Exposing Her Affair At Our Engagement Dinner

My sister-in-law lied about my abortion. I exposed her affair. The first time our families met. I was exchanging pleasantries with Ryan’s parents across the dinner table when my future sister-in-law, Sherry, suddenly had a “realization.” “Jolie, you look so familiar! Wait, I remember you—I think I was the one who performed your D&C!” She clapped a hand over her mouth in mock surprise, but the words were already out. The dinner table exploded. Ryan’s parents, who had been all smiles and warmth moments ago, started whispering and pointing: “These young people, they sure live life on the edge, huh…” “No wonder they were in such a hurry to meet the families; it all makes sense now…” My parents were mortified and humiliated. Ryan turned to me, his eyes blazing with fury. I slowly set down my forks, adjusted my posture, and calmly said: “It’s perfectly normal that I look familiar, Sherry. After all, I manage the surveillance and security logs at The Azure Towers. I see you entering Unit 602 in Building Six nearly every day.” 1 It was the first time both families were meeting. To make the event feel suitably grand and to avoid any awkward silence, my parents brought my outgoing Aunt Carol and my chatty cousin, Lisa, for support. Ryan Walker’s family, however, showed up in force: his parents, his grandparents, his older brother Brad and his wife Sherry, plus a horde of aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had to squeeze four extra chairs into the private dining room just to fit everyone. The food was served, and the first round of wine had been poured. I worked hard to keep the conversation flowing, talking with Ryan’s mother, a nervous smile plastered on my face. Ryan sat beside me, occasionally placing a piece of food on my plate, trying to signal support. The atmosphere was strained, but we were keeping it stable. Then, Ryan’s Aunt Barbara shifted the topic to me: “Jolie is so pretty and she dresses beautifully! You have to teach my daughter a few things. She can’t find a decent boyfriend; she’s always so frumpy!” Aunt Carol quickly jumped in: “Ryan is handsome and his job is fantastic. They really are a match made in heaven.” The relatives on both sides exchanged the usual flowery pleasantries. I was about to offer a polite reply when Sherry, sitting directly across from me, locked her gaze on me. “Jolie, even though this is our first time meeting, I feel like I know you from somewhere!” I offered a polite, noncommittal smile. “Maybe I just have one of those faces.” Sherry shook her head, her eyes scanning my features. Suddenly, she gasped, raising her voice as if struck by a lightning-bolt realization: “Ah, I remember now! I think I was the one who performed your D&C!” The moment the words left her mouth, the air around the table froze solid. Sherry feigned shock, placing a frantic hand over her mouth. “Oh, my gosh, my big mouth… I really shouldn’t have said that in front of everyone…” She was all panicked fluster, a picture of a woman who had “accidentally let a secret slip.” I was completely blindsided, unable to process that Sherry would fabricate such a vicious lie in public. I instinctively snapped back, “What in the world are you talking about?” She immediately adopted a look of extreme victimhood. “Oh, I am so sorry, Jolie. I just have a loose tongue! I didn’t mean to… It was a total mistake, I swear!” But the damage was done. The lie was airborne. Ryan’s mother’s smile vanished instantly. His father frowned deeply. Aunt Barbara, who had just been praising me, narrowed her eyes and looked away. A ripple of hushed whispers spread through the Walker relatives: “These young women, relying on their looks, they’re so reckless…” “No wonder she rushed the introductions; there was a reason for it.” “Tsk, tsk, she looks so quiet and refined. Who would have thought?” My parents’ faces were beet red, but they stammered, unable to string together a single sentence to defend their daughter’s honor. Ryan’s Aunt Barbara completely turned on me. “I take back everything I said. My kids absolutely cannot associate with this kind of person!” Only my Aunt Carol and cousin Lisa were furious enough to hit the table. “Jolie is not that kind of person! If you keep spouting nonsense, don’t blame us for getting ugly!” And Ryan? He spun toward me, his eyes full of shock and churning rage. “Jolie, is what Sherry said true? You’ve been hiding something from me—” “No!” I cut him off, my voice sharp and decisive. “I have never had that procedure.” But once the seed of doubt is planted, it grows with frantic speed. Ryan’s mother spoke coldly. “This kind of thing… there’s usually a fire where there’s smoke.” 