The next day, Leah and Shaun went to visit Emily. Emily said to Leah, "Shaun told me what happened yesterday. Are you okay?" Leah said, "Yeah, I'm fine." Emily said, "You look awful." Leah said, "Don't worry; it's not as bad as it looks." Emily said, "Oh, this is all my fault. If I had never dated Ralph, I..." Leah interrupted. "No, Emily. It's not your fault. It's mine." Emily asked, "What do you mean?" Leah said, "I was dumb enough to confront him." Shaun said, "It wasn't either of you. It was Ralph's fault." Emily said, "Yeah, it was Ralph's fault. He manipulated us." Leah said, "I think he hurt you worse than he did me." Emily said, "Are you kidding? He allowed you to suffer the pain of your unrequited love for him, and then he had the nerve to beat you up simply because you wouldn't 'do the deed' with him." Shaun said, "It's not a contest. He hurt you both equally." Emily said, "Oh, Leah, I do hope he won't hurt you like this again." Leah said, "I can assure you that he won't. He was expelled from our school. We will NEVER see him again." Emily said, "Good." Sometime later, they heard that Ralph had been murdered. Shaun said, "If all he did was break up with Emily, I would've said he didn't deserve to die, but he didn't even check on her when she got sick. He then had the nerve to beat Leah. I'd say justice was served." Leah looked back on everything that happened. She was glad that she listened to Shaun about not throwing away friendship over romance. At the same time, she wondered what she ever saw in Ralph. He wasn't as charming as he seemed. He was very manipulative for sure.
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TO BE CONTINUED