After spending half a year on exchange in London,my boyfriend and my best friend came to pick me up at JFK. Ethan had always been so conservative he would not even loosen the collar of his shirt,yet now there was a black stud in his ear. I reached out without thinking,wanting to touch it. He turned his head away on instinct. “Don’t touch it.” My best friend Ava laughed and threw herself into my arms,then turned and gave him a gentle glare. “Ethan,didn’t I teach you?Don’t be so cold.” As soon as she finished speaking,Ethan actually lowered his head and offered his ear to me. I froze for a few seconds,until something hard pressed against my collarbone. I looked down.It was Ava’s earring. Exactly the same as the one in Ethan’s ear. Ava straightened and asked,”Molly,are you leaving again this time?” I suddenly smiled,”No.” Perfect.Then I would not have to turn down the engagement my mother had mentioned. … Ava linked her arm through mine affectionately. “That’s great.Otherwise Ethan would miss you and still pretend nothing was wrong.” Ethan frowned slightly,his voice cool. “I wouldn’t.” Ava let go of me and raised her hand as if to smack his shoulder. “You still deny it?Didn’t you promise me last night you would learn to say what you really feel?” Ethan gave a low”Mm,”then reached out and caught Ava just as she nearly stepped on the wheel of my suitcase. “Careful.You promised me something too.” “Only if you behave first.” Ava stuck her tongue out at him,pretty and playful,with the ease of someone used to being spoiled by him. A faint smile passed through Ethan’s eyes. I stood there,feeling as if a sheet of clear glass had fallen between me and them. All at once,I felt like someone peeking at a happiness that belonged to other people. This was an Ethan I had never seen before. He followed rules almost to the point of rigidity. His shirts were always pressed without a single crease,his top button always fastened. Even his kisses were restrained,just a light touch before he pulled away. But now he had not only pierced his ear.He had learned how to admit he was wrong. Ava waved a hand in front of my face. “What are you thinking about?Don’t worry.I’ve trained your iceberg boyfriend into a decent boyfriend.He’s ready for pickup.” I suddenly laughed,my voice turning cold. “So is he your boyfriend now,or mine?” Ava’s smile stiffened. “Molly,that’s not what I meant.I just wanted Ethan to be more open with you.” Ethan frowned.”Molly Harper,do you have to come back and start attacking people right away?” Suddenly,I felt tired of all of it. The dozen-hour flight was exhausting. So were the past three years. I waved a hand and cut him off.”Forget I said anything.” I dragged my suitcase forward by myself and opened the passenger door. On the dashboard lay an uncapped lip gloss,a dusty rose shade I would never wear in my life. I shut the door with a snap and got into the back seat. Ava walked over,her tone perfectly natural. “Molly,why are you sitting in the back?Don’t you get carsick?” “It’s fine.It’s not far.” Ava said nothing more and slid easily into the passenger seat. She turned back to look at me,the black diamond on her earlobe flashing clearly under the car lights. “We’re taking you to an amazing Mexican place.Even someone as picky as Ethan says it’s not bad.” I did not answer.I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep. The moment we walked into the restaurant,the manager recognized them. “The window table again?The usual?You brought someone else today.A friend?” I glanced at Ethan.”I’m his girlfriend.” The manager froze for a second,then immediately swallowed whatever he had been about to say and led us to a table with an awkward smile. Before long,a table full of heavily seasoned Mexican dishes was set down,the smell of chilies and spices rushing up at me. My stomach turned. Ava kept putting food on my plate. Ethan suddenly said,”Eat your own food.She’s an adult.She doesn’t need you taking care of her like that.” After saying that,he pushed the steak he had already cut on his own plate over to Ava. Ava smiled until her eyes curved.”Fine.I’ll listen to you.” I said nothing.I only kept dipping the food on my plate into water again and again. Ethan’s fork stopped in midair.His throat moved once. “Do you want me to get you a soup that isn’t spicy?” Ava suddenly looked up.”Right,I almost forgot.Molly can’t eat spicy food.” The manager apologized.”The kitchen is slammed tonight,and the soup base is already sold out.I’m afraid we can’t change it.” Just then,my phone rang. I turned and walked outside. My mother’s voice was sour. “You went to your boyfriend the second you got off the plane,didn’t you?When are you going to remember to come see me?” “Mom,about the engagement you mentioned last time.Don’t cancel it.” “I thought you said you didn’t want to consider it…” Through the glass,I looked back inside. Ethan’s face was still cool,but his attention stayed on Ava. He picked out the food she liked and brushed away the hair that almost fell into her plate. “Not anymore,Mom.”

I returned to the restaurant.There was barely anything left on the table. Ava gave me an embarrassed smile. “You were gone for so long.Ethan kept insisting on giving me food.Should we order more?” Ethan’s tone was blunt.”She couldn’t eat it anyway.” I shook my head,picked up my bag,and walked out. Outside,a light rain had started. Ava spoke as if she had every right to decide for him.”Ethan,make sure Molly gets home safe.” Ethan’s voice came from behind me. “I’ll take you first.” Ava’s voice was coy.”My apartment is close by.” He frowned.”You just told me yesterday you hate rainy days.” I could not be bothered to listen anymore.I walked into the rain alone. “Then I’ll call a car myself.” Ethan paused. In the past,I would already have been asking him why with red eyes. But now I only stood by the curb and opened a ride-share app. He looked at me helplessly.”Stop making a scene.Stay there.I’ll take her home and come back for you.” The two of them soon disappeared into the rain. I got into the car I had called,and my phone vibrated. It was a message from a coworker. [Molly,weren’t you the one going to New York headquarters for training?Why is Ava’s name on the list?] I froze. I had spent an entire year preparing for that spot. Before I left for London,the department had clearly said it was basically mine,and they would start the paperwork when I came back. My hands shook as I typed. [When did this happen?] [Three months ago.I thought you knew.After all,Mr.Reed wrote the recommendation letter himself.He said your plans had changed and that you had voluntarily given it up.] I immediately scrolled back to the only message Ethan had taken the initiative to send me three months ago. He had written:[Study hard in London.Don’t overthink things.] Back then,I thought it was concern.It turned out to be nothing more than appeasement. When I got home,Ethan was already sitting on the living room sofa. “Why didn’t you wait for me?” He went into the bathroom,got a towel,and handed it to me. I took a small box from my bag and placed it on the coffee table. “For you.” Ethan opened it,then closed it again. “I’m not used to wearing rings.” I suddenly remembered those eleven nights. I had slowly taught myself how to design and polish a ring,cutting my hands three times and burning two blisters onto my fingertips,but the E engraved inside still came out crooked. Back then,I had foolishly hoped he might not notice. Of course he would never notice.He thought so little of it that he would never wear it at all. At that moment,all my patience reached its end. “So you can get used to an earring?” I grabbed the box and threw it straight into the trash. “You’ve been sulking all day because of this?”Impatience entered Ethan’s voice.”Ava gave me that.She’s your best friend.I couldn’t throw it away in front of her.” “Can you stop getting angry over little things like this?You said I was rigid.Now I’ve changed,and you’re still unhappy.” My eyes went red. “So you could also casually give her my headquarters spot?” Ethan’s gaze grew even colder. “You get carried away by your emotions too easily.So I thought Ava was a better fit.” He sighed and stood. “Calm down.Every position depends on suitability.I’ll recommend you for next year’s spot.” I wiped my face.My voice sounded hoarse and unfamiliar. “Let’s break up.” Ethan’s breath stopped for a second.But very quickly,his expression darkened. “Is that the only thing you know how to say?” My nails dug into my palm. In the past,to test whether he loved me,I had said we should break up many times. I had hoped he would coax me,even once.Even with one sentence. But every time,he only said carelessly,”Suit yourself,”then lowered his head and went back to whatever he was doing. I would have to hurry after him and say I had only been upset. After lowering my head first countless times,I taught him to believe I could not leave him. But this time,I was truly tired.

