After Austin stood me up for the fifth time, he finally cleared his schedule for our sixth attempt to get our marriage license. I wore a custom designer dress I made myself, holding a fresh bouquet of peonies, and stood outside City Hall early in the morning. But I waited from 7:00 AM until 5:00 PM. He never showed up. Just as the City Hall doors locked, a text from Austin popped up on my phone. “It’s Hailey’s birthday today. I need to celebrate with her first. We’ll get married next time.” Right after that, a massive firework display lit up the city sky. Passersby stopped, looking up in awe. “Look! Mr. Miller is setting off fireworks for his muse again. That is so romantic!” I walked home, my soul completely crushed. My five-year-old daughter, Lily, was sitting on the porch, shivering from the cold. “Mommy, Daddy promised to take me out for McDonald’s. But I waited so long, and he never came.” Six attempts to get married. Six broken promises. And now, even my daughter was becoming a victim of his neglect. I threw my bouquet straight into the trash and hugged my shaking little girl tight. “We are not waiting anymore, sweetie.” “Never again.”
I brought Lily inside, made her some warm ginger tea, and cooked dinner. Lily kept crying, asking why her daddy lied to her. My heart ached terribly. I had waited for Austin for six long years, but I could never win even a fraction of his time. And now, my daughter was forced to walk the same painful path of waiting. I had to stop this. No matter what. While I was running a bubble bath for Lily, Austin finally stumbled through the front door. He held a cheap, plastic takeout box from a fancy restaurant, looking like he wanted a reward. “Look, I brought you guys some gourmet snacks! Lily, do you like it?” I had already seen Hailey’s Instagram story. She and Austin had just dined at a luxury rotating rooftop restaurant. This box was just a free leftover giveaway from the restaurant. Lily frowned and pushed it away. “My classmates say this is just cheap free stuff from restaurants, Daddy. You don’t care about me at all.” Austin rubbed his nose, quickly trying to change the subject. “Sorry, baby girl. Daddy was just way too busy today.” He walked into the bathroom and hugged me from behind. “Chloe, don’t be mad. I promise I’ll marry you next time.” I ignored him. He kept coaxing. “We’ve been together for so long anyway. We don’t need a piece of paper to prove our love, right?” “Once this busy season at work is over, I’ll make it up to you.” I asked him flatly, “When exactly will you be done being busy?” He froze, unable to answer. “First, you said you were busy with the company’s IPO. I waited.” “Then, you said Lily was too young and needed care. I waited too.” “Now, Hailey has been back for three years, and you haven’t mentioned our wedding once. I had to beg you just to get you to City Hall.” I raised my eyes, staring at him blankly. “How much longer do I have to wait just to get one hour of your time?” “Do Lily and I have to live like dirty secrets forever without a legal name?” His face instantly darkened. “Don’t say things like that. You know I don’t mean that.” “You and Lily are the most important people in my life, but…” He looked frustrated. “But Hailey is still traumatized by her divorce. She gets severe panic attacks and chest pains whenever she sees couples getting married. We have to be understanding.” He gently stroked my hair, his voice softening. “She saved my life back in college, Chloe. I can’t bear to see her suffer.” “Once her son starts elementary school, things will settle, and I’ll send them back to Europe.” I had heard this excuse a thousand times. Hailey was Austin’s college sweetheart. She had saved him once when he was being severely bullied. But she dumped him when his first startup failed, getting pregnant by a wealthy businessman instead. Years later, the businessman dumped her, leaving her penniless. Naturally, she crawled back to Austin. That night, Austin had held me and cried, claiming he hated her. “She abandoned me when I was at my worst! You and your mother gave me the strength to live, Chloe!” “I will never forgive her!” I had wiped his tears, promising to stay by his side forever. But the very next day, he bought a luxury apartment in the building next to ours and moved Hailey and her son right in. “I don’t love her anymore, Chloe. But her kid is innocent. Once she gets a job, they’ll leave.” That was the beginning of my endless waiting. Three years had passed, and they were still here. I suddenly spoke up, “I’m done waiting for you.” “Go do whatever you want. Just don’t bother me.” He didn’t notice the absolute exhaustion in my eyes. He pointed at the bathtub. “Don’t let Lily play in the water for too long. Look how sleepy she is.” A sudden rage flared up in my chest. “She isn’t sleepy! She has a fever! Can’t you see that as her father?” “If you hadn’t promised to take her out, she wouldn’t have stood on the porch waiting for you in the freezing cold!” Austin stood frozen, looking guilty. “I… I’m so sorry. I really forgot. I’ll get her some medicine right now.” But by the time I finished reading Lily two bedtime stories, he still hadn’t brought the medicine.