2 I stared at the culprit, a tight, suffocating knot of anger in my chest. This was the first time I had ever met her. I had no quarrel with Sherry, yet she was inventing this malicious rumor out of thin air. I forced myself to keep my voice low. “Sherry, you can’t just spread lies. Slander is illegal!” Being called out seemed to make Sherry more tearful. Her eyes reddened. “Jolie, I truly didn’t mean to… I’m just a straightforward person. I say what I think; I don’t deal in veiled threats.” Her defense was a deliberate deflection, sharp as a needle. She could have easily cleared it up, but she chose to dance around the point, implying so much without confirming anything. I couldn’t figure out why she was targeting me. Still, for Ryan’s sake, I tried to keep my temper in check. “Sherry, you must have the wrong person. It wasn’t me. It couldn’t have been me.” I was offering her a clear path to retreat gracefully, but she interpreted it as me pressuring her. She immediately choked up. “Jolie, please don’t be so aggressive… I just thought you looked similar, I mentioned it off-hand. How can you accuse me of slander?” Sherry just kept repeating the same few phrases, subtly suggesting I had done something shameful and was now too cowardly to admit it. I finally reached my limit and hissed, “Sherry, we have no history. Why do you feel the need to attack me like this?” With that outburst, Sherry’s tears began to flow in earnest. She started sobbing and shrinking behind Ryan’s older brother, Brad, looking like a woman suffering the deepest injustice. But she didn’t forget to add: “Please don’t misunderstand. I wasn’t attacking Jolie… Ryan, please don’t let us fight because of me.” Brad immediately wrapped his arm around her, his tone hostile. “Sherry had a slip of the tongue. But Jolie, don’t you think your reaction is a little extreme?” Ryan, his face contorted, actually shouted at me: “Jolie Wong! Do you have to be so aggressive? If you had nothing to hide, would Sherry just make something up? Don’t you know what you did or didn’t do?!” A barrage of accusations, and Ryan didn’t spare a thought for my position as his girlfriend. Three years of our relationship, dismissed because of a few ambiguous words from a total stranger. He didn’t even try to defend me; he took the opposing side instantly. The Walker relatives piled on. “Exactly! Where there’s smoke, there’s fire!” “Sherry is a doctor, she has a code of ethics. Why would she lie?” “Right, it never comes from nowhere. Why would anyone target someone for no reason?” Ryan slammed his fist on the table and pointed a finger at me. “Jolie, you tell me the truth! Did you or did you not do something scandalous?” I took a deep breath, once again stating, “I did not.” Then I turned to Sherry, speaking slowly, deliberately. “Sherry, you claim you were my surgeon. Which hospital, and when? Slander has legal consequences.” Sherry’s eyes flickered with panic, but she quickly masked it with a look of wronged resignation. “Jolie, why are you forcing me… I really didn’t want to bring this up.” “I was trying to help you keep it a secret so Ryan wouldn’t find out. But you’re accusing me of lying, and I can’t take it…” “To prove I’m telling the truth, I’ll pull up the D&C record from the hospital right now!” She pulled out her phone and, in front of everyone, started tapping away, pulling up a chat log. She showed the phone to everyone, finally thrusting it under my nose. A note of triumph was barely concealed in her voice: “Jolie, look for yourself. I’m not lying. Your name is right here on the procedure slip!” 3 I wouldn’t admit to something I didn’t do, not even on my deathbed. I had suspected something was wrong the moment Sherry started fiddling with her phone. “What does one photograph prove? AI is so advanced now, anything can be photoshopped.” I saw a momentary flash of fear in her eyes, but she still refused to back down. She resumed her pitiful, tearful act, choking out: “Jolie, you can’t just lie and slander me! You’re going to be my sister-in-law; why would I make this up? I shouldn’t have come today. If it wasn’t for me, none of this would be happening!” Sherry sounded so sincere, the crowd immediately took her side. Ryan, hearing this, was fully convinced. A vein throbbed in his temple, and his eyes were filled with disgust as he looked at me: “Jolie Wong, what more do you have to say? No wonder you always said you were ‘working late’ on weekends… You were busy handling this dirty business!” Dirty business? Three years of my life, and that was what he thought of me. Ryan’s mother shrieked in agreement: “If a woman like this actually joins the Walker family, what will happen to our reputation?!” The others joined the chorus, their words growing nastier with every sentence: “Shameful! She clearly wasted her education!” “If she were my daughter, I’d slap her senseless!” “What a disgrace to her family. Such a depraved piece of trash!” My mother, having seen the supposed “evidence,” lost the last shred of her hopeful façade. Pointing at me, she burst into a furious whisper: “Jolie! Did you or didn’t you?! If you actually did something so shameful, I’ll pretend I never had a daughter!” “I did not!” I shouted the denial again, but my whole body was trembling uncontrollably. Aunt Carol and Lisa opened their mouths, but faced with the “evidence,” they fell silent. Every eye at the table felt like a needle poking my skin. Scorn, mockery, schadenfreude… And my closest family