3 months ago, Malcolm started calling his behavior just jokes whenever I questioned anything. The pattern began in September when I asked him not to flirt with girls at parties. He laughed and told his friends I was obsessed with him. Dean, Randall, and Curtis all found this hilarious. They started making comments about clingy girlfriends whenever I was around.

Malcolm began testing boundaries. He would dance with other girls at bars and wink at me across the room. He started giving out his number to random women right in front of me. When I confronted him later, he said I was being completely dramatic about normal social interaction.

“It’s just dancing,” he would say, shaking his head like I was completely crazy.

His friends backed him up every single time without fail.

At Curtis’s birthday party last weekend, Malcolm’s ex, Sabrina, showed up wearing a tight red dress. She had been messaging Malcolm for weeks, but he claimed they were just being friendly. I watched her touch his arm while talking, running her fingers along his bicep. Malcolm kept glancing at me, smirking. His friends, Dean and Randall, positioned themselves nearby with their phones out, recording everything.

The party was packed with people from our college and nearby schools. Malcolm had been drinking steadily since we arrived at 8. He kept buying Sabrina drinks and completely ignoring me for hours. Every time I tried to join their conversation, he would turn his back to me or change the subject entirely.

Around 11:00, Malcolm grabbed Sabrina by the waist and pulled her close. He kissed her with full tongue, hands gripping her hips. The kiss lasted at least 30 seconds. Dean and Randall started chanting immediately.

“She deserved it. She deserved it.”

They yelled, pointing their cameras directly at me. Other people turned to watch the spectacle. Some laughed. Others looked uncomfortable but said nothing.

Malcolm pulled away from Sabrina and stared straight at me.

“Just a joke, babe,” he called out, grinning.

Sabrina giggled and whispered something in his ear. He nodded and squeezed her waist again.

I walked through the crowd toward the front door. People moved aside and stared. My phone started buzzing before I reached my car. Text after text appeared on my screen. Malcolm was sending them faster than I could read, 15 messages total by the time I got home.

“You’re ruining my night.”

“Come back right now and apologize to Sabrina.”

“Stop being so dramatic about everything.”

“Everyone at this party thinks you’re completely psycho now.”

“This is exactly why guys don’t want serious girlfriends.”

“You totally embarrassed me in front of all my friends.”

“Learn to take a harmless joke for once in your life.”

I drove home and turned off my phone completely.

When I checked it Sunday morning, Malcolm had posted six Instagram stories between midnight and 3:00 a.m. videos of him grinding on random girls at the party. Close-up shots of women dancing against him. Each caption read variations of,

“This is what happens when you try to control me, and freedom feels so good right now.”

The final story showed Malcolm doing shots with three different girls. The caption read,

“Single life hits different.”

He had tagged Dean, Randall, and Curtis in every single post.

Malcolm showed up at my apartment building at 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning. He pounded on the front door for 5 straight minutes, yelling my name loud enough to wake up neighboring units. When I finally opened it, he rire of alcohol, cigarettes, and multiple different perfumes. His button-down shirt was wrinkled and stained with something dark, his hair stuck up in random directions.

“You’re a psycho girlfriend,” he said, swaying in my doorway. “Every guy cheats on their girl eventually. At least I did it to your face instead of sneaking around behind your back like some coward.”

I told him to leave immediately. He laughed and leaned against the door frame.

“You’ll forgive me by Tuesday like you always do,” he said. “Remember when I made out with your sister’s friend at Christmas? You got over that real quick?”

Then he stumbled back to his car and drove away.

Monday afternoon, Dean sent me a private message on Instagram.

“You’re way too uptight about everything. Malcolm was teaching you an important lesson about trust and boundaries. You should be grateful he cares enough to help you grow as a person.”

I read the message twice, then closed the app.

20 minutes later, Celeste sent me a message. She’s Curtis’s girlfriend and had seen the group chat on his phone. She forwarded me 23 screenshots from their conversation since Sunday night. Malcolm was bragging in detail about putting me in my place.

“She’ll come crawling back like always,” he wrote. “They all do when you show them who’s really the boss.”

Randall replied with crying laughing emojis. Curtis wrote,

“Savage move, bro.”

Dean added,

“She definitely needed that reality check.”