I changed into my pajamas and walked out. Austin was staring at his phone, smiling. “Where is the medicine?” He looked up, completely blank. “What medicine? Oh, babe, look at this! Mason is so smart. He’s reciting Shakespeare’s sonnets!” He shoved his phone in my face. On FaceTime, Hailey’s son was clumsily reciting a poem. Whenever Lily tried to show Austin her English spelling bee words, he always looked annoyed. Yet here he was, acting like a devoted father, teaching another man’s kid line by line. I asked quietly, “Did you forget your own daughter is sick?” He snapped back to reality, looking embarrassed. “Sorry. I’ll look for the medicine now.” Hailey’s face appeared on the screen, looking guilty but smug. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Chloe. My son just loves learning so much, he ended up taking up all of Austin’s time.” “I’ll make sure to limit our FaceTime calls to only three hours a night next time.” Austin searched the cabinet and said, “It’s fine. Loving books is a good thing. My daughter only wants to go to Disneyland all day. She has no ambition.” “And three hours isn’t enough anyway. Don’t we still need to review your fashion design drafts tonight?” Hailey smiled shyly, her eyes flashing with a hidden victory. “Thank you, Austin. If it weren’t for you, I really wouldn’t know what to do…” “Don’t say that. Your happiness is all that matters.” Austin stood up and said to me, “Chloe, we’re out of NyQuil. I’m going down to the 24-hour pharmacy. Take care of Lily.” He kept the FaceTime call active, rushing out the door without looking back. For the past three years, he spent every single evening like this—talking to Hailey. I ordered the medicine on DoorDash instead. I wasn’t going to wait for him. Half an hour later, a sweating delivery guy knocked on the door. “Sorry, ma’am. The elevator in your building is broken. I had to run up the stairs.” “I hope I didn’t delay your kid’s medicine.” I thanked him profusely and handed him a bottle of cold water. “Not at all. Thank you so much.” He chugged the water, waved, and left. Three hours later, Austin finally returned with a bottle of cough syrup. “Sorry, babe. The elevator was broken, so I had to take the stairs. And Hailey had a minor emergency…” It was laughable. Even a random DoorDash driver knew the urgency of delivering medicine, yet Austin let his sick five-year-old daughter wait three hours. I didn’t even look at him. “No need. She’s already asleep.” He fell silent, mumbling a guilty “sorry.” That was his default reaction to us for the past three years. I went to Lily’s room to sleep. Now that I had decided to let him go, every second spent near him felt like torture. The next morning, Lily ran up to Austin, full of excitement. “Daddy, next Tuesday is my school’s Field Day! Will you come play with me?” Kids have short memories. She still wanted to be close to her father. Austin, wanting to redeem himself, nodded instantly. “Of course! Daddy will definitely be there and win first place for you!” Lily happily got onto the school bus, waving goodbye. Austin lowered his hand, turned to me, and said, “Hey, can you let Hailey look at your new fall fashion drafts?” “She’s hit a creative block. I helped her look at her drafts all night, but I couldn’t help much.” My footsteps paused. I studied fashion design, and so did Hailey. Whenever I was stressed about my designs, losing sleep over fabric and cuts, Austin would only scoff. “Nobody’s job is easy. Either deal with it or quit.” So I stopped sharing my struggles with him. But when Hailey came back, he suddenly forgot his own words. Not only did he spend every night helping her find inspiration, but he even started learning about fashion design just to help her.
I rejected him coldly. “No. The new collection is confidential. I can’t share it.” He frowned. “It’s just a draft. It’s not like she’s stealing the actual product. Don’t be so petty, Chloe.” I looked at him with a mocking smile. “When I wanted to buy a specific fabric from Hailey’s company years ago, what did you say to me?” Back then, he said I was malicious, trying to copy Hailey’s source materials under the guise of buying them. Austin’s face darkened. “Just help her this once. If you do, we’ll go to City Hall next month.” “Otherwise, I’m way too busy. The wedding will have to wait until next year.” I stared at the man threatening me. Once, he held me and said he couldn’t wait to make me his wife. Now, he was weaponizing our marriage to help the woman who had abandoned him. I let out a bitter laugh. “Then let’s not get married.” “I don’t want to marry you anymore.” I started my car and drove off, leaving him standing there in shock. I started a silent treatment. Or rather, I simply checked out of the relationship. I stopped waiting for him to come home, stopped cooking his dinners, and stopped leaving the porch light on. Every night, I slept in Lily’s room. I used to think leaving Austin would leave a massive void in my life. Instead, I felt incredibly light. Austin didn’t even notice. He was still FaceTiming Hailey every night, playing dad to Mason. I thought we would just drift apart quietly. But that weekend, my mother, Audrey, was rushed to the ER. The hospital issued three critical condition notices. I sobbed by her bedside. My mother weakly gripped my hand. “Don’t cry, sweetie. Everyone has to go eventually.” “Is Austin still busy? Is he not coming?” I looked at my phone. Austin had declined all my calls. I shook my head, tears streaming down my face. I had called him over a hundred times. He ignored every single one, eventually blocking my number. I slapped myself in pure regret and despair. My mother sighed deeply, placing a vintage jade pendant in my hand. “Keep this, my child. If you meet someone who truly loves you in the future, give it to him.” She knew Austin was not a good man for me. She closed her eyes, and the heart monitor went flat. My mother hated noisy crowds, so I handled her funeral completely alone. When I finally walked back into our apartment, Austin was on a video call with Hailey. “The campus changed so much! I actually found our old engraved initials on the bench. We were so lucky today.” I froze in the doorway. My already dead heart was ripped open once again, bleeding profusely. He didn’t decline my calls because of work. He was busy strolling down memory lane on his college campus with Hailey. Austin saw me and said casually, “Where have you been? I have news.” “I took your new fall design drafts and gave them to Hailey. She needs a solid debut to establish herself in her new company.” “Consider it a favor. She said she’ll thank you later.” I stared at him, unable to believe my ears. “That draft was my mother’s final masterpiece left to me! It is the only copy! How dare you give it away?!” Austin scoffed impatiently, “Just ask her to sketch a few more. ‘Only copy’? You make it sound like she passed away or something.” The final string of sanity in my brain snapped. *Slap!* I slapped him across the face with everything I had. Years ago, my mother had saved Austin from drowning, sustaining a severe head injury that ended her own design career. And now, she had just passed away, and her final legacy was stolen by the very man she saved. The man who had ignored my emergency calls, leaving my mother to die with regret. Austin clutched his burning cheek, outraged. “It’s just a dress! Who cares whose name is on it?” “Fine! I already scheduled our marriage appointment for next month! Consider it your compensation. Are you happy now?” I stared at his face. When did the passionate, responsible man I once loved turn into this disgusting monster? I raised my hand and slapped him again. “Get out! We are over!”
