We were stuck on the highway heading home for the holidays, caught in a massive blizzard. My boyfriend said, "When we get married, your family's dowry car can't be worth less than fifty thousand dollars. If it's less than fifty thousand, I'm not driving it." I asked calmly, "And how much is your family offering for the engagement ring and wedding expenses?" He replied, "In my hometown, it's tradition to give three thousand. Maybe five thousand at the absolute most." He told me to be mature and understanding, saying it wasn't easy for his parents to earn money. I nodded in agreement. "Alright then. We'll have a courthouse wedding. I won't ask for a ring or a wedding, and I won't bring a dowry car." Furious, he dumped me on the side of the freezing highway, blocked my number, and gave me the silent treatment. After the holidays, he came looking for me. "Have you thought it through? If you apologize, this wedding can still happen." I laughed out loud and replied, "I'm sorry, Mr. Evans. I'm already married." 1 The weather this year was brutal. Freezing rain and a massive blizzard grounded all flights and halted the Amtrak trains. I was driving my boyfriend home for the holidays when we got completely stuck on the interstate. The atmosphere in the car was tense. Aaron's mood was visibly dark. I was just about to crack a joke to lighten the mood when he stared at the bumper of the car in front of us and spoke. "When we get married, your family's dowry car can't be worth less than fifty thousand dollars. If it's less than fifty thousand, I'm not driving it." I glanced at him in shock. His expression was dead serious. He wasn't joking. In my mind, Aaron wasn't the kind of person who would say something like that. He was always polite, modest, and seemed to have a strong moral compass. Otherwise, I wouldn't have dated him for two years. I maintained my composure and asked, "And how much is your family offering for the engagement ring and wedding expenses?" I sensed a subtle defensiveness instantly wash over him. With a half-smile, he said, "In my hometown, the tradition is three thousand. Maybe five thousand at the absolute most." I tried to state the facts as calmly as possible. "So, your family is offering five thousand at most, but you expect my family to buy a car worth no less than fifty thousand." Aaron seemed to know his demand was outrageous, so he tried to justify it. "You need to be more understanding. My parents don't make money as easily as yours do. You can't expect me to drain their entire life savings just to get married, can you?!" I nodded directly in agreement. "Alright then. We'll do a simple courthouse wedding. I won't ask for a ring or a wedding, and I won't bring a dowry." Aaron's face twisted in an instant. He glared at me furiously. "If you don't bring a dowry, how are we going to afford the renovations for the house?! Have you even thought about our future?!" The "house" Aaron was referring to was a property he bought before we met. It was legally solely his. His monthly salary was $10,000, and his mortgage was $8,000. That meant not only was I expected to drop over a hundred thousand dollars on a car and renovations for his house, but since his salary barely covered his mortgage, I would be paying for 100% of our living expenses after we got married. Every single step of this marriage was a calculated financial trap. I sat in silence for a moment, studying his face as if I were seeing him for the very first time. Aaron had always seemed so principled, but the moment his core financial interests were involved, his true, greedy nature was exposed. I said, "That house is your pre-marital asset. It has nothing to do with me." Aaron's brow furrowed deeply, and he immediately shot back, "How does the house have nothing to do with you? After we get married, you get to live there rent-free! Isn't that enough?" "Don't you want to live comfortably? Shouldn't you contribute money to renovate the place you're going to live in?!" I didn't want to start a screaming match while driving, but I couldn't keep the anger out of my voice. "Think about it for a second. For this marriage, your family is contributing five thousand dollars maximum. My family is expected to contribute over a hundred thousand. Do you honestly think that's fair?" Aaron's face darkened. "Your family has money; my family doesn't. If contributing a little more means we have a good life after we get married, what's the big deal?!" "We've been together for two years. Do you really have to be this calculating?" I saw right through his hypocrisy. I went completely silent. Only one thought remained in my mind: I cannot marry this man. 2 Our car crept forward about thirty feet in a suffocating, oppressive silence. Tap, tap, tap. Someone knocked on my window. I turned my head, quickly rolled down the window, and was genuinely surprised. "You're driving home too?!" Liam offered a bitter smile. "Yeah. Who knew the highway would be a parking lot?" He handed a couple of hot canned coffees through the window. I thanked him. Liam looked past me to Aaron and said, "Taking the boyfriend home for the