Malcolm sent a shirtless photo of himself in bed with messy hair.

“Single life is treating me incredibly well already.”

He captioned it,

“More laughing emojis followed from all his friends.”

“Malcolm thinks he knows exactly who I am. He thinks I’m still the same naive girl who apologized after our first fight 2 years ago. the girl who blamed herself when he joked about my weight in front of his entire family last Christmas. Right now, he’s probably out celebrating with his friends, thinking he’s won some kind of victory. He has no idea what’s coming for him.”

First update. So, remember how Malcolm said I’d come crawling back by Tuesday? Well, guess what happened on Tuesday? Absolutely nothing. I didn’t text him, didn’t call him, didn’t even check his social media. And apparently, this broke his entire brain because by Wednesday morning, I had 17 missed calls and 43 text messages.

The messages started normal for Malcolm.

“Hey babe, you’re being really immature about this whole thing.”

Then they got progressively more desperate.

“I know you’re reading these messages.”

“Why are you ignoring me when I’m trying to fix this?”

“This silent treatment thing is getting really old.”

By Thursday, he was practically having a meltdown through text.

“I can’t believe you’re actually going to throw away 2 years over one harmless joke.”

“Sabrina meant absolutely nothing to me.”

“You have to know that.”

“I was drunk and my friends were egging me on.”

“You know how they get.”

Here’s the thing that really gets me. He kept calling it a joke. like making out with his ex while his friends filmed me enchanted was just some hilarious prank I should appreciate. The audacity of this man is truly something else.

Friday afternoon, he showed up at my workplace. My co-orker Miranda came to find me in the break room and told me there was some guy in the lobby asking for me, looking really agitated. I peeked around the corner and there was Malcolm pacing back and forth, running his hands through his hair like he always does when he’s stressed.

I walked out there and his whole face lit up like he thought I was finally ready to forgive him. He started talking immediately.

“Thank God I’ve been trying to reach you for days. We need to talk about this situation and figure out how to move forward together.”

I told him we could talk right there in the lobby since he’d made such a public spectacle of our relationship already. His expression changed real quick.

“Don’t be like this,” he said. “You’re being really unfair. I came here to apologize and work things out like adults.”

So, I asked him what exactly he was apologizing for. And guys, this man actually said he was sorry that I misunderstood his joke and got my feelings hurt. Not sorry for kissing his ex. Not sorry for humiliating me. Sorry that I’m too sensitive to appreciate his sense of humor.

I told him his apology was noted and he could leave now. He started getting louder then saying I was being completely unreasonable and making this whole thing way bigger than it needed to be.

“Every couple goes through stuff like this,” he said. “It’s called growing together and learning to trust each other.”

Miranda was watching from behind the reception desk along with half the office at this point. Malcolm noticed everyone staring and finally lowered his voice. He stepped closer and told me he wasn’t leaving until we worked this out properly.

That’s when I realized something crucial. He genuinely believed I would eventually cave like I always had before. The old me would have been embarrassed about causing a scene at work. The old me would have agreed to talk privately just to make him leave.

But something had shifted after watching those group chat screenshots. Reading him brag about putting me in my place and knowing I’d come crawling back changed everything for me.

I told Malcolm very clearly that we were done. Not taking a break, not working through issues, but completely finished.

His face went through about five different emotions in 10 seconds. Confusion, disbelief, anger, then this weird fake laugh like I was obviously kidding.

“You don’t mean that,” he said. “You’re just really upset right now. which I totally understand, but we’ve been together for 2 years. You can’t just throw that away over something this stupid.”

I explained that making out with his ex while his friends filmed it wasn’t stupid. It was deliberate humiliation. That his group chat messages showed exactly how he really felt about me. That showing up drunk at my apartment at 3:00 a.m. wasn’t romantic. It was disrespectful and honestly kind of scary.

Malcolm got defensive immediately.

“Those guys were just being guys. You know how group chats are. We say stupid stuff to impress each other. It doesn’t mean anything real.”

He claimed the kiss with Sabrina was just him being drunk and showing off. Nothing more serious than that.

But here’s what really sealed it for me. When I mentioned feeling scared when he showed up drunk, he actually rolled his eyes.