Early the next morning,I packed up everything. After three years,I had left shockingly few things here. Maybe Ethan had been right.Maybe he and I had never been suited for each other. The sound of a key turning came from the door. Ava came in smiling.When she saw the suitcase,her expression froze. “Are you two…moving?” Behind her,Ethan frowned deeply.”Are you serious?” Ava glared at him. “You came to my place last night.Why didn’t you tell me something this big happened?” “Didn’t I teach you how to make it up to her?Molly comes back and suddenly you forget again?” My heart went cold.So after he left last night,he had gone to Ava for comfort. “Then keep the boyfriend you’ve trained so well for yourself.” Ethan grabbed my suitcase,his brows pressed tight. “Stop it.Do you have to make Ava feel guilty?” Even now,the thing he cared about was whether Ava would feel guilty. I gave a cold smile and yanked my suitcase free. “Don’t worry.This time,I’m not making a scene.” Ethan sighed.”After all these years,who else could you go to besides chasing after me?” He looked exhausted,as if I were a problem waiting to be dealt with. “Molly,can you stop being so childish?No one is obligated to keep tolerating you.” For Ava,he remembered every post she made and every preference she had. When it came to his own girlfriend,suddenly he had no obligation to tolerate anything. I laughed at myself. Ava’s eyes reddened with anxiety. Ethan tugged at his collar,his tone mocking. “Don’t mind her.What hasn’t she done just to prove she’s important?” I dragged my suitcase out the door. This time,no one stopped me. On Monday,back at the office,Ava stopped me in the break room. “Molly,are you still angry?Because you two are fighting about breaking up,Ethan has been irritated for days.” I said nothing and poured myself a glass of water. “Ethan is just stubborn.He actually…” I looked at her,my voice calm.”You think I’m only making a scene too?” She froze. I went to HR and submitted my resignation. The HR manager was surprised.”You just got back from London,and you’re leaving already?” “I’m not suited for this place.” I had never been someone who could handle everything with ease. Back then,for Ethan,I had joined this investment bank without hesitation,and what I got in return was endless tears and blows. Whenever that happened,he would only say with a stern face:You’re too impulsive.You’re too emotional.Your tears won’t solve anything. HR nodded and did not ask more,only telling me to finish handing over my final project. I agreed.But on the day I submitted the report,something went wrong. More than a dozen senior executives sat in the conference room.Ethan sat in the center,his gaze fixed directly on me. “Molly Harper,this is the version you reviewed?” “Yes,but this set of data…” Ethan cut me off coldly.”Do you know how many investment decisions this model will affect?” A coworker beside me said quietly,”Molly just came back.She may still be adjusting to the time difference and the pace.” Ethan’s eyes stayed on me. “That is not an excuse.Personal emotions cannot affect work.The fact is,you were not careful enough.” “I need an explanation.” I looked at Ava.She kept her head down and said nothing. I drew a breath and met his eyes. “Mr.Reed,you’re right.I am not steady enough.” Ethan’s frown deepened. “But I already noted the original anomaly in this data on page three of the report.” I turned to that page and pushed it in front of him. “If the person responsible for the next step had corrected it according to procedure,there would have been no problem.” The conference room went quiet for two seconds. “I have never let personal issues affect my work.On that,my conscience is clear.” His eyes changed,as if a precise machine had suddenly jammed. Ava suddenly stood.”I’m sorry,everyone.I missed the follow-up on my part.” The coworker who had spoken up for me could not help muttering under her breath. “Only remembers to apologize after someone else gets torn apart.” Ethan glanced at Ava. “We’ll review this internally.No individual accountability.” A wave of nausea suddenly surged up. I rushed straight into the restroom and threw up until my whole body shook. When I came out,Ethan was standing by the door. “Do you have to torture yourself like this?Are you happy now?” I didn’t bother answering him.He did not know that I would never have to torture myself again. Ethan clicked his tongue and spoke as if granting me a favor. “You hinted before that you wanted to get engaged.I’ll consider it,all right?Stop embarrassing Ava.” Getting engaged was something I had hinted at countless times,but every time he had pretended not to understand. One sentence from him,”You’re putting a lot of pressure on me,”had been enough to make me feel sorry for him and blame myself for being too impatient. Now the thing I had once dreamed of was finally about to happen. And all I did was give a quiet laugh,then turn and leave.

