A Real Life Love Triangle (Flash Fiction Part 3)

Image by Erik Karits from Pixabay

Flash Fiction #162

This is the 3rd and last part of the story. The 1st part is here and the 2nd part is here.

“I’ve never seen a scoundrel like Adu. Can you believe what he did? Weni’s family is furious and her old relative was sent to the hospital due to heart conditions just because of this. Adu could have killed the old man, who had been so kind to Weni and Adu. Considering how much money Weni’s family has wasted. The wedding has to be called off, all the gifts have to be returned, and the house they bought. Everything. Not only the financial loss, but the emotional trauma. Worst of all, they lost their face. Such a big embarrassment. How can they recover from such a big insult to their reputation?” Jay stopped me and my friend when we were shopping at a local grocery store to talk to us.

Jay was a friendly busy body in the community. He was very active in different activities, but he had not talked with women much. Actually although we knew each other for a year or two, we had never talked with each other. I guess Adu’s misfortune somehow made his shyness go away and opened the flood gate of conversation for him. He continued his tirade against Adu for several minutes before my friend Juya, whom I was shopping with, could finally insert her comment. Juya agreed with Jay and encouraged him to go on. However I didn’t say a word. I just stood there, like a grey rock, and didn’t respond–growing up under two narcissistic parents, I had grown to be a “grey rock expert”. Somehow Jay sensed my silent disagreement with him. He didn’t linger to talk more and took his leave soon.

“I hope everybody will be OK. I mean I don’t want anybody to get hurt. I guess Adu had his own torment and his own untold reasons. You know I don’t believe Adu is so bad a person. He looks like a good guy to me, but I hope he didn’t do this.” Juya said to me after Jay left.

“Oh, Juya, I hope so too. But… I totally disagree with Jay. I think Weni’s relative and her parents are to be blamed for such a debacle. They created this tragedy in the first place, and they are shameless to claim that they are the victims of Adu’s wickedness. They had the power and money to influence young people’s life, and they caused this fiasco by their inflexible attitude and their adherence to traditional values.” I said.

“I agree. Nowadays, we live together before weddings, don’t we? I mean how could they ask Adu and Weni not live together for a year? I mean they are quite idiotic, aren’t they?” Juya said.

“They are and it is amazing that they made bad decisions, they botched the whole thing, and now they are the victims, who demand all our sympathy. When can we ever criticize them? Never. They are always right. Even if when they are wrong, they are still right.” I said.

“You are as excited as Jay. Calm down.” Juya said to me.

“I can’t calm down when there are people like Jay who’s spreading misleading information out there. Adu is not really the best virtuous guy, but still blaming him as a scoundrel really doesn’t help the whole situation. Actually Jay is just as guilty as Adu, don’t you think? If Adu is a scondrel, Jay is not too far behind.” I said.

“Are you serious? What did Jay do?” Juya asked.

“I want to ask what Jay didn’t do. He knows Adu has been dating two women all along. He knows everybody. Why didn’t he tell Weni about it? Why didn’t he do something to stop this before it happened? He is a culprit, don’t you think?” I said.

“We are all culprits since none of us went to Weni to warn her. Weni is too arrogant to be friend with us and nobody likes her. You know Jay told me that he was with Weni and her family when Adu called to cancel the wedding. He took care of Weni who was quite shaken by the news.” Juya said.

“So Adu didn’t have the courage to face his fiancee and her family?” I asked.

“He called first to break the news. When he arrived, the whole family had already went to the hospital due to the old relative’s heart condition. That’s what Jay told me.” Juya said.

And community is such a whimsical being, and reputation is such a caprice. Adu was an enviable golden boy before the wedding day; he was a scoundrel right after it. Suddenly, people started to talk about all his “evil” traits, which due to his deceptive ways had escaped people’s notice. “He was a gold digger.” People would say. Weni’s family is not really rich, but by the standard of poor immigrants, it is a pot of gold worthy of diligent digging. “He didn’t take shower every day.” “He’s practically a villager who’s not modernized yet.” “He flirts too much.” “He never joins a group of men for activities. He likes to be with women.” “He ate a lot when we went to a conference that offered free luncheon.” “He broke three hearts before he came here.”

And little did I know at the time that I was the last victim of Adu’s wedding disaster. Jay started to chase after Weni, but was sadly rejected. Jay came to Juya to lick his wound and seek comfort. The next thing I knew, Jay and Juya got married. Needless to say, a sweet girl like Juya would tell everything to her love. “You know Haoyan said you are as guilty as Adu that you are practically his accomplice.” I can imagine Juya saying this to Jay.

I should have kept my mouth shut. Do I ever learn?

(The End)