“Come on, you know I would never hurt you. Stop being so dramatic about everything.”

The fact that he dismissed my feelings about his drunk 3:00 a.m. visit told me everything I needed to know. This man does not respect my boundaries, my feelings, or my basic sense of safety. And he never will because in his mind, I’m just being dramatic and oversensitive.

I walked away from him standing in that lobby. just turned around and went back to work like he wasn’t even there. Through the window, I watched him stand there for another 10 minutes, probably waiting for me to come back out and resume the conversation.

When I got home that evening, my sister Celeste had left me three voicemails. Apparently, Malcolm had called her asking if she could talk some sense into me. He told her I was having some kind of breakdown and needed family intervention to see reason.

Celeste was furious. She said Malcolm explained the whole party situation like he was the victim of my jealousy and controlling behavior. According to him, I’d had a complete meltdown over innocent flirting and was now punishing him with silence.

But here’s the beautiful part. Celeste was actually at Curtis’s party. She saw the whole thing happen. She watched Malcolm kiss Sabrina while his friends chanted and filmed. She saw how humiliated I looked walking out.

So when Malcolm tried to rewrite history and make himself the victim, she shut that down real fast. She told Malcolm that what she witnessed wasn’t innocent flirting. It was public humiliation of his girlfriend for entertainment. that any man who would do that to someone he supposedly loved had serious problems and that if he ever called her again trying to manipulate family members, she’d have some choice words for him.

Malcolm apparently did not take this well. Celeste said he started arguing with her, insisting she didn’t understand the full context and that I’d been controlling and jealous for months. When she wouldn’t agree with him, he accused her of enabling my dramatic behavior.

That conversation happened yesterday.

This morning, I woke up to a text from Malcolm’s mom.

“Hi, sweetie. Malcolm told me you two are having some problems. I was hoping we could grab coffee this weekend and talk about working things out. You know how much Malcolm loves you.”

And that’s when I realized Malcolm’s master plan. He’s calling in reinforcements. His mom, my sister, probably planning to get our mutual friends involved, too. He thinks if enough people tell me to forgive him, I’ll crack under the pressure and go back to being his doormat girlfriend.

What Malcolm doesn’t understand is that I’m not the same person who apologized after his last joke. I’m not the girl who blamed herself when he flirted with my sister. I’ve been planning something since Sunday and it’s almost ready. He wants to play games and involve other people. Perfect.

Duke can play that game, but he’s not going to like my version nearly as much as his own.

Tuesday is going to be very interesting.

Second update. I am shaking with rage right now, but also kind of impressed with how this all played out. So, remember Malcolm’s mom wanting to grab coffee? Well, that was just the beginning of his master manipulation plan involving both our families.

Saturday morning, I’m at Target buying groceries when my phone rings. It’s my mom. She sounds worried and asks if I’m okay because she just got off the phone with Malcolm’s mother. Apparently, Malcolm told his parents that I’m going through some kind of mental health crisis and refusing to communicate about our relationship problems.

I explain the whole party situation to my mom. The kiss with Sabrina, the filming, the group chat messages, everything. My mom listens and then gets pissed. She tells me Malcolm’s mom painted a completely different picture where I had a jealousyfueled breakdown over innocent socializing and now I’m punishing Malcolm with cruel silence.

My mom immediately calls Malcolm’s mom back. I can hear both sides of this conversation because my mom put it on speaker. Malcolm’s mom starts with how concerned she is about my emotional state and how Malcolm is devastated that I won’t even discuss working through our problems.

My mom cuts her off and explains what actually happened at that party. The public humiliation, the deliberate kissing, the friends chanting and filming my reaction.

Malcolm’s mom goes quiet for a long moment, then says,

“That’s not the story Malcolm told them at all.”

According to Malcolm’s version, I got irrationally jealous when his ex showed up at the party. I caused a huge scene over him being polite to her, then stormed out dramatically when he gave her a friendly hug goodbye. His friends were laughing at my overreaction, not participating in any humiliation. The Instagram posts were just him blowing off steam after I refused to answer his calls.

My mom is incredulous. She asked Malcolm’s mom if she really believes her son would lie about something this serious. There’s this long pause. Then Malcolm’s mom says she trusts her son. And maybe there’s two sides to every story.