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Chapter 1 The day before my final interview for a promotion at corporate headquarters, my girlfriend secretly submitted an application to transfer me to our Africa branch. I was furious and demanded to know why she did it. She just shrugged and said carelessly, “Liam used my laptop the other day and accidentally submitted it for you. It was just a joke.” “Doesn’t it require a two-step verification? Just reject it.” Liam. The new intern on Emma’s project team this year. He was young, athletic, and spent every waking moment hovering around her. She knew perfectly well that if the application wasn’t rejected within 12 hours, the system would auto-confirm it. I would be stationed in Africa for three years. It turned out that in her eyes, my career and my future were nothing more than a punchline. I didn’t say a single word. I logged in and confirmed the transfer to Africa. Later, when Emma saw my passport and visa processing, panic finally set in. “Didn’t it require two-step verification?! Why didn’t you reject it?!” 1 When I received the transfer order for Africa, the blood in my veins turned to ice. Yesterday, I had asked Emma to submit my application for the internal promotion to the Marketing Department at corporate HQ. Instead, the only email in my inbox was an approval for a “Three-Year Residency in West Africa.” A message from HR popped up: “Hey Ethan, did you submit this by mistake? You have 12 hours to decline the transfer.” Emma and I had been dating for six years. I was planning to propose to her by the end of this year. Everyone in the company knew there was absolutely zero chance I would volunteer for Africa right now. My hands were shaking. When I dialed Emma’s number, my fingernails were digging so hard into my palms they almost drew blood. “What is going on? I just got an email saying I’m being transferred to Africa.” A careless, lighthearted laugh came through the speaker. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Liam came into my office the other day while I was working on your files. He started talking about how the Great Migration in Africa is so epic, so he submitted an application for the West Africa branch as a joke.” “He’s just an intern, he doesn’t know any better. He was just messing around.” “Doesn’t it ask for a second confirmation? Just click decline.” She talked about it like someone had accidentally ordered the wrong coffee. “You think this doesn’t matter?” Her tone shifted, lacing with impatience. “You’re overthinking this again.” “Do you have to be so dramatic? Just change it back.” “If Lucy from HR hadn’t messaged me, this transfer would be final.” “Liam illegally accessed the company’s computer system and violated my privacy. I can report him to HR.” Emma’s voice instantly went freezing cold. “Ethan, you are being completely unreasonable right now.” “It was a joke, and you want to report him to HR?! When are you going to drop this ridiculous hostility toward him?” She paused, her tone growing harsher. “How many times do I have to tell you? He just graduated. He doesn’t know anyone in the company. As his mentor, what is wrong with me looking out for him?” “He made a harmless joke! If you want to report him, you might as well report me too!” She hung up on me. I sat at my desk in a total daze. Seven years. From college clubs to the same company, from being interns together to being project partners. Everyone always said we were the perfect couple. But now, she was staying in the Marketing Department, and I was going to West Africa. With the entire Sahara Desert and a guy named Liam standing between us. Canceling the application only required a single click of the mouse. But I stared at the screen, completely motionless. A coworker tapped on my cubicle divider. “Ethan, someone’s at the front desk for you.” Liam was wearing a loose, oversized grey hoodie, holding two cups of coffee in his hands. When he saw me, he strode over. “Hey, Ethan.” He handed one of the coffees to me. “I just got off the phone with Emma. She’s in a bad mood, so she wants to get everyone together for a camping trip this weekend. Do you think… it’s appropriate for me to go?” His voice was dripping with provocation, his eyes practically gleaming with smug satisfaction. It had been three months. Ever since he was assigned to our department as an intern, it had been like this. Pretending to be innocent while constantly, subtly challenging me. I took the coffee, didn’t drink it, and shot back: “What do you think?” Liam scratched his head, acting bashful. “I don’t know, I didn’t want you to misunderstand. Emma said you’ve had an issue with her lately, so I thought, maybe I should keep my distance…” “Then don’t go.” He froze. “Didn’t you come here to ask for my opinion?” I set the coffee down on the reception desk. “My opinion is: don’t go.” Liam’s face contorted. Before he could respond, the elevator doors chimed open. Emma walked out. Seeing the two of us, her brows instantly pulled into a deep frown. “Liam, I told you to wait for me downstairs. Why are you up here?” “I just came to ask Ethan if it was okay for me to come camping with you guys…” Liam lowered his head, his voice dripping with fabricated victimhood. “I was afraid he’d be mad.” Emma patted Liam’s shoulder protectively. “Don’t be silly, why are you asking him? I invited you, so you’re coming.” Liam looked up at her, his eyes lighting up like a puppy’s, before casting a hesitant, fearful glance in my direction. Emma turned to me, her tone dripping with intense irritation. “Look at how much Liam cares about your feelings, and look at you. You can’t even take a simple joke.” I pointed at Liam. “He cares about my feelings? Do you have any idea how much shit he’s pulled in the last three months?” “Bringing you breakfast and leaving cute little sticky notes right in front of me? Posting ambiguous, flirty things on his Instagram? Who exactly is he performing for?!” “I am your boyfriend! He is aggressively trying to steal my girlfriend right to my face!” “Following you around all day calling you ‘Emma this’ and ‘Emma that.’ It’s disgusting.” “He calls me ‘bro’ to my face, but behind my back, he’s praying I disappear so he can cling to you for a promotion!” Liam went completely pale. Emma glared at me, her expression turning lethal. “Are you done?! When did you become so bitter and toxic?!” “Your mind is so twisted! It’s a completely normal professional relationship and you’re blowing it wildly out of proportion!” “Liam is being the bigger person by not holding this against you. You owe him an apology, and then we’re dropping this.” I let out a harsh, incredulous laugh. “Are you insane? Me? Apologize to this little pretty-boy? Never going to happen.” Emma’s face went completely flat. “Ethan, I suggest you stop testing my boundaries!” I smiled. Boundaries? I’m practically wearing a neon sign on my head saying my girlfriend is cheating on me, and she wants to talk about boundaries? Oh, right. I used to be her boundary. Looks like she swapped it out for a new one. “Then let’s break up.” Emma scoffed coldly. “Fine, let’s break up. Just don’t come crawling back begging me to get back together later.” With that, Emma grabbed Liam’s arm and pulled him toward the elevator. As the doors closed, I heard her say to him: “Just ignore him. Let’s