holidays, huh." He greeted Aaron politely. Aaron kept a stony face, gave a stiff nod, and turned his head away, ignoring him completely. I felt incredibly awkward, but Liam just smiled and didn't seem to mind. I decided to step out of the car to chat with him properly. Liam was my old neighbor. We had been really close friends up until we graduated high school, but we gradually drifted apart after heading off to different colleges. I pointed to a black Mercedes three cars back. "Is that your car? Taking your girlfriend home for the holidays?" Liam looked surprised. "How did you know?" I smiled but didn't answer, mostly because the woman sitting in the passenger seat of that Mercedes was glaring daggers at me. Her stare was so intensely hostile that I didn't want to be oblivious and cause trouble. After chatting for a few minutes, I pretended the cold was getting to me. I stomped my boots and said, "You should head back to your car. Don't freeze out here." Liam looked somewhat reluctant. "You go ahead and get back in. I want to get some fresh air for a bit." I got back into my car and watched through the rearview mirror. Liam stood shivering in the narrow gap between the idling cars, clearly freezing but refusing to go back to his own vehicle. I dug around in the backseat and found an expensive, unopened skincare gift set. I smiled, stepped back out, and walked over to Liam. "I just accepted your coffees, and I happen to have this really nice skincare set. I'd love to give it to your girlfriend. Why don't you introduce us?" Liam laughed. "We haven't seen each other in years. Since when did you get so formal?" I followed him to his car. The girl inside was still glaring at me. I leaned down and waved through the window. "Hi, I'm Mia. Thanks so much for the coffee earlier! This is a skincare set a friend gave me. I'd love for you to try it." Chloe shot me a dirty look and said coldly, "Take it away. I don't use that brand." I was stunned and didn't know how to respond. I looked up and saw Liam's face flush with embarrassment. He opened his mouth to apologize, but I beat him to it. "No worries. We're even for the coffee now." Liam paused, then let out a relaxed, appreciative chuckle. 3 Since she clearly didn't want it, I wasn't going to press a hot face against a cold cheek. I carried the gift set back to my car. Aaron glanced at me and sneered, "Back already? Couldn't give it away?" I thought he was going to comfort me, but instead, he mocked me. "They give you two cheap coffees, and you rush over to hand them a luxury gift set. Why are you so generous with outsiders?" His words ignited my temper. "So what if I gave them a gift? When have I ever been stingy with you?!" Aaron's eyes flared with anger. "My sister asked you to buy her a single lipstick, and you refused! But with a total stranger, you casually hand over an entire luxury set!" He glared at me with pure venom. "Mia, I see exactly who you are now." I couldn't believe it. In his eyes, refusing to buy his sister makeup was a valid reason to attack me. When I first met his sister, she acted incredibly arrogant, acting like I should be groveling for her approval. She specifically added me on social media, never actually talked to me, but every few days she would send me links demanding I buy her things! I darkened my expression and fired back. "Since we started dating, your mom has asked me to buy her clothes. Your parents asked me to buy all their winter groceries. Your dad even told me to buy his expensive liquor and cigars. Why the hell should I have to buy your sister makeup too?!" "I am just your girlfriend! I am not your family's personal ATM!" 4 Being called out so bluntly made Aaron's face flush with humiliation. He kept his head down, aggressively typing on his phone with a dark scowl. The atmosphere in the car was suffocatingly tense. We slowly crawled our way to the next rest stop. Suddenly, he yelled, "Pull over!" I pulled the car over to the shoulder and stared at him coldly. Aaron got out, gripped the car door, and said, "Drive yourself back. My family is coming to pick me up." It took me a second to process. "You're not coming to my family's house this year?" Aaron's face twisted into a mocking sneer. "Why would I?" He looked down at me condescendingly and issued a warning. "You better think long and hard about whether you still want this marriage. You've already slept with me. Aside from me, who else is going to want you?!" My eyes widened in absolute shock. I could not believe my ears. "Are you seriously slut-shaming me right now?!" Aaron slammed the car door shut with terrifying force. I never imagined a man with a Ph.D. would be so utterly classless as to slut-shame his own girlfriend. I was so furious I was shaking. I pulled out my phone and fired off a rapid string of texts: [What century are you living in?! You think you can control women by slut-shaming them? You think sleeping with a woman makes her your property? Is your d**k a branding iron? Why don't you go brand Mother Earth while you're at it and announce you own the planet?!] [You think you're so great, but you're literally