That’s when my mom loses it. She tells Malcolm’s mom that if her son thinks public humiliation is appropriate relationship behavior, then maybe she failed as a parent, that any mother who defends her adult son kissing other women in front of his girlfriend clearly raised him to disrespect women.

Malcolm’s mom hangs up on her.

Sunday afternoon gets even worse. My dad calls and says Malcolm showed up at our house wanting to talk to him manto man about the situation. My dad was working in the garage and Malcolm just appeared there uninvited, acting all respectful and concerned.

Malcolm told my dad that I’ve been struggling with jealousy and trust issues for months, that he’s been trying to be patient and understanding, but I’ve gotten increasingly controlling about his friendships with women. The party incident was just me finally snapping over normal social interaction.

My dad, who doesn’t know the full story yet, listens politely as Malcolm explains how much he loves me and wants to work through my insecurities together, how he’s willing to go to coup’s counseling and do whatever it takes to help me feel more secure in our relationship.

Then Malcolm asks my dad to talk to me about giving their relationship another chance. says he knows I respect my father’s opinion and might listen to him when I won’t listen to anyone else.

My dad tells Malcolm he’ll think about it and get back to him.

After Malcolm leaves, my dad calls me confused about why Malcolm seems so genuine and concerned if he really did what I described. I drive over to my parents house immediately, sit down with both of them and tell the entire story from beginning to end. The months of boundary testing, the deliberate flirting, the kiss with Sabrina while his friends filmed, the group chat messages bragging about putting me in my place.

My dad’s expression changes completely as I’m talking. By the time I finish, he’s furious that Malcolm came to their house and lied directly to his face. My mom shows him the screenshot Celeste forwarded from the group chat. My dad reads Malcolm calling me a psycho girlfriend and saying I’ll come crawling back and he completely loses his [ __ ]

He calls Malcolm immediately and puts it on speaker. Malcolm answers all cheerful thinking my dad is calling to help convince me. My dad cuts right to the point and asks Malcolm to explain the group chat messages about putting me in my place.

Malcolm stutters for a second, then claims those were just guy talk and didn’t mean anything serious. That men exaggerate in group chats to sound tough, but it’s not how they really feel. He says he was hurt and venting to his friends after I walked out on him.

My dad asks about the video of him kissing Sabrina. Malcolm claims it was just a quick friendly kiss that looked worse on camera than it actually was, that his friends were drunk and being idiots with their commentary, but he can’t control what other people say or do.

Then my dad asks the question that breaks everything wide open. He asks Malcolm why he lied about what happened when he came to their house. Why he told a completely different story that made me look jealous and unstable instead of admitting he kissed another woman.

Malcolm gets defensive immediately. He says he was trying to protect my reputation by not telling my parents how badly I overreacted, that he didn’t want them to think less of me for causing such a dramatic scene over nothing.

My dad tells Malcolm that lying to my parents to manipulate them into pressuring me is not protecting my reputation. It’s manipulative [ __ ] that any man who would humiliate his girlfriend publicly then lie to her family about it is not welcome in their house ever again.

Malcolm starts arguing that my dad doesn’t understand the full context and that I’ve been telling a one-sided story that if my dad really knew how controlling and jealous I’d become, he’d understand why Malcolm was at his breaking point.

That’s when my dad completely unleashes on him. Tells Malcolm that even if everything he claimed was true. Kissing another woman in front of your girlfriend is never acceptable relationship behavior. that real men break up with women they’re unhappy with instead of publicly humiliating them for entertainment.

Malcolm tries to interrupt, but my dad cuts him off. Says that lying to parents to manipulate their daughter shows exactly what kind of character Malcolm has. That any man who would do that is a coward who can’t face the consequences of his own actions.

The call ends with my dad telling Malcolm never to contact our family again and hanging up on him.

Then I wake up to 31 text messages from Malcolm. And guys, this man has completely lost his [ __ ] mind. The messages start around 2:00 a.m. and continue until 6:00 a.m. Pure stream of consciousness desperation.

“Your parents have completely turned against me now thanks to your lies.”

“I never lied to your dad.”

“I was trying to spare your feelings.”

“You’re destroying everything good we had together over one stupid mistake.”