go plan the camping trip.” Back at my desk, the HR portal was still open on my monitor. The countdown timer to cancel the transfer had exactly one hour left. I started Googling information about the West Africa projects, what to prepare for a long-term overseas residency, and business reports on the Sub-Saharan region. The minutes ticked by. 12:00 PM on the dot. The countdown hit zero. The window to cancel had expired. “Transfer Confirmed. West Africa Project Team, Three-Year Residency. Please report to the branch office within one month.” Even though working in Africa was going to be grueling, the expatriate salary was double my current pay, and I’d be guaranteed a two-level promotion upon returning to the States. It honestly didn’t seem like a bad deal at all. Before this, I had planned a much more conservative career trajectory just so I could align with Emma’s goals. Now, I regretted holding myself back. I closed my laptop just as a text from my buddy, Mark, popped up. “Ethan! I’m at the Blue Note Bar and I just saw Emma and Liam! Dude, they’re practically making out in the booth.” He attached a video. It was a little blurry, but I could clearly see Emma surrounded by people cheering, with Liam sitting right next to her, staring at her with pure, unfiltered adoration. “Emma, truth or dare? A dare could be hugging the closest guy to you for a whole minute!” Amidst the howling laughter, Emma turned and threw her arms around Liam. The booth erupted into cheers and whistles. My heart gave a sharp, painful twinge, but then, almost instantly, it settled into complete calmness. I texted Mark back: “It’s fine.” Then, I started packing up my desk. Two weeks later, Emma’s executive assistant brought a heavy, embossed envelope to my desk. “Director Emma is hosting a project celebration dinner at the Skyline Club tonight. She specifically requested that you attend.” “I’m not going.” The assistant looked shocked. “Why not? You were a core member of this project…” “I have other plans.” The assistant forced a polite smile. “You can bring a plus-one! Director Emma made it very clear she expects you to be there.” A few coworkers glanced over from their cubicles. I took the invitation. That night at the Skyline Club, Liam was standing at the entrance of the banquet hall, wearing a sharply tailored suit, greeting the guests like he was the host. When he saw me, he immediately walked over and clapped me on the shoulder. “Ethan, you made it! Today is the day I officially transition from an intern to a full-time employee. I wanted to celebrate, so I begged Emma to combine my welcome party with her project dinner!” I nodded. “Congratulations.” “Thanks, bro.” He smiled even brighter. “Go on in, I saved you a seat at the head table.” I ignored him and found an empty chair at a table near the back wall. A few minutes later, Emma tracked me down. “Ethan, go to the head table. What are you doing hiding back here?” “It’s fine right here.” Emma took a deep breath. “I let you ignore my calls and ice me out for two weeks. Are you still throwing a tantrum?” “When have you ever not sat next to me at a celebration dinner? Over a stupid little transfer application? Really?” People at the neighboring tables started looking over. A coworker I was friendly with tried to smooth things over. “Ethan, come sit with us, we saved your spot.” I reluctantly moved to the head table. There was one empty seat right next to Emma. As I pulled out my chair, Liam casually strolled over and slid right into the empty seat beside her. “Oh, hey Ethan, you’re here too.” He smiled smoothly. “Emma and I were just discussing the upcoming Industry Summit. Now that I’m officially full-time, she said she wants to take me along to show me the ropes.” He raised a single eyebrow at me. “Should all three of us go together?” I picked up my water glass and took a slow sip. At the end of last year, Emma had promised to take me to the biggest Industry Summit of the year. She said she was going to personally introduce me to the heavy hitters in the industry.”Make sure we take a lot of photos for Instagram,” she had said, adjusting my collar in the mirror. “I want everyone who says you only succeed because of me to see that you have your own merits.” I had teased her about it back then, but inside, I had felt incredibly warm. Seven years. Even after all that time, my heart still skipped a beat when I looked at her. But now… absolutely nothing. I just felt a profound sense of absurdity. “You two go ahead.” “I have too much handover work to do right now. I don’t have time.” After the dinner, I stepped out onto the terrace to get some fresh air. Emma followed me out and grabbed my wrist. “Ethan, what the hell is that supposed to mean?” “Exactly what it sounds like.” I pulled my arm out of her grip. Emma let out a furious, exasperated laugh. “How long are you going to keep up this passive-aggressive act? The transfer thing? Just go into the portal and cancel the application!” “I asked Liam about it. He was planning on telling you anyway, you just happened to see it first. Even if you hadn’t, he would have reminded you the next day!” I nodded slowly. “Wow. I guess I really owe him a huge thank you, then.” “Don’t talk to me with that tone.” She crossed her arms, her voice turning commanding. “You are coming with me to the Industry Summit on Monday. I promised you months ago, and you are going!” She turned on her heel and marched back inside. At 9:00 AM on Monday, I stood by the window in my office, looking down at the street. Emma and Liam were standing by her car near the building entrance, occasionally glancing up toward my floor. I pulled the blinds shut. My phone buzzed. A text from Emma: “Come down here. Do you really want me to come up there and drag you down?” I replied: “Busy. Not going.””What could you possibly be busy with? The HQ interviews are already over!””If you don’t come today, you are going to deeply regret it!” She drove off with Liam. That afternoon, she posted three updates on Instagram in a row. Liam was prominently featured in every single one.[Taking the new guy to see the top-tier industry summit. Seeing the light in his eyes reminds me of when I first started out.][The kid got praised by some massive CEOs today, he was so shy!][Summit group photo! The new guys need as much exposure as they can get.] … The comments section was blowing up.”Is Director Emma mentoring an employee or showing off a new boyfriend? So dedicated!””Did Ethan not go? Did the golden duo finally split up?””Liam really knows how to play the game. Director Emma has a great eye.” Mark screenshotted the posts and sent them to me, absolutely livid.”Is Liam doing this on purpose?! This is purely to piss you off. You guys might not be ‘public’ at work, but everyone with a brain knows you’re together! He’s literally rubbing it in your face.””He’s desperately throwing himself at her like a pathetic homewrecker.””Are you really not going to do anything?!” Was I pissed off? No. I just felt it was pathetic. But at the same time, I felt incredibly light. It only took one intern to show me exactly what her “love” was actually worth. For the last seven years, I had put her on such a high pedestal that I was practically a lapdog. The more I loved her, the more recklessly she treated me. The deadline to cancel the transfer had passed, and that