1 Late at night, Jordan’s heart rate spiked to 180 while he was “out of town.” I called and heard panting, though he claimed to be jogging after texting he was in bed. A woman’s giggle echoed before the line died. Checking his hidden Twitter, I saw his post: “If this gets 100 likes, I’ll confess I’m cheating.” An anonymous text followed, dozens of photos proving Jordan and my best friend Ruby had been together for over a year. My phone clattered to the floor. Jordan hated watches yet wore the one I gave him tonight. This was his twisted confession. Nails biting into my palms, I called back, throat tight. “I got your confession,” I said. “We’re done.” … Half an hour later, Jordan burst through the front door. He had rushed all the way back from his supposed out of town trip. He rubbed a towel over his rain soaked hair and shot me a deeply annoyed glare. “What kind of tantrum are you throwing this time? Breaking up out of nowhere?” I didn’t scream. I just turned my phone around and shoved the gallery of him and Ruby right in his face. For a rare second, Jordan was actually speechless. A long, suffocating silence stretched between us. Finally, he gave a careless shrug. “Since you already know everything, I guess there is no point in hiding it.” “Ruby and I are together.” His tone was incredibly casual. He sounded like he was deciding what to order for takeout. The sheer disrespect felt like a physical blow to my ribs. I couldn’t breathe. My last shred of sanity snapped. I lunged at him, grabbing him by the collar of his expensive shirt, and screamed until my throat tore. “Why? Why would you do this to me?!” “You promised me you would never cheat again!” “You swore on your life!” Jordan frowned. He reached up and gently wiped a tear from my cheek. His touch was so tender, yet his words were dipped in absolute poison. “Stella, you know your health is fragile. You can’t handle anything too strenuous.” “I just needed a physical outlet. Is it really such a crime for a guy to find a release?” I froze completely. My hands lost all their strength and dropped dead at my sides. He had used almost the exact same excuse before. A year ago. The very first time I caught him sneaking around with Ruby. Back then, Jordan’s eyes were bloodshot as he frantically tried to explain himself. “I just got caught up in the moment, Stella! I lost control. I just needed to blow off some steam!” He had dropped to his knees right there on the living room rug, begging me over and over not to leave him. Being betrayed by my partner and my best friend at the exact same time broke me. I fell into a pitch black depression. One night, completely overwhelmed by the pain, I climbed up to the rooftop of our building. Jordan had completely lost his mind. He sprinted up the stairs, grabbed me away from the ledge, and dragged me back to safety. He was sobbing uncontrollably. “I messed up! I messed up so badly!” “I will never see her again! I swear to God I will never do anything to hurt you ever again!” “You can punish me however you want, just please do not hurt yourself!” “I can’t survive without you, Stella!” I eventually caved. I chose to forgive him. And for a long time, Jordan actually kept his word. He stopped going out for drinks. He stopped attending late night networking events. He went straight to the office and came straight home, checking in with me constantly. But there was a catch. Every single month, he had to take a mandatory five day business trip. I honestly believed it was just corporate obligations. Until tonight. He was just using company time to hook up with Ruby. He never cut her off. He just got better at hiding her. The dam finally broke, and tears spilled hot down my cheeks. I forced myself to look him dead in the eye. “Jordan. We are done.” “I cannot forgive you this time. I won’t.” Seeing that I wasn’t getting hysterical or throwing things, Jordan seemed to realize I was actually serious. He reached into his duffel bag, pulled out a small velvet ring box, and held it out to me. “Come on, stop being mad. Ruby is literally just a toy to me. Just a distraction. Why are you letting this get under your skin?” “Haven’t you always wanted to lock this down and get married? You even tried to trap me with a baby back then.” “Well today is your lucky day. I’m willing to make it official.” My nose burned fiercely, but I bit my lip hard enough to keep fresh tears from falling. My body had always been incredibly frail. Whenever Jordan and I were intimate, he always had to be incredibly careful. Three years ago, against all odds, I finally got pregnant. I was absolutely thrilled. I brought the ultrasound printout home and showed it to him, expecting him to lift me in the air. Instead, he just stared at the paper and frowned. “Stella, I still want to enjoy our freedom for a few more years. We can always have kids later.” But because my body was so weak, the subsequent termination completely destroyed my reproductive system. The doctors told me I would never be able to conceive again. I looked at Jordan through blurred vision, a