just a ten-second disappointment! I've spent the last two years paying for everything just to keep a useless, manipulative ten-second toy around! What else are you even good for?] [I am officially dumping you! I'm done!] Before my last barrage of texts even went through, a red exclamation mark popped up. He had blocked me. Heh. 5 Aaron's hometown was only about twenty miles from the rest stop. My family's house was over five hundred miles away. He abandoned me alone on the side of a freezing highway and blocked my number. I was so enraged by his slut-shaming that tears streamed down my face uncontrollably, blurring my vision. The thought that I had wasted two years of my life with a man like that made me physically nauseous. I felt so incredibly sorry for myself. Later that evening, his sister sent me a photo. It was Aaron, out to dinner, chatting intimately with another woman. In the photo, he looked polished, gentle, and attentive. The woman was soft and delicate. The way they were looking at each other, the chemistry was undeniable. [Looks like I'm getting a new sister-in-law soon! Hehe.] You see, whether a man loves you or not is painfully obvious. He can completely disregard my safety, not caring for a single second that I was stranded alone on a dangerous, snow-covered highway. And immediately after abandoning me, he could rush off to a romantic date with another woman. Suddenly, a terrifying sequence of massive crashes erupted from the highway behind me. I gasped, my eyes darting to the rearview mirror. A massive multi-car pileup had just occurred. Thank God I had pulled over into the rest stop area. I forced myself to calm down. Compared to dying in a highway pileup, being disgusted by a piece of trash for two years was a minor inconvenience. By 8:00 PM, I finally managed to crawl to the next major rest area. I was mentally exhausted from the hyper-vigilant driving, so I decided to spend the night there. My phone rang. I thought it was Aaron calling to argue, or his sister calling to gloat. But the caller ID showed an unknown number. "Hello? Mia? It's Liam." "Could you... possibly give me a ride?" 6 I waited by the main entrance of the rest stop for a long time before I spotted a dark figure slowly trudging through the snow. I ran toward him. As I got closer, I realized he was practically freezing to death! In weather this brutal, a normal person couldn't stand being outside for ten minutes. How the hell did he walk all the way here from the previous rest stop?! I quickly shoved two hot coffees and a couple of warm steamed buns inside his jacket and asked, "Where's your car?" His eyes were red-rimmed. "My girlfriend kicked me out." I grabbed his hand. It was as cold as a block of ice. "Come on. Get in my car." I blasted the heat to the max and poured the last bit of hot water from my thermos for him. Liam sat there for a long time before he finally caught his breath. Shivering violently, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and started sending voice memos to Chloe. Liam: "Please, stop being angry. Pull over somewhere safe. It's too dangerous for you to drive alone in this snow. Wait for me, and I'll drive you back." I sat quietly, watching him. He was incredibly emotionally stable. Even after being abandoned by his girlfriend in a freezing blizzard, his first instinct was to make sure she was safe. Compared to Aaron, it was like night and day. Chloe never replied. Liam called her dozens of times before she finally answered. He said calmly, "We can talk about all of that later. It's not safe to drive in this snow. Pull over, and I'll drive you home." Chloe's voice was icy. "I don't need you. I'm already off the highway, heading to my parents' house." "You can just freeze out there." I didn't know how much damage the phrase "You can just freeze out there" could do to a person, but I watched Liam hold his phone, staring silently out the window for a long, long time. I caught his reflection in the glass. His eyes looked suspiciously bright. I tried to lighten the mood. "Hey, you're not the most pathetic one here. My boyfriend dumped me on the highway too." 7 Liam looked shocked. "In this blizzard?! He actually felt okay leaving you to drive alone?!" I put on a brave face. "Yep. Because I refused to drop fifty thousand dollars on a dowry car, he left me behind." Liam let out a short, bitter laugh. "What a coincidence. I refused to buy her family two more houses, so she kicked me out." I was stunned. "Isn't one house enough to live in? Why two? And the housing market is terrible right now anyway." Liam's expression turned grim. "She has a younger brother. She demanded I buy them two houses, and the bigger one had to be a luxury villa. For her brother." Hearing that, I almost applauded the audacity. "What do they call that? When one person strikes it rich, the whole village expects to be carried to the top?" Liam smiled helplessly. "Did you agree?" I asked. Liam gave me a look that said everything. "What do you think?" Even if he agreed, his family would absolutely never allow it.
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