Ethan was a cold man. He was the type who wouldn’t even reply to a text because he thought it was a waste of his precious time. Excitedly, I sent him the trending “Boyfriend Instantly Reports His Day” challenge that was blowing up on TikTok. He only sent back two words: “Grow up.” But that very night, I saw a video posted by his first love, Sienna. The man who never replied to me in seconds was practically spamming her chat with every little detail of his day. “Just got to the office.” “Meeting finished.” “Picking you up tonight. Babe, don’t wear heels. Your feet will hurt.” I stared at the screen, and my mind flashed back to last week. I was rolling on the floor in the ER with acute gastritis, sending him thirty desperate texts for help. He only replied the next afternoon. “I’m busy. Stop exaggerating minor illnesses just to get my attention.” When Ethan finally came home, I was still sitting in the dark on the living room couch. He glanced at my phone screen, sighed with annoyance, and pulled me into his arms. “You saw that? Sienna just got back to the country and feels insecure. I’m just playing along to make her feel safe.” “You’re my girl. You should know what’s real and what’s just a joke.” I looked down and smiled. Yeah. I finally realized that I was the joke.
I pushed his arms away from me. My eyes landed on his phone, which he had tossed on the coffee table without locking. The screen showed a live location-sharing map with Sienna. It had been running for fifteen hours straight. My brain went completely numb. Because of my extreme insecurity in this relationship, I had begged him for a month, with tears in my eyes, to share his location with me. Back then, he had pushed my hand away with disgust and snapped cold words at me. “Chloe, adults need personal space. This kind of stalker-like surveillance only makes me think you have mental issues.” But now, my heart, which had been hanging by a thread for years, finally died. “Ethan, let’s break up.” Ethan followed my gaze to the screen. Realizing I saw the location sharing, his face instantly hardened with self-righteous anger. “Are you seriously throwing a tantrum in the middle of the night?” “Sienna had a traumatic experience abroad. She just got back and doesn’t know her way around. I only turned on the location to keep her safe. Are you seriously going to be petty about this?” “You want security, right? Fine. I’ll add your name to the house deed tomorrow. Is that enough? Stop whining about this childish drama!” “You want to break up? Fine. Have it your way.” “When you drain all that jealous nonsense out of your head and stop acting crazy, we’ll talk.” With that, he marched into the guest room and slammed the door behind him. He didn’t take my breakup seriously at all. To him, I was just using the breakup as a threat to force him to bow down. But he didn’t know that when someone truly decides to leave, they do it in total silence. The next morning. Ethan was fully dressed and blocked me as I was heading out the door. “Alright, are you still playing the drama queen?” “Isn’t today your follow-up appointment for your stomach at the downtown clinic?” “I’m heading that way this morning. I’ll drop you off.” Ethan wanted to use this minor favor to brush last night’s argument under the rug. He was convinced that if he gave me a little sweet treat, I would swallow all my pain. Not long after the car pulled out of our neighborhood, I looked out the window and spoke coldly. “This isn’t the way to the clinic. Where are you going?” Without hesitation, Ethan crossed the double yellow line and headed toward the Rosewood, the most expensive luxury hotel downtown. “To pick up Sienna.” “She had a terrible headache all night. Since you’re going to the clinic anyway, I’ll take her along to get checked out.” I had stayed up all night refreshing the patient portal to book that rare specialist appointment. Yet, he was giving my slot to another woman “along the way.” Because I hadn’t eaten breakfast and the car’s AC was blasting cold air, my stomach began to cramp painfully. I stared silently at the passing streets outside. I didn’t even have the energy to argue with him anymore. When the car parked in front of the clinic, the waiting room was packed. As a software engineer, my high-intensity work had ruined my health. That specialist appointment was a miracle booking. Ethan looked at Sienna, who was leaning weakly against his shoulder, and held out his hand to me. “Give me your appointment confirmation QR code.” I looked up at him. The sharp spasms in my stomach were making me break out in a cold sweat. “This is my specialist appointment.” Ethan took my ice-cold hand and wrapped it in his warm palm. “Sienna just got back. The jet lag and her severe anxiety have kept her crying all night. The doctor said she’s on the