Austin stood there, completely dumbfounded, holding his face. Hailey’s panicked voice came through the phone speaker. “Austin! Are you okay? Do you need me to bring you some ice?” “Chloe, how can you be so violent?!” “If you didn’t want to share the drafts, you could have just said so! Why did you have to hit him?” Under her gentle, caring tone, I was framed as the crazy, ungrateful villain. Austin finally snapped out of it, letting out a cold sneer. “I see. You don’t want to get married at all.” “Break up? Fine! Let’s see who else would want a single mother like you!” He slammed the door and stormed out. Shortly after, my lead assistant called, sounding frantic. “Chloe! Our new fall design was just posted by another fashion brand! What is going on?” My heart sank. I clicked the link. Hailey’s company had just released a sneak peek of their new collection. It was my mother’s design, copied pixel for pixel. She claimed she would never steal, yet she immediately plagiarized my mother’s final work. Without a word, I opened my home security app to check the footage. Only Austin had access to the physical drafts in my study. To give them to Hailey, he had to have taken them from my desk. But the security footage for the past three days was completely wiped clean. I called Austin, my voice shaking with rage. “You deleted the security footage? This is blatant plagiarism! How dare you enable her?!” Austin was silent for a long moment before speaking. “I gave her the drafts, but I didn’t think she would copy them exactly.” “But this collection is crucial for her career. We can’t expose her now.” “Chloe, can you just let this go? I promise I won’t do it again.” “I’ll buy that retirement cottage your mom wanted so badly as an apology.” I felt my heart being torn to shreds. “It’s too late, Austin. She passed away. Last night.” “While you only cared about your precious Hailey.” “What? Your mom… she was fine last month…” I didn’t want to hear another word. I hung up, letting the tears fall freely. I immediately began searching online for a new apartment to rent, wanting to move Lily out as soon as possible. On Tuesday afternoon, just as I was about to meet a real estate agent, Lily came running into the house. She was crying so hard she could barely breathe, her knees scraped and bleeding. “Daddy… Daddy didn’t play with me at Field Day. He played with Mason instead.” “I fell down, and he just held Mason and laughed at me. He said I was clumsy!” “Mommy… I don’t want Daddy anymore!” My heart broke into a million pieces. I hugged Lily, cleaning and bandaging her scraped knees. “Okay, baby. If you don’t want him, I don’t want him either. It’ll just be you and me from now on, okay?” Lily sobbed, nodding. “Okay…” Suddenly, the front door was pushed open. Mason ran in, his dirty sneakers leaving mud tracks all over the hardwood floor. “Wow! This apartment is so big and cool! I love it!” Hailey walked in slowly, a massive smug smile on her face. “Nice decor. I love the sunroom. Austin, you really have great taste.” I stood up, holding Lily, staring coldly at Hailey. “This is my home. Get the hell out.” When Austin first brought Hailey back, my only rule was that she was never allowed in our home. Hailey didn’t say a word, her smirk only widening. Austin walked in behind her, looking at me with a heavy, cold gaze. Then, he spoke. “I gave this apartment to Hailey.” “It’s her home now.” Hailey raised her chin. “I won the Rookie Designer Award. Austin said he’d reward me with an apartment. I chose this one.” “I’ll give you three days to pack up your kid and get out of my apartment.” Austin took Hailey and her son to a five-star steakhouse to celebrate. After checking them into a luxury suite at the Ritz-Carlton, Austin drove back to our old apartment. Even though he gave the apartment to Hailey, he had secretly bought a luxury Tudor-style villa for Chloe—the exact European style she had always dreamed of. He was sure she would cry tears of joy when she found out. But when he unlocked the door, the apartment was completely empty. The only thing left behind was the diamond engagement ring Chloe had worn for years, tossed carelessly into the trash can.
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