“I’m losing my mind without you and can’t eat or sleep.”

“Everyone I care about is choosing your side without hearing mine.”

But then around 4:00 a.m. the messages take a darker turn.

“You’ve made me look like a monster to both our families.”

“I trusted you with everything and you’re using it all against me.”

“Two years of my life completely wasted because you can’t forgive one mistake.”

“I don’t even recognize who you’ve become.”

The final message at 6:00 a.m. just says,

“I’m not giving up on us no matter what you do.”

Wednesday evening, Malcolm shows up at my parents house again. My dad sees him through the window and calls me immediately. I drive over there and find Malcolm sitting on their front porch, refusing to leave until someone talks to him.

I walk up to him and ask what the hell he thinks he’s doing. He tells me he’s been sitting there for 2 hours waiting for someone to come home so he could explain his side properly.

Malcolm starts talking rapidly about how everyone has turned against him based on incomplete information. That the group chat messages were taken out of context and the kiss with Sabrina was just drunken stupidity, not deliberate cruelty. That he’s been in love with me for 2 years and would never intentionally hurt me.

I tell him that intentional or not, he did hurt me. That his actions had consequences and now he has to live with them.

Malcolm gets more agitated and says I’m being completely unforgiving about one mistake that happened when he was drunk. He asks me to look at everything good about our relationship instead of focusing on one bad night. Reminds me of trips we took together, holidays with each other’s families, plans we made for the future. Says 2 years of love and commitment should count for more than 15 minutes of poor judgment.

But here’s the thing that really gets me. He still won’t take full responsibility. It’s always poor judgment or a mistake or one bad night. Never, I deliberately kissed my ex to hurt you or I let my friends film your humiliation for entertainment.

My dad comes outside and tells Malcolm he needs to leave their property immediately. Malcolm starts arguing that he has a right to try to save his relationship and that my dad is interfering in something that’s none of his business.

My dad steps closer and tells Malcolm that when he lies to parents to manipulate their daughter, it becomes their business. That Malcolm made it their business by involving them in his scheme to pressure me into forgiving him.

Malcolm finally leaves, but not before turning to me and saying,

“This isn’t over between us. That he knows I still love him, and eventually I’ll realize I’m throwing away the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Malcolm genuinely believes he’s the victim in this situation. In his mind, I’m destroying a good relationship over one minor incident that I’m blowing completely out of proportion.

But you know what? I’ve been working on something since this all started. Something that’s going to show Malcolm exactly who he’s been dealing with this whole time. And after watching him manipulate both our families this week, I’m more motivated than ever to make sure he gets exactly what he deserves.

The trap is almost ready. Malcolm thinks he knows me, but he has no idea what I’m really capable of when someone pushes me too far.

Last update, guys. I cannot believe what just happened. Remember that trap I mentioned? Well, it went down yesterday and Malcolm’s entire world just imploded in the most beautiful way possible. I’m still buzzing from the adrenaline and honestly feeling like the absolute queen I know I am.

So, here’s what I’ve been planning since this whole nightmare started.

Malcolm thinks he’s smart with his manipulation tactics, but he made one crucial mistake. He underestimated exactly how smart I am and how well I know his patterns. See, Malcolm has this thing where he can’t resist bragging about his conquests. Always has. He filmed the whole Sabrina kiss situation because he gets off on having proof of his power over women.

And I knew, absolutely knew that he’d saved videos from that party.

Thursday afternoon, I text Malcolm asking if we can meet up to talk, not to get back together, but to have an honest conversation about where we went wrong so we can both move forward. He responds within 30 seconds saying yes and suggests we meet at the coffee shop near campus where we had our first date.

I tell him that’s too public and emotional for this kind of conversation.

“What if we meet at his apartment Saturday afternoon so we can talk privately without interruptions?”

Malcolm agrees immediately, probably thinking I’m finally ready to come crawling back like he predicted.

Saturday, I show up at Malcolm’s place at 2 p.m. He’s clearly put effort into his appearance. Showered, nice shirt, even cleaned his normally messy apartment. He offers me coffee and asks how I’ve been holding up. all concerned and caring like he wasn’t sending me unhinged text messages at 4:00 a.m.