verge of a mental breakdown.” “Your stomach pain is bad, but it’s a chronic issue. We have your prescription meds at home. You can just take two pills to suppress it. Can you please just bear with it for once?” When we first got together, his friends used to whisper behind my back. They said Ethan would always keep a place in his heart for his first love who had moved abroad for her dreams. They said no matter how hard I tried, I could never compete with his “white moonlight.” But over the last three years, Ethan had personally wiped away all my doubts. During those three years, he would drive across the city in pouring rain just to pick me up from work. He would stay up all night rubbing my stomach when I had bad cramps. I really thought I had finally replaced her. Seeing me freeze, he leaned down and kissed my forehead gently. “Be good, Chloe. You’re my family. Do this for me, okay?” “Tomorrow, once she’s settled, I’ll cancel all my meetings and spend the whole day with you, I promise.” I clutched the medical card inside my pocket. The sharp edges dug painfully into my fingers. My mind suddenly drifted back to the early days of Ethan’s startup. He had worked so hard that he drank himself to stomach bleeding. To get him a specialist appointment, I had lined up in the freezing wind all night. My hands got so frostbitten that night that they still peel every winter. Back then, he had looked at me from his hospital bed with tears in his eyes. “I will never let you suffer again in this life.” Sienna’s eyes welled up with tears, and Ethan’s expression grew impatient. “Give it to me, Chloe. Don’t be unreasonable.” I suddenly loosened my fingers and handed him the card. Ethan smiled, satisfied, and rubbed my hair. “Good girl. I’ll get someone to book another specialist for you next month.” The clinic door shut in my face. I didn’t expect the man inside to look back at me. I popped two painkillers out of my bag and swallowed them dry. The pills tasted incredibly bitter as they scraped down my throat. I whispered in my heart: “Ethan, there’s no need for next month. There is no next month for us.” Just as I was about to call an Uber, my phone lit up. It was a Snapchat message from Ethan. “The checkup is done. The doctor says Sienna needs some warm comfort food.” “Come to the Italian restaurant next door. Let’s eat together.”
I pushed open the door to the private dining room. Ethan and Sienna were sitting close together at a round table. Hearing the door, Ethan didn’t even look up. He was carefully pouring warm water for Sienna. “Have a seat. Sienna felt bad about taking your appointment, so she insisted on inviting you.” His tone was casual, like he was throwing a bone to an outsider. The waiter pushed the cart in. “We have a full house today. We only have one portion of our signature truffle pasta left.” The steaming plate of pasta was placed right in the middle of the table. The painkillers were burning my empty stomach. I desperately needed some hot food to coat it. Just as I picked up my fork, Ethan took the plate of pasta and slid it directly in front of Sienna. “Didn’t you already take your painkillers? Just grab a bagel or something.” “Sienna’s body is weak. Don’t act like a child and fight a sick person for food.” He completely ignored my fork, which was frozen in mid-air. Sienna looked at me with a fake, apologetic expression. “Ethan, this isn’t right. Chloe looks so pale, she must be in real pain… Maybe I should just drink some water…” Ethan gave me a look full of annoyance and blame. “Don’t worry about her. I’ve just spoiled her too much lately.” “She writes code all day and eats cold leftovers without a single complaint. She’s tough.” “Now she’s learned to fake being sick just to get attention because she’s jealous.” I pulled my fork back. It clattered weakly against my empty plate. For three years, to make sure he had a hot meal when he came home, I had reheated dinners over and over again, learning to cook everything he liked. But now, in his eyes, my sacrifices meant I was “used to cold food,” and my damaged stomach was just “tough.” Suddenly, Sienna stood up. As she moved, she bumped into a freshly poured cup of hot coffee. The boiling liquid spilled across the rotating table, rushing straight toward me. Ethan immediately pulled Sienna into his arms to shield her. The scalding coffee splashed directly onto the back of my hand. My fork slipped from my grip. My skin instantly turned a violent, blistered red. Only then did Ethan look at my hand. He walked over, grabbed my wrist, and dragged me toward the restroom. Under the sink, cold water rushed over my burned skin. But Ethan’s voice was filled with nothing but irritation. “You’re usually so quick at work. Why were you so slow just now?” “You saw the cup tip over. Couldn’t you have moved out of