was that. I started packing my bags for my international move. Adjusting to West Africa wouldn’t be easy. I had to get malaria pills, a laundry list of vaccines, and undergo specialized training. But once my mindset shifted, it actually felt like an exciting new beginning. Right before I left, I asked Mark to grab dinner with me at an African restaurant in the city, just to get my palate used to the food. Mark was baffled. “After the stunt Emma pulled last night, you’re actually in the mood to try a new restaurant? This doesn’t seem like you.” “Why wouldn’t I be?” I smiled. Work was work, and life was life. I used to tolerate Emma’s drama and coax her through everything, but this time, she had completely obliterated my boundaries. West African cuisine was heavy on spices, but beneath the heat, there was a raw, vibrant energy that I surprisingly enjoyed. Walking back to my apartment, I found myself humming a song. Mark gave me a weird look. “Are you really over it? Because I saw Emma and Liam’s Instagrams… after last night, they seem even closer…” I didn’t answer. As we walked past a building near our office, I told Mark to head home first. I took the elevator up to the rooftop to get some fresh air. During my first year at the company, this rooftop was my sanctuary. Whenever the pressure of a project got too heavy, this was where I came to breathe. Back then, Emma was my manager. Once, a project I was in charge of got completely rejected by a client. I hid in the stairwell, smoking and feeling like a failure. She found me and brought me up to this rooftop. “Look down there,” she had said, pointing at the sea of city lights. “A failed project doesn’t even register as a single pixel in all that light.” The terrified, insecure rookie eventually grew into her most reliable right-hand man. Later on, we spent countless nights up here, brainstorming proposals, venting about clients, and gossiping. When we eventually became equals at the same management level, we still came up here after late nights at the office. Emma liked to lean against the railing, staring out at the glowing skyscrapers in the distance. “Ethan, the speed at which you’re improving… it’s actually giving me anxiety.” I had grinned at her playfully. “Then Director Emma better work harder, or I’m going to leave you in the dust.” In my third year, the team I was leading hit a critical data error on a major project. The client’s representative stood in a conference room full of people, pointing his finger directly at my face, calling me incompetent, and threatening to terminate the contract. Emma stood up and defended me in front of everyone. “Mr. Wang, I am the lead director for this project. I take full responsibility for any errors. I personally approved Ethan’s final data. If you’re going to yell at someone, yell at me.” She took all the heat, and after the meeting, she proactively offered to cut our management fee as an apology. After the client left, I stood in the empty conference room, staring at Emma’s back as she organized her files. My throat felt incredibly tight. That was the day I started pursuing her like a madman. Six months later, we were officially together. I stood on the rooftop, letting the wind hit my face, quietly watching the city below. My phone vibrated. It was my mother. “Ethan… your dad is in the hospital. The doctor says it might be cancer. He needs surgery immediately, and the deposit is $15,000…” She broke down sobbing. “Can you… can you please lend Mom some money? Your sister is still in college, I honestly don’t know what else to do…” My throat constricted. My relationship with my father had always been terrible. He was an alcoholic and a gambler, and my parents divorced when I was in middle school. But blood is blood. “How much do you need?” “We need to put down $15,000 right now… and there will probably be more bills after…” I hung up, leaning heavily against the railing, feeling as if every ounce of strength had been drained from my body. I had savings from working all these years, but I had just bought a house the year before last, and my monthly mortgage was heavy. If I scraped together every cent of liquid cash I had, it was about $10,000. I was short $5,000. I scrolled through my contacts and called Emma three times. She didn’t answer. Ever since we started dating, I transferred her $1,000 every single month for her to do whatever she wanted with. She lived in my apartment rent-free and had almost zero living expenses. When she didn’t pick up, I called a few close friends and managed to borrow $3,000. I was still short $2,000. I got back to my apartment late that night, and a notification from Liam popped up. It wasn’t a direct message; it was an Instagram post specifically filtered so only I could see it. The photo was of Emma’s desk. Sitting on the desk was a velvet jewelry box holding a luxury watch. The caption: [Oh my god! I have the best mentor in the world! Emma said I did an amazing job these last three months, so she got me a reward! It’s the best birthday present ever! I’m so happy, I’m going to work even harder!] The location tag was set to Emma’s apartment. The timestamp was one hour ago. I stared at the post, my stomach violently churning. That watch cost at least $3,000. It was nearly a month’s salary for me. In the end, I had to ask Mark. Without hesitation, he transferred me $2,000. “No rush, pay me back whenever you’re comfortable. We’re brothers, don’t even worry about it.” It wasn’t until the following afternoon that Emma finally returned my call. “What happened last night? I was helping Liam review his very first independent project, my phone was on silent.” I stared at the scanned copies of my father’s medical records on my computer monitor, forcing down the heavy lump in my throat. “Did that watch you gave the intern cost a lot?” Emma went silent for a few seconds. “Are you being paranoid again? I know you’ve been under a lot of pressure lately, but honestly, are you seriously throwing a fit over an encouragement gift for an intern?” “Liam and I have a completely normal mentor-mentee relationship. He just finished his first solo project, and as his mentor, I wanted to show my appreciation. What exactly is the problem?” Encouragement is fine. Giving a gift is fine. But inviting him to your apartment late at night to give him a luxury watch? Not fine. I hung up the phone without another word. A text from Emma popped up immediately. “Did you cancel the transfer application yet?” “None of your business.” I had no desire to tell her that I was already confirmed for West Africa. Emma sent an eye-rolling emoji. “I know you’re going to cancel it eventually. We’ve been partners for seven years, you can’t survive without me.” “Before you transfer to the Marketing Department, you have to formally apologize to Liam. Otherwise, you can handle your onboarding by yourself. I won’t introduce you to the directors!” We had agreed on this months ago. She was going to leverage her connections in Marketing to introduce me to the senior leadership, smoothing my transition. Obviously, I could prove myself on my own, but having her pave the way would have made things exponentially easier. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to the Marketing Department anymore. I blocked her work number, and her personal number. I was going to Africa.