bitter, broken smile forming on my lips. With shaking hands, I popped open the velvet box. There was no diamond inside. Just the cheap metal pull tab from a soda can. I stood there totally paralyzed. At that exact moment, Jordan’s phone speaker crackled to life. It was Ruby, laughing hysterically. “Surprised, Stella?” “I snuck into his bag and swapped out the huge diamond he bought you.” “Honestly? I think a piece of trash like a soda tab suits you way better.” Jordan laughed lightly, playfully scolding Ruby through the phone, before turning back to me with a smooth explanation. “Ruby just wanted to see how you would react to catching me again. She is just a little wild and loves playing pranks. Don’t take it personally.” “I swear I had no idea she swapped the ring out, though.” I clamped my teeth down on my bottom lip, refusing to speak. Jordan ended the call and reached out to gently ruffle my hair, exactly like he used to do when things were perfect. “What’s wrong? Are you actually upset?” “Ruby grew up in the system with no parents. She barely even finished high school. You know she lacks basic manners, so just be the bigger person.” I stared into Jordan’s eyes. My chest felt like it was packed with burning coals. He was lying through his teeth. Nobody goes out of their way to make long, passionate excuses for a woman who is just a “distraction.” He was only defending her because he was terrified I might snap and go after her. Jordan changed out of his damp clothes. He was about to say something else when his phone lit up again. He answered it briefly, hung up, and walked over to the hallway mirror. He spent a solid minute perfectly styling his hair before grabbing his car keys. “Ruby needs me for something real quick. I’m going to run over to her place.” Right as his hand touched the doorknob, he paused and looked back at me. “Stella, I promise I will never let her take your place.” “In my heart, you are the only woman I will ever call my wife.” He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly as he tried to read my expression. “Just please. Don’t go out of your way to bully Ruby.” “She has already had a really hard life.” The front door clicked shut. His headlights swept across the living room wall, fading into the dark street. I stood alone in the massive, empty house, and finally let out a raw, agonizing scream. No one on earth knew Ruby better than I did. We grew up together in the same run down brick apartment complex on the east side of the city. When she was seven, loan sharks drove her parents to suicide. The police found her sitting on the pavement outside her building, crying hysterically. My mother had a heart of gold. She brought Ruby home and raised her exactly like she was her own flesh and blood. But Ruby absolutely hated school. She started skipping class, hanging out with the local gangs, and constantly getting into trouble. My mother bailed her out of holding cells and apologized to neighbors time and time again. My mom wasn’t even forty, but the stress turned her hair completely gray. When Ruby turned eighteen, she got into a massive bar fight and slashed another girl’s face with a broken bottle. The victim’s family demanded a two hundred thousand dollar settlement to drop the charges. My mother had no choice but to bite the bullet. She worked three brutal jobs just to keep Ruby out of prison. The very week the final payment was made, my mother collapsed at the diner where she worked. Her body just gave out from sheer exhaustion. She died before the ambulance even arrived. She left me all alone in the world. I bet my mom never imagined this. She traded her own life to save Ruby. And a decade later, Ruby would be the one twisting a knife into her daughter’s back. A sharp knock at the door pulled me out of my thoughts. It was Simon, Jordan’s executive assistant. He handed me a small jewelry box. The real one this time. “Mr. Jordan knows you have been looking at this specific cut for a long time. He custom ordered it for you last month.” I opened the box and ran my thumb over the cold, heavy diamond. Jordan remembered that I loved this design. But this was the ring I wanted two years ago. The style was already outdated. I didn’t get it when I wanted it, and I certainly did not want it now. Simon cleared his throat. “Mr. Jordan also said you have full creative control over the wedding arrangements. You don’t need to worry about the budget.” A dry, hollow laugh escaped my lips. I couldn’t even form words. A wedding is supposed to be for two people. But he was just dumping the entire burden of planning onto me while he went off to sleep with my best friend. If this marriage meant so little to him, then it simply wasn’t going to happen. I looked out at the storm raging outside the windows. I pulled out my phone and dialed my corporate director. “I’ll take the transfer to the Berlin branch.” A month ago, upper management asked me to relocate to Europe as a regional Vice President. I had been stalling because I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Jordan. Now, there