Ernest felt a sudden heaviness in his chest, "What nonsense are you spouting? You're breaking up with me?"
She bravely said, "Yes. I'm breaking up with you. I'm not seeing anyone else either."
He asked, "What do you want me to do? Chop off one of his toes to pay you back?"
Dominic turned pale with fright, visibly trembling. Ernest would do it.
Once, a thug made trouble at Ivana's shop and tried to touch her inappropriately. When Ernest found out, he had one of the man's fingers cut off and dragged him to Ivana to apologize.
She said coldly, "If you cut his, will mine grow back? Or can you sew it back on for me?"
Ernest's face darkened. Just as he was about to say something, his phone rang.
Ivana could hear Sydney speaking.
Ernest's expression eased, "I'll let this slide because you lost a toe. I'll pretend you didn't say any of that."
Ting! A WhatsApp message from Sydney: [Do you think pulling this stunt will make Ernest come back to you?]
Ernest left quickly. Sydney's WhatsApp status updated just a few minutes later.
The photo showed Ernest carefully lowering his head, tending to Sydney's tiny fingernail-sized cut, applying iodine and placing a bandage.