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Chapter 1 After we got back together, my boyfriend stopped liking my social media posts. It wasn’t just him. Probably because when he cheated on me with my best friend, I made an incredibly ugly scene by standing on the roof of our apartment building, threatening to slit my wrists. Even our mutual friends stopped interacting with my updates. But our wedding day was approaching. So I didn’t care about these minor changes in his behavior. Until my company required me to handle an after-sales issue personally. For the first time, my phone connected to an international VPN. A notification suddenly popped up on my screen. It was my best friend’s Instagram account. She was getting married. Her entire profile was filled with wedding preparations. The dress, the venue, the party favors. But without exception, every single post had a “like” from a very familiar account. There were many familiar comments underneath. “Ten years of dating! Congrats man, wishing you and the future Mrs. a lifetime of happiness!” “Dude, you actually liked the diamond-encrusted dress? Your taste is still the same as ever, haha.” “Wow, you guys picked a venue so fast! We’ll all definitely be there!” So that’s what it was. Everyone had stopped liking my posts because they were too busy caring about my “best friend’s” updates abroad. Julian was even using his “likes” to help her plan their wedding. The rain that had been brewing in my heart for days finally poured down. I suddenly realized something. Julian hadn’t cheated on me. I was the outsider who had forced my way into their world. The one who needed to leave was never her. It was me. … I kept scrolling through Chloe’s Instagram profile. I saw that they were getting married in Bali. My finger froze on the mouse. Staring at the engagement photo of them kissing, my mouth formed a silent, straight line. That was the place I had begged Julian to take me to for three years. It was the place I had told him I wanted to get married the most. But Julian always refused me. He said his family was traditional and couldn’t break custom. Our ceremony had to be done locally. He gave me that answer three years ago. But the timestamp on Chloe’s post was from four years ago. So he hadn’t agreed to my request, but he had agreed to Chloe’s. Even before Julian and I were officially together, he and Chloe had already gotten engaged in Bali. My heart was filled with absolute absurdity. Because my best friend wasn’t the other woman. I was. I stayed silent for a while and kept scrolling through Chloe’s feed. Her oldest posts traced back over ten years. There was a photo of them when they were just little kids. A young Julian had his arm around a brightly smiling Chloe. “Childhood sweethearts.” Those words flashed through my mind. The decade-long friendship between Chloe and me shattered completely. My chest felt suffocatingly tight, but my confusion only grew deeper. It was Chloe who had introduced Julian to me back in college. And when we eventually got together, she was the one secretly playing matchmaker. But now I find out they were actually engaged? So why? Why did she do this? I couldn’t find the answers in her posts. I stared at her greyed-out profile picture in my contacts. My heart was full of things I wanted to say, but I could only remain silent. Half a year ago, when I discovered they were having an affair, Chloe and I had a massive, explosive falling out, and we both deleted each other from every platform. The click of the front door unlocking broke the silence. I locked my phone and walked out quietly. It was Julian, home from the office. It was late autumn now. The wind outside was biting cold. He walked in wrapped in his usual dark trench coat. Standing in the entryway, he leaned one hand against the wall while taking off his dress shoes. On the shoe cabinet sat a small cake he had brought back for me. The soft yellow light of the entryway illuminated the handsome curve of his lips. He smiled at me and spoke. “What made you willing to come out and greet me today?” I didn’t act as cold as I had been recently. I stepped forward gently, taking his coat. I brushed the dust off the fabric, hung it on the rack nearby, and said: “I just figured some things out.” He paused in the middle of changing his shoes and looked up at me earnestly. “Really? Are you willing to accept me again?” He untied the ribbon on the cake box and pulled it out. Walking quickly behind me, he gently wrapped his arms around my waist. His warm breath brushed against my ear, making it tingle. He chuckled and asked: “Why aren’t you answering? What are you being so mysterious about?” “Mia, we’re getting married. Isn’t this what you wanted the most? You should be happy.” “I brought your favorite cake. Want a bite?” The knowledge that he was simultaneously planning a wedding abroad with Chloe flashed through my mind. I gently pushed him away. Under his increasingly confused gaze, I turned around, stood in front of him, and asked: “Did they say they’re coming?” “Who?” “Our friends. And your parents.” “Mia, don’t make this difficult for me.” His tone suddenly turned awkward and strained. “I asked them, but the last time you… when you lost control and attacked them, they just need some time before they can face you again.” “And my parents, you know how they are. They never wanted me to marry you. They wanted someone with a matching background. We can only get married quietly, let alone—” “Julian.” I called his name, cutting off his explanation. He frowned, looking at me in confusion. I didn’t throw a tantrum the way I usually did whenever this topic came up. I gently hugged him. I hugged this man I had loved deeply for four years. His body went stiff. He was completely caught off guard. He clearly felt uncomfortable with my sudden gentleness. “Mia?” Before he could react further, I let go, stood back, and said softly to him: “Let’s cancel the wedding.” “Cancel it?!” Julian’s eyes were full of confusion, but his voice instantly dropped. He spoke to me with a tinge of anger. “Why?” “I need a logical explanation.” “You were the one who wanted to marry me no matter what, and now you’re canceling it for no reason?” I lowered my eyes and stayed silent. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t explain. It was that I didn’t know how to tell him. Should I confess that I already knew about him and Chloe? That they were the real engaged couple? That everyone wasn’t coming to my wedding because they were boycotting me—they were skipping it to attend his and Chloe’s wedding instead. When I didn’t know any of this, I had caused scenes over these exact issues. Actually, before and after we got back together, I was constantly causing scenes. Because it was unfair. Everyone was hiding it from me, helping him and Chloe conceal their relationship. Even now, I was still being kept in the dark by everyone. But an answer you can’t find is just a problem with no solution. Being lied to is pretty humiliating. Screaming and causing a scene is pretty humiliating, too. So, I’m giving up. “When my mom passed away back then, I needed someone to be with me.” “Seeing you travel thousands of miles to help me handle her funeral, I desperately begged you to stay. I tried to tie you down with a marriage.” “Even when you cheated, I forgave you and got back together. But now… I’m at peace. So, I don’t need this anymore.” Julian’s expression was full of disbelief. He clearly hadn’t expected me to be able to talk about this so calmly now. Back then, I was facing a breakup and the death of my only family member in the world at the exact same time. The two heartbreaks layered on top of each other. Even today, I barely left that bedroom. The anger in his eyes slowly subsided. Instead, a look of heartache surfaced. “Mia, birth, aging, sickness, and death are inevitable, but you still have me.” “I will always be here for your future. There’s