

The color drained from his face, as if Id siphoned the life right out of him. His lips trembled, and after a long moment, he managed to force out the words. Ava I just I just made a mistake any guy could make

I almost laughed out loud.

The classic, shameless excuse.

So? I raised an eyebrow. Am I supposed to applaud you for this universal male achievement?

No thats not what I meant he stammered, shaking his head, a look of profound, desperate confusion in his eyes. Ava, you were never like this You were always so kind, so forgiving Why have you become so so cold?

Yes, I used to be kind. I used to be forgiving.

Thats why I let him fool me for three years, like an idiot. Believing his sweet words while he was off kissing another woman in the rain.

Liam, I said, looking straight at him, my voice clear and sharp. Your love is filthy.

And it disgusts me.

He recoiled as if struck by lightning, stumbling back a step, his body swaying. His eyes were wide with utter disbelief and a crushing despair.

No thats not true he muttered, then his head snapped up, his gaze turning wild as he clung to one last thread of hope. Then why did you accept my ring?! You said yes to my proposal! Ava! You loved me, you know you did!

Ah, yes.

The ring.

The one I had casually tossed into a box of trash.

I looked at his bloodshot, obsessive eyes and suddenly felt an immense wave of exhaustion, followed by a sharp, satisfying clarity.

I slowly raised my hand. In the pale afternoon light, my fingers were long and bare.

I met his gaze, and a faint, cold smile touched my lips.

Oh, that?

I paused, watching his pupils constrict in anticipation, and then I let the two words fall between us, soft and final.

I threw it away.

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