was absolutely nothing tying me down. The very next morning, Jordan walked through the front door. He wasn’t alone. Ruby was trailing right behind him. “Ruby heard you were stressing about wedding planning, so she came over to help you bounce some ideas around.” As Jordan bent down to take off his shoes, his collar slipped. I saw fresh, aggressive red scratch marks trailing down his collarbone. My stomach violently flipped. A wave of pure nausea crawled up my throat. I clamped a hand over my mouth, bolted to the downstairs bathroom, and started dry heaving over the sink. Jordan rushed in behind me, rubbing circles into my back, his voice full of panic as he asked if I had food poisoning. Ruby just leaned against the doorframe and laughed out loud. “Stella isn’t sick. She is just disgusted seeing us together. It’s a psychological reflex making her gag.” The second the words left her mouth, Jordan’s hand dropped from my back. “Stella, please stop throwing these little tantrums.” “Ruby came all the way out here out of the goodness of her heart to help you. Do you really have to act like this?” A tidal wave of pure anger and betrayal rushed into my brain. I completely lost it. “I never asked for her help! She invited herself!” “She is just trying to rub her shameless face in my home!” The temperature in the bathroom plummeted to freezing. Ruby’s eyes immediately filled with crocodile tears. Her lip quivered perfectly. “I’m so sorry, Stella. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have been so impulsive and crashed your morning.” “Please don’t be mad. I’ll just leave.” She said she was going to leave, but her feet stayed planted exactly where they were. Jordan immediately stepped in front of Ruby, shielding her with his body. He glared at me like I was a complete monster. “Stella, you are crossing a massive line right now!” “Ruby has been your best friend since you were kids! How can you stand there and say such cruel things to her?” “She always puts you first! She has never once tried to compete with you for anything! You have a friend who would jump on a grenade for you, and you are still complaining?” The raw fury in Jordan’s eyes burned straight through my soul. I closed my eyes, and a montage of our entire relationship flashed behind my eyelids. A year ago, when I first found out he was cheating, the betrayal triggered severe clinical depression. I completely lost my grip. I started hurting myself just to feel something other than the crushing heartbreak. Every single time Jordan caught me cutting myself, he would grab the blade and cut his own arm twice as deep. He would press his bleeding hands over my eyes, pulling me into his chest. “It’s my fault, Stella. If you’re going to bleed, I’m going to bleed with you.” When my insomnia got so bad I couldn’t sleep for days, he hired contractors to tear the roof off the master bedroom and install massive skylights so he could hold me and count the stars until the sun came up. When I refused to eat, he starved himself right alongside me. We lived in that dark, agonizing purgatory for over six months before I finally started to heal. I clawed my way out of the mud for him. I never expected this. Barely a few months later, he was the one shoving me right back into the swamp. The man who had cried blood swearing he would never betray me again. Was now standing like a bodyguard, protecting another woman from me. Jordan took a deep, jagged breath, clearly trying to reign in his temper. He pointed up the sweeping staircase to the guest wing and looked at Ruby. “Go on upstairs and pick out whichever room you like best.” That was when I noticed the pink designer suitcase Ruby had been hiding behind her legs the entire time. “You’re letting her move in here?” I asked, my voice completely hollow. Before Jordan could even respond, Ruby completely broke character. She clapped her hands and lunged forward, trying to grab my arm. “Stella! We finally get to be roommates again! Aren’t you excited?!” “Remember when we were little kids in the projects? You said you wanted us to live together forever!” “Well your dream finally came true! Are you happy?!” I stared at her in sheer disbelief. A toxic cocktail of rage and pure, unfiltered hatred boiled over in my chest. I raised my hand and slapped her across the face with everything I had. “Are you proud of yourself, Ruby?” “Twenty years ago, you took my mother away from me. Now you want to take my fiancé. Do you just get off on ruining my life?” “Are you completely incapable of building your own damn home?!” The massive house fell dead silent. The only sound was Ruby sobbing into her hands. And my own ragged breathing echoing off the walls. Jordan gently pressed an ice pack against Ruby’s swollen cheek. When he finally looked at me, his eyes were devoid of any warmth. “Stella, let’s get one thing straight. This isn’t your home.” “I bought this house. My name is on the deed.” It felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water directly over my head. He was right. He paid for the mortgage. What