no need to say such depressing things.” “We just had a misunderstanding, that’s all!” What sweet words. I wanted to believe him so badly. I even wished I hadn’t learned the truth. That way, I could just stupidly lie to myself. Tears welled up involuntarily and dropped onto his arm. Startled, he quickly grabbed a tissue to wipe my tears away. “Did I say something wrong?” “Mia, don’t cry. You have me. I’m always right here beside you.” I suddenly felt one last, desperate spark of hope. Like a useless person grabbing at a final lifeline. I asked him: “Since no one is coming to the ceremony anyway.” “Let’s skip the wedding. Just come with me to City Hall tomorrow and sign the papers. Okay?” Chloe’s wedding was half a month before mine. If he was legally married here, he couldn’t legally get married abroad. No matter what Julian’s plans were, marrying me here first meant he would stay. Even if he lied to me for the rest of his life. I was willing. But his lips just twitched, his tone hesitant and evasive. “I… I, I…” “Mia, you know I have meetings scheduled with clients. Things at the company are really busy right now.” “Chloe went abroad, and you’re resting at home. The company that the three of us built is now entirely on my shoulders, I…” He gave a lot of reasons. Work. Responsibilities. Awkward timing. The only thing he didn’t give me was the security of a future. I couldn’t understand why he had agreed to marry me while secretly continuing his relationship with Chloe. My eyes dimmed. I didn’t ask anymore. I just nodded. “Yeah. I understand.” Julian sensed my disappointment, and his body froze. He was at a loss for what to do. Until the phone in his pocket rang. He looked as if he had been granted a pardon. He hurriedly stepped out onto the balcony to answer it, using his peripheral vision to watch my reaction. But he forgot that I had laser eye surgery. I could clearly see the screen of his unlocked phone. It was Chloe. This wasn’t the first time they had gotten back in touch. When he was begging me to get back together, he swore up and down that he would never contact her again. Now, not only were they still in contact, but they were planning to get married. I silently walked back into the bedroom. Curled up under the cold covers, I canceled our plans to take wedding photos tomorrow. Then, I bought a “blind box” plane ticket. Wherever the ticket took me, that’s where I would go. In short, my life was no longer going to revolve around Julian. I was woken up the next morning by a call from customer service. The woman on the phone asked: “Ms. Davis, may I ask why you are canceling the photoshoot?” “We have already rented the venue and the outfits, and Mr. Sterling even personally oversaw all the designs.” “If you cancel now, your deposit is non-refundable.” My head was throbbing, a dull, dizzy ache. I spoke with a raspy voice. “Then I don’t want it back.” “Ms. Davis?! That’s five thousand dollars! Our team is top-tier, and Mr. Sterling had to wait a long time to book us…” “I don’t want it.” The other end was silent for a moment before replying: “Understood.” “We will simultaneously notify Mr. Sterling that the wedding photoshoot has been canceled.” The call ended. I noticed that Julian had prepared breakfast for me. But it was already ice cold. I wasn’t feeling well, so I figured I would just heat it up and eat it to save myself the trouble. Right at that moment, Julian texted me. “Mia, I got the notification that you canceled the photoshoot.” Before I could say anything, he seemed to let out a sigh of relief, sending a smiling emoji. “I see you found the sticky note I left on the wall by the dining table. Thank you for understanding. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I turned to look at the sticky note on the table.”There’s an unexpected hurdle with the company’s overseas business. Today’s engagement photoshoot has to be canceled.” I didn’t explain. I connected my phone to the VPN. Chloe had updated with a new post. Their wedding date had been moved up. That was the real reason Julian had left so hurriedly. It was a very beautiful restaurant. I even saw Julian’s parents. And our former mutual friends. Julian was holding hands with Chloe under the table. It was a very lively scene. I suddenly realized something. None of us had actually changed. I was just the only one who had been left behind. In the empty apartment, I ate the cold breakfast. My phone dinged with a notification that my flight booking was successful. The destination was New Zealand. I had heard of it. It was a pretty remote place. I had never been there. But it should suit me. I started packing my bags. Looking at the apartment we had lived in for three years, my vision blurred for a moment. I remembered when the three of us first started the company. We all stood around that very dining table, drinking and making pledges. Everyone was so ambitious, saying we were going to build the company into something great. They had even laughed and joked that when we finally succeeded, they would all come to drink at Julian and my wedding. Now, the place was empty, and everything was different. No one was here. Every time I packed an old item, a memory would flood my mind. The red wine, the champagne, the music tapes, the video of us dancing jazz. They recorded so many anniversaries Julian and I had celebrated in this home. Recalling them now, it was quite sweet. But after letting the memories play out in my head for a second, I threw them all straight into the trash can. Then I went to pack my clothes. It took a long time. Honestly, I threw away much more than I kept. The clothes I actually packed didn’t even fill a few bags. Julian called me halfway through. But I didn’t answer. After a few more rings, he stopped calling. He just sent me a message. A picture, and a check-in. The picture was of him “negotiating with foreigners.” The check-in read: “Just landed. Getting some food.” Thinking that this would be the last time in this life I would ever message him, my attitude was actually quite pleasant. I took a picture of my packed boxes and sent it to him. His reply came quickly. “Why are you packing?” “I’m leaving.” “…” He fell silent, then explained: “Mia, canceling the photoshoot today doesn’t mean our wedding is canceled.” “Don’t be mad. I really ran into some trouble here, but I’ll be back very soon.” “I prepared a surprise for you. The wedding is going ahead as planned. Don’t cause a scene.” I didn’t reply anymore. I didn’t explain that I hadn’t canceled the photoshoot to put on a show or get his attention. After packing for so long, I was just really tired. Too lazy to say anything. I knew Julian’s habits. His “surprises” were never prepared on the day of. He would often hide them in the apartment half a month, or even a full month, in advance. He liked it when I secretly found them but pretended not to know. He said it let a person hold onto the anticipation for half a month. I went to the places he usually hid things. In a box on the second level of the attic… I found a gold bangle I had been wanting for a long time. The design and weight were perfect. This must have been the surprise he was talking about. But right next to it, I found something else. Something he had never mentioned to me. A diary, filled with my mother’s handwriting. I opened it. The very first sentence was:”Mia, this is the truth your mother is leaving behind for you.” I kept reading. My mother’s loving face appeared in my mind. “Mia, Mom never told you the truth about your background.””Arthur Davis, the head of the Davis family in Seattle, is your biological father.” The Davis family of Seattle. A decade ago, they were the most prominent wealthy family in the city. Its patriarch, Arthur Davis, was a business legend. My biological father was actually him? “Mom didn’t tell you because I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to handle it.””But Mom never, ever