I tell Malcolm I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about our relationship and I want to understand his perspective on what happened that maybe I did overreact to some things and I want to hear his side without interrupting or getting defensive.

Malcolm’s whole face lights up. He starts explaining how he never meant to hurt me and how the party situation got completely out of hand due to peer pressure and alcohol. That kissing Sabrina was just him being stupid and showing off, not any kind of deliberate betrayal.

I nod along and ask follow-up questions. What exactly were his friends saying that made him feel pressured? How did the kiss with Sabrina actually start? Was there anything leading up to it that I missed?

Malcolm gets more animated as he talks, clearly feeling like he’s finally getting through to me. He explains how Dean and Randall kept joking about him being whipped and under my control. How they dared him to prove he wasn’t afraid of me by flirting with other women.

Then he tells me something I didn’t know before. Apparently, the whole thing was planned. Dean had texted Sabrina earlier that week and invited her to the party specifically to mess with our relationship. They thought it would be hilarious to see how I’d react to her showing up.

I act surprised and hurt by this revelation. Ask Malcolm why he went along with a plan designed to humiliate me. He gets defensive and says he didn’t know about Dean’s plan until that night and by then he was too drunk to think clearly.

Malcolm explains that when Sabrina started flirting with him, his friends began filming and egging him on. That he felt trapped between disappointing his friends and disappointing me. So, he made a split-second decision that he immediately regretted.

I tell Malcolm I appreciate his honesty and I’m starting to understand what really happened. that maybe I was too quick to judge the situation without knowing all the facts.

Malcolm relaxes completely, probably thinking he successfully manipulated me back into forgiveness.

Then I ask the question I’ve been building up to. I tell Malcolm that my friends have been asking me what really happened that night, and I want to be able to explain it accurately.

“Do you still have any videos from the party that might help me understand exactly how everything went down?”

Malcolm hesitates for a second, then admits he has some videos on his phone. He says his friends sent him clips from that night, but he hasn’t looked at them because they’re too painful to watch.

I ask if we could watch them together so I can see what he saw and understand his experience better. Malcolm waivers, clearly uncomfortable, but eventually agrees. He says maybe it would be good for both of us to face what happened honestly.

He pulls out his phone and opens his photo gallery. There are at least 15 videos from that party. We start watching them together.

And guys, they are so much worse than I even remembered.

The first few videos show Malcolm dancing with other women while I’m standing nearby looking uncomfortable. You can hear Dean and Randall making comments about testing my limits and seeing how much I’ll tolerate.

Then we get to the videos of Malcolm with Sabrina. There’s one where he’s clearly groping her ass while she grinds against him. Another where he’s whispering in her ear while staring directly at me across the room. You can hear his friends laughing and saying things like,

“She looks pissed and this is so good.”

The kiss video is the worst part. It shows Malcolm grabbing Sabrina aggressively and kissing her with obvious passion. The video captures Dean and Randall chanting she deserved it while pointing their cameras at me. You can see me in the background looking absolutely destroyed.

But here’s the part that makes my blood boil. There’s a video after I left. Malcolm and Sabrina are making out again, more intensely this time. He’s got her pressed against the wall with his hands up her dress. Randall is filming and you can hear him saying,

“Post this [ __ ] She needs to see what she’s missing.”

As we’re watching these videos, Malcolm keeps trying to minimize what I’m seeing.

“It looks worse on camera than it felt in person.”

“I was so drunk I barely remember this happening.”

“The guys were just being stupid with their commentary.”

After we finish watching, I look at Malcolm and tell him those videos show deliberate, calculated cruelty designed to humiliate me for entertainment, that there’s no amount of alcohol or peer pressure that excuses that level of disrespect.

Malcolm immediately starts backtracking. He claims the videos don’t show the full context and that I’m misinterpreting what I’m seeing, that he was drunk and confused and not thinking clearly about how his actions might affect me.

I tell Malcolm I appreciate him showing me the videos because now I have a complete picture of what really happened.

He looks confused and asks what I mean by that.

That’s when I pull out my own phone and show him that I’ve been recording our entire conversation. Every word of his planned humiliation confession. Every admission about going along with Dean’s scheme. Every moment of him minimizing and excusing his behavior while the video evidence plays.