the way?” The cold water hit the raw burn. I kept my head down and didn’t struggle. I only remembered how, two years ago, I had gotten a tiny blister from cooking for him. He had been so heartbroken that he banned me from doing chores for a month. Now, my skin was peeling from a severe burn, and he was blaming me for not dodging. We had only been rinsing it for ten seconds. Hearing Sienna cough back in the private room, his movements became hurried and careless. “Go buy some burn cream at the pharmacy later. Don’t let it scar.” I slowly pulled my hand out of his grip. “No need to rinse anymore.” “I don’t feel the pain anyway.” Ethan didn’t realize how much he had changed. He didn’t think he was being biased. Instead, he took our three years of history for granted. He thought our love was so unshakable that he could freely give his attention and care to another fragile woman. He believed that no matter how much he hurt me, I would never leave him. Back in the dining room, I turned around and walked straight toward the exit. Ethan called out to me, his voice sharp with displeasure. “Where are you going? The food’s barely touched. What kind of tantrum is this?” I didn’t turn back. I just placed my hand on the door handle. “The office has an emergency system bug to fix. I have to go.” “Enjoy your meal.” The moment the door closed behind me, I pulled out my phone and dialed a number. “Hi, Mrs. Gable. The old suburban apartment you mentioned last time… Can we sign the lease today?”
The city bus rattled down the bumpy road. This place was far from the bustling downtown. I met Mrs. Gable at the end of a quiet alley. Without any bargaining, I quickly signed the lease and paid six months of rent upfront. Right after, I submitted my request to transfer to our company’s remote branch. By evening, the weather turned violent. A sudden thunderstorm hit the city. Street water quickly rose to my ankles, and all bus lines were suspended. I opened my rideshare app. There were over three hundred people ahead of me in the queue. I stood shivering under the awning of a closed grocery store, the burn on my hand throbbing in the freezing wind. Just then, Ethan’s black Maybach slowly pulled up across the street, right in front of a trendy dessert shop. I thought he had tracked my location and came to pick me up. I was about to open my umbrella and walk over, but then the car door shut loudly. Ethan got out, ran into the shop, bought several boxes of luxury pastries, and ran back to the car. My phone rang at that exact moment. “Chloe, are you still stuck in the rain? Find a Starbucks to dry off.” “Sienna has been terrified of thunder since she was a kid. The noise just now made her turn pale.” “The traffic here is horrible. I can’t make a detour to pick you up. Find your own way back, okay?” “Don’t be childish and overthink this. I’ll make you something good when I get home.” The call cut off. I watched the luxury car make a U-turn, splashing muddy water everywhere as it sped away. I remembered when he couldn’t even afford a used car, and we got caught in a storm like this. He didn’t have an umbrella back then. Without hesitation, he took off his only jacket and held it over my head. He had held me tight as we ran through the downpour. Even though he was soaked to the bone, he smiled and kissed my forehead. “How could I let my girl get rained on and catch a cold?” Now, his luxury car had heated seats and warm drinks, but there was no longer a place for me. Unable to get a ride, I walked through the howling storm for three hours. When I finally pushed open the door of our villa, I was drenched and shivering. Dragging my numb legs, I went straight to the closet to pack my oldest belongings. Since I had decided to disappear, I wouldn’t leave a single trace behind. As soon as I taped up the last box, Sienna posted a short video on Snapchat. Ethan was holding a soft towel, gently drying her hair. Someone in their friend group chat commented: “Is Mr. Vance rekindling his old flame? Settling down for real this time?” He didn’t reply. In their circle, silence was basically confirmation. I stared at the video for three seconds. Ever since Sienna came back, the constant anxiety and fear of losing him that had plagued my heart suddenly vanished. It was completely quiet now. I no longer wanted to try those trending couples’ challenges, nor did I crave his instant replies. He had personally crushed my sense of security and handed it all to someone else. But none of that mattered anymore. The Ethan who used to kiss my forehead in the rain had died long ago in the passage of these three years. My phone screen lit up again with an email notification. “Your transfer request to the remote branch has been approved. Please complete your hand-off within three days and report to your new office.”