expected that the daughter of the very person who framed your father—the enemy who caused the entire Davis family to be destroyed over a fabricated embezzlement case—would become your best friend!” Boom. My mind exploded, freezing me in place. What did Mom just say? The enemy’s daughter? Chloe? She was the daughter of the man who framed my father—the man who was eventually executed when the Davis family’s case was overturned? And I had been best friends with her for over a decade? My hands began to tremble. My heart rate spiked. “But by the time Mom finally saw her, it was too late. I was already bedridden and couldn’t speak.””I used a lot of old favors to investigate her.””And I discovered that your arranged fiancé, the eldest son of the Sterling family, Julian, had actually swapped your identities!” My heart tightened, inch by inch. “I only found out later.””Years ago, your father saved Julian’s life. After the Davis family fell, the Sterling family sent Julian to find us.””The Sterling family’s original intention was to return the money and shares that rightfully belonged to our family.””But Julian didn’t do that!””He fabricated a lie.””He claimed that Chloe was the lost heiress of the Davis family! She stole your identity and took everything that belonged to you!” My heart began to ache with sharp, piercing pain. So everything was just a fairytale woven by Julian’s lies. He knew the truth the entire time. Yet he told me his parents didn’t want him to marry me. He acted like an angel, swooping in to save me. Appearing at my mother’s funeral, taking on all the burdens for me. It wasn’t to win me back. He was just paying off a debt. And I, naturally assuming he was trying to win me back, threw myself at him. In reality, from the very beginning, he had already abandoned me. My heart grew colder and colder. A cynical smile crept onto my lips. I laughed at how stupid I was. So easy to fool! Looking at the apartment I had shared with him for four years, my stomach churned. I only felt pure disgust. My phone popped up with another notification from Chloe’s account. It was her bachelorette party. Julian stood beside her, smiling brighter than ever. Chloe’s caption read:”The prejudice of love is always biased.” I wiped away my tears. I changed my flight ticket. I flew out that very night, without looking back. … The morning after the wedding, Julian woke up in the bridal suite. Chloe wrapped her arms around him, whining coquettishly: “You’re not even going to spend our honeymoon with me?” Julian frowned, his mind elsewhere as he stared at his phone, which still had no reply from Mia. “Chloe, don’t forget.” “Mia is my actual fiancée. You’ve already taken half her resources, and even half her identity.” “You have to learn to share me with her. That was our deal. If you intentionally leave a trail for Mia to catch us again like you did last time, I won’t forgive you!” Chloe’s expression instantly went cold. Julian ignored her. He felt incredibly uneasy today, a sense that something major was about to happen. Before boarding the plane, he had sent Mia another message. But she hadn’t replied, and then he happened to lose his internet connection. He sent several more messages that failed to deliver. He was burning with anxiety. The moment he got off the plane, he bought a cake and rushed home. But when he pushed the door open, the apartment was terrifyingly empty. The breakfast he had made for Mia five days ago was sour and rotting on the dining table, swarming with flies. She seemed to have left a long time ago… Holding his nose, Julian frantically scanned the room. He realized that the living room and the bedroom had been stripped bare. All the little decorations Mia had set up were completely gone. Julian’s heart hammered wildly in his chest. Until he saw the glaringly obvious gold bangle sitting on the table. His whole body violently shuddered. A look of pure horror washed over his face! Realizing something, he sprinted up to the attic. He tore open the box. The diary that had been safely hidden there was gone. At that exact moment, his phone finally received a reply from Mia. It was a unilateral declaration.”We’re breaking up.”

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Chapter 1 After dating Cole for four years, I thought I was fully integrated into his inner circle. Until the day he took a shower and forgot his phone in the living room. A notification popped up on his screen. It was from a group chat. The group name was “A Happy Life Without Sarah.” Eight members. Cole, his sister, his two childhood best friends, my college roommate, my best friend, and… my own little brother. I stood completely frozen, watching the messages pop up one by one. His sister: “She’s not coming to the barbecue on Saturday, right? The last time she was there, no one could actually relax and have fun.” My best friend, Maya: “Don’t worry, I told her I have to work mandatory overtime. She won’t suspect a thing.” My brother, Leo, replied with a snickering emoji. Cole: “Alright, the usual spot. I’ll make the reservation.” I scrolled up through the chat history. This group had been active for two years and three months. Over seven hundred messages. Every single happy memory they planned was predicated on making sure I wasn’t there. On my birthday last year, the group chat was busy discussing how to split into teams for an escape room that weekend. I had asked Cole why no one was talking to me that day. He told me, “Everyone is just really busy lately.” They were busy, alright. Busy having fun without me. By the time the phone screen went dark, the water in the bathroom had stopped running. Cole walked out with a towel wrapped around his waist. Seeing me standing in the living room, he asked casually, “What are you looking at?” “Nothing,” I said. “Just a joke.” He gave a noncommittal “Oh” and took his phone back. I turned, walked into the bedroom, and started packing my suitcase. 01 The sound of the zipper on my suitcase was loud. The bedroom door was wide open. The TV was still playing in the living room. Cole called out from the kitchen, “There’s some watermelon in the fridge, already cut up. Do you want some?” I didn’t answer. He called out again, “Sarah?” “No.” A few seconds of silence followed. He walked over to the bedroom doorway, leaned against the frame, and glanced inside. “What are you packing for? Business trip tomorrow?” “Yeah. Last-minute.” He didn’t ask any more questions. He just turned and walked back to the living room. I heard the familiar click of his phone unlocking. He was probably checking the messages in that group chat. The happy messages that didn’t include me. I shoved three changes of clothes, my skincare routine, chargers, and my ID into the suitcase. After a moment’s hesitation, I opened the nightstand drawer, took out the necklace he had given me, and placed it back into its original velvet box. I didn’t want to take anything that belonged to someone else. Just as I zipped the suitcase shut, my phone buzzed. A text from Maya: “Sarah, I’m so sorry, I got stuck with mandatory overtime this Saturday so we can’t go shopping! Next time, okay?” She added a sad, apologetic emoji at the end. I stared at that line of text for a very long time. While she was typing this to me, was she simultaneously confirming the alibi in that group chat? I replied: “Okay.” Just one, clean word. Early the next morning, I dragged my suitcase out the door. Cole wasn’t awake yet, and I didn’t bother waking him. As I walked downstairs to hail an Uber, my phone rang. It was my little brother, Leo. “Hey sis, Mom said to ask if you’re coming home for dinner this weekend?” “No, I have a business trip.” “Another business trip? Is your company trying to work you to death?” His tone was perfectly light, just like normal. But all I could see in my head was the snickering emoji he had sent in that group chat last night. “Leo.” “Yeah?” “…Never mind.” I hung up and