Malcolm’s face goes completely white. He starts sputtering about how I tricked him and recorded him without consent. I remind him that we’re in a one-party consent state and I have every legal right to record conversations I’m part of.

I tell Malcolm that his confession, combined with his own videos, paint a very clear picture of who he really is, that I now have proof he participated in a deliberate plan to humiliate me, then lied to both our families about what happened.

Malcolm starts panicking and asking what I plan to do with the recording.

I tell him he’s about to find out.

Then I start a group text with both our parents and hit send on a message I had pre-written. The message explains that I’ve discovered the party incident was a planned humiliation orchestrated by Malcolm and his friends. that I have video evidence and a recorded confession proving he lied to both families about what really happened and that I’m attaching the relevant clip so everyone can see the truth for themselves.

I attached the kiss video showing Malcolm passionately making out with Sabrina while his friends chant about me deserving it. The video of him groping her after I left and key excerpts from our recorded conversation where he admits to going along with Dean’s plan.

Malcolm starts freaking out. He’s grabbing for my phone, trying to stop me from sending more messages, begging me to delete everything and talk about this privately, saying his parents will never forgive him if they see those videos.

I tell Malcolm he should have thought about that before he participated in humiliating me for his friend’s entertainment. That actions have consequences, and now he gets to face them.

My phone starts buzzing immediately with responses from both families.

My mom texts,

“I’m so sorry you went through this, sweetheart. We’re coming over right now.”

My dad just sends,

“That piece of [ __ ] is dead to us.”

But Malcolm’s parents responses are what really make this perfect. His mom texts,

“Malcolm, come home immediately. We need to talk.”

His dad sends,

“I’m disgusted by what I just watched. You’re not the son we raised.”

Malcolm is having a complete meltdown at this point. He’s begging me to call our parents and tell them the videos are fake or taken out of context. Offering to do anything I want if I’ll just help him fix the situation.

I tell Malcolm there’s nothing to fix because this is exactly what he deserves. that he made his choice when he decided to publicly humiliate me for entertainment and now he gets to live with the consequences.

Malcolm starts getting angry then saying I’m destroying his life over one mistake and that I’ll regret this when I realize what I’ve thrown away, that he’s going to tell everyone I’m a manipulative psycho who records private conversations to use against people.

I laugh and tell Malcolm that everyone already knows exactly who we both are now, that he can try to spin this however he wants, but the videos speak for themselves.

As I’m leaving his apartment, Malcolm follows me to the door, still begging and making threats. I turn around and tell him this is the last time we’ll ever speak. That if he contacts me, my family, or anyone in my life again, I’ll be filing harassment charges.

The drive home was incredible, guys. I felt so [ __ ] powerful and in control, like I’d finally gotten justice for all the times Malcolm humiliated me, and I just took it.

When I got home, my parents were waiting for me. They both hugged me and apologized for not fully understanding how badly the situation was. My dad said he’s proud of me for standing up for myself and exposing Malcolm’s lies.

My mom said she called Malcolm’s mom after seeing the videos. Apparently, Malcolm’s parents are mortified by his behavior and planning to have a serious conversation with him about respecting women.

But the best part came later that evening. Celeste texted me screenshots from the group chat with Curtis, Dean, and Randall. Apparently, word got out about the videos, and now everyone who was at that party knows exactly what kind of person Malcolm really is.

Malcolm has been silent on social media since yesterday. No posts, no stories, no responses to comments.

And you know what the most beautiful part is? I didn’t have to do anything illegal or unethical to get my revenge. I just used Malcolm’s own behavior and words against him. He destroyed himself by being exactly who he’s always been, a manipulative [ __ ] who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else.

To all the commenters who said I should forgive him and work things out, [ __ ] that. Some people don’t deserve forgiveness. Some people deserve to face the full consequences of their actions. Malcolm is one of those people.

I’m done being the understanding girlfriend who gives second chances to men who don’t respect me. I’m done letting people treat me like [ __ ] because it’s easier than standing up for myself. Malcolm thought he could humiliate me publicly and then manipulate our families into pressuring me to forgive him. He thought I was weak and desperate enough to crawl back to him like I always had before.

Malcolm wanted to put me in my place. Well, congratulations because my place is clearly several levels above his manipulative