I developed a high fever. The cold rain and the infected burn on my hand made my body burn like fire. Inside the walk-in closet, I didn’t touch any of the expensive dresses or jewelry he had bought without even knowing my size. At 8:00 PM, the electronic lock on the front door beeped. I thought Ethan wouldn’t come back, but he did—and he brought Sienna with him. He looked up and saw the cardboard boxes stacked in the living room. “Sienna’s hotel is having an electrical maintenance outage, and she’s afraid of the dark.” “The guest room has been empty anyway. I brought her here to stay for a couple of nights.” “Why are you packing boxes in the living room?” Before I could answer, Ethan noticed my pale face. Ignoring my resistance, he pulled me into his arms from behind. “Stop acting up.” “She’s only staying for two nights. You’ve been with me for three years. You’re the sensible one.” “Don’t act like a petty little girl. Be mature.” He was so sure that I loved him to death, convinced that this was just my way of begging for his attention. I didn’t struggle. I let him hold me, my eyes looking past his shoulder, coldly staring at my own reflection in the window. Sienna walked around the living room. Her eyes landed on a small ornament hanging by the sink. It was a silver protection charm. Two years ago, I had walked up the steps of the cathedral, kneeling at every step, to pray for it. Sienna picked it up and toyed with it. “Ethan, this little thing is so unique.” Two years ago, Ethan had a high fever that wouldn’t break for a week, despite all the meds. Desperate, I had braved a massive blizzard alone to get this charm from the cathedral. At that time, Ethan kept the charm pressed against his chest like a priceless treasure, refusing to take it off even when showering. He had sworn that I had risked my life to get it for him, that it was more precious than his own life, and no one was allowed to touch it. But now, Sienna was casually playing with it. “I actually need a charm for my bag. Can I have this?” Ethan let her play with the item he once valued more than his life, not seeing anything wrong with it. “It’s just a cheap trinket. Take it if you want.” “I’ll have my secretary buy you a nice Chanel bag charm from the mall later.” In his eyes, I had already passed the age of needing to be carefully cherished. He took it for granted that because I had stood by him through the hard times, I should be the mature, understanding, and obedient pushover. I snatched the charm out of Sienna’s hand. Sienna gasped and took a step back. “Why are you being so stingy?” I didn’t even look at her. “You’re right. A piece of cheap trash doesn’t deserve to be a charm.” Ethan’s face instantly darkened, but Sienna quickly grabbed his arm. “It’s fine, Ethan. Don’t be mad.” “You have to accompany me to the medical equipment expo tomorrow morning. It’s a busy schedule.” She was intentionally marking her territory for tomorrow. Ethan gave me a cold look. “Calm yourself down tonight. We’ll talk later.” With that, he led Sienna up to the second-floor guest room. Just then, my phone buzzed continuously. It was an urgent text from the moving company. “Miss Miller, the weather bureau just issued a red alert. The hurricane will make landfall early tomorrow morning.” “All of tomorrow’s orders are canceled.” “If you are sure you want to move tonight, our truck will arrive at your back gate in ten minutes.” “It’s now or never. Can you leave right now?” I looked up at the tightly shut guest room door on the second floor. The warm light spilling from under the door stung my eyes. He was probably coddling his “insecure” first love right now. For the past few years, I had stared at empty chat screens, waiting for his care and affection, looking like a pathetic joke. Now, the storm was coming, but the man who was supposed to be my shelter had already put his umbrella over someone else. Since I could never get a reply, I would cut the last thread of hope myself. Without hesitation, I typed back and hit send. “I can leave right now.”
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