members, my parents and the man I was supposed to marry, not a single one believed me. Meanwhile, Sherry spoke again. This time, she was gently urging me to confess and repent. “Jolie, it’s okay to admit your mistakes! It doesn’t matter if your body is sullied, as long as your heart isn’t! Don’t worry, none of us will ever talk about this.” I burst out laughing, a cold, empty sound, then spoke deliberately: “Sherry, you know better than anyone whether that procedure slip is mine or not.” “As for dirty? You are the dirtiest one here.” I locked eyes with Sherry, desperate to see how far her malice would go. She flinched at the intensity of my gaze, recoiling slightly, her voice wavering: “You… you’re making false accusations! How am I dirty? You’re the one who had the D&C, not me!” Ryan seemed to snap. He lunged forward, pointing a finger directly at my face, spitting out toxic words from between his teeth: “Sherry was just exposing the truth, and you dare to turn the tables on her! I don’t need a pathetic girlfriend like you. We are done. I think you’re disgusting!” Staring at his distorted, enraged face, I suddenly felt a profound sense of absurdity. And a strange, clear calm. “We were barely engaged, you idiot! You’re so gullible, led around by the nose by your sister-in-law’s few empty words! You won’t even trust the woman you’ve been dating for three years!” Ryan completely lost control. In a blind rage, he grabbed a porcelain bowl nearby and threw it hard at me! He screamed at the top of his lungs: “Shut up! You don’t get to lecture me, you trash! Get back to where you belong!” I didn’t have time to duck. The bowl struck my forehead, and blood immediately began to run. Everyone froze. I lifted a hand and wiped my forehead, staining my palm crimson. I looked at Ryan, then slowly scanned the shocked, silent relatives, and finally, my parents, who were stunned but hadn’t moved an inch to help me. Suddenly, it all felt ludicrous. “Ryan, you’ve shown your true colors.” A flicker of panic crossed Ryan’s face. It was immediately replaced by deeper, self-righteous indignation. He sneered: “Blame yourself for being a tramp!” Sherry, ever the martyr, gently held Ryan back. “Don’t be angry. It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have brought it up.” She bit her lip, looking deeply virtuous. “The first meeting turned into this mess because of me. I… I should just leave. Please, don’t let me cause a rift between you two.” With that, she made a show of grabbing her purse. Brad quickly pulled her back, comforting her and urging her to stay. The others snapped out of their shock and began to persuade Sherry to remain. Finally, they all turned to me, demanding that I apologize to Sherry. Ryan pointed at me, gesturing toward the floor. “Jolie Wong! Look what you’ve done to Sherry! She’s still trying to defend you! You will apologize to her, on your knees, right now! You won’t get up until she forgives you!” My parents, seemingly finding the “right way” to salvage the situation, eagerly chimed in: “Jolie! Get down now! Listen to Ryan! It was your fault in the first place, what’s the harm in apologizing? Do you really want to ruin this engagement and shame the whole family just to prove a point?!” I looked at them in utter disbelief. These were the people closest to me: my parents and the man I was going to spend my life with. My heart felt dipped in ice water. “She slandered me, and you want me to kneel and apologize to her?” “Stop being so stubborn!” My father’s face was dark red. “The evidence is right there! The doctor and nurses can prove it! If your sister-in-law hadn’t been kind enough to expose you, you would have deceived the entire family! How could we ever face anyone? Instead of thanking her for helping you, you’re arguing! Kneel down!!” The relatives echoed the demand, all agreeing I should apologize to Sherry. They spoke with such conviction, such moral certainty. And I felt like I was watching the most ridiculous farce imaginable. “Me, kneel to her? Not in this lifetime.” Seeing my defiance, my parents angrily grabbed their forks and threw them at me, screaming about what a shameless child they had raised. Sherry, nestled safely among the protective circle of relatives, subtly glanced at me. In the depths of her eyes, I saw undisguised triumph and malice. Yet, her voice was soft and gentle: “Jolie, don’t be like this. As the older sister-in-law, I won’t actually make you kneel. As long as you admit your mistake and promise to live a better life, I’ll forgive you. After all, reform is what truly matters, isn’t it?” Hearing this, everyone praised her as “magnanimous” and “sensible.” Their contempt for me intensified, and they pressured me to confess. I casually set down my forks, looked at Sherry’s hypocritical face, and smiled. “It’s perfectly normal that I look familiar, Sherry. After all, I manage the surveillance and security logs at The Azure Towers. I see you entering Unit 602 in Building Six nearly every day.” “And if I recall correctly, the owner of that unit is not your husband, Brad Walker, is he?”