right did I have to claim this as my territory? A pathetic, tragic smile broke across my face. “Fine. Then I’ll leave.” Ruby immediately dropped the ice pack and grabbed my wrist in a vice grip, refusing to let go. “Stella, please don’t do this! Jordan didn’t mean it, he is just stressed out!” “I’m the one who should go!” I looked at Ruby’s face. The fake concern painted over the smug, victorious gleam in her eyes made me physically sick to my stomach. Jordan’s voice cut through the room like a blade. “Ruby, let her go.” “If she is dead set on walking out that door, let her. Let her see exactly how miserable her life is going to be without me bankrolling it.” The storm outside was absolute chaos. The freezing rain soaked me to the bone in seconds. I dragged my feet through the flooding streets, barely able to put one foot in front of the other. I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I just instinctively walked back to the old, run down neighborhood where I grew up. When I pushed open the rotting wooden door of my childhood apartment, I froze. Jordan was sitting on my dusty childhood bed. He noticed my shock and tossed a dry towel at my chest. “Dry off before you catch pneumonia.” I let the towel drop to the floor. I just stared at him, my eyes burning. “How did you know I would be here?” Jordan smirked confidently. “Where else could you possibly go?” He stood up, picked the towel off the floor, and started aggressively rubbing my wet hair. “Walking in the rain isn’t as romantic as it looks in the movies, is it?” “Stop being a brat. Come back home with me.” I let out a long, shuddering breath. My hands balled into tight fists at my sides. When I finally spoke, my voice was so quiet I could barely hear myself. “Jordan, is it really that difficult to just love one person?” His hands paused. His entire demeanor shifted, irritation instantly flaring up again. “Is cheating a crime? Show me the law that says I can’t look for a little fun.” “Stop being such a drama queen, Stella.” Those two words hit me harder than a physical punch to the jaw. My face burned with humiliation. I stared at him, feeling like someone was carving pieces off my heart with a rusty butter knife. The pain was so relentless it was starting to make me numb. “Why did it have to be Ruby?” “You knew exactly what she meant to me. She was my absolute best friend. Are you really that desperate? Did you absolutely have to sleep with the only family I had left in this world?!” “You make me sick, Jordan!” He aggressively ran a hand through his hair, threw the damp towel onto the bed, and finally snapped. “Yeah! I am desperate!” “I have no morals! Is that what you want to hear?!” Jordan’s chest heaved. The volume of his voice shook the tiny room. “You know that massive car crash you got into six months ago? When you were terrified and called me from the ambulance?” “You think I was choked up on the phone because I was scared for you?!” “I wasn’t crying, Stella! Ruby just knew exactly how to work her mouth, and I was too overstimulated to hide the groans!” The tiny apartment plunged into a terrifying, suffocating silence. It wasn’t until a tear slipped down my chin that Jordan finally realized what he had just confessed. Panic completely erased the anger on his face. He reached out, desperately trying to backtrack, but I shoved him backward out the front door. Six months ago, a semi truck had rear ended my car on the freeway. The moment I regained consciousness in the wreckage, the very first thing I did was dial Jordan’s number. I had always wondered why it took him two full hours to drive ten miles to the hospital. While I was sobbing in absolute terror, bleeding onto a stretcher, my fiancé and my best friend were using my trauma as background noise for a hookup. The physical pain in my chest finally outpaced the pure rage. It felt like my heart was being crushed in a vice. Through the thin wooden door, I could hear Jordan apologizing over and over, begging me to open up. When I didn’t make a sound, he finally let out a heavy sigh. “Stella, I have a massive crisis at the firm. I need to go handle it. I will come back and check on you tomorrow.” His heavy footsteps faded down the stairwell. Inside the dark apartment, I sank to the floor and vomited until my throat bled, tears streaming down my face. My phone buzzed on the floorboards. The corporate office had pushed my flight forward to tonight. I wiped the spit and tears off my face. It felt like I was wiping away the last seven years of my life. I threw whatever essentials I had left into a duffel bag, called a cab, and headed straight to the international terminal. Right before I approached the boarding gate, my screen lit up with another desperate apology text from Jordan. I didn’t reply. I just permanently blocked his number and deleted his contact. The plane pierced through the clouds, leaving the wreckage of my city far below. From this moment on, Jordan and I were separated by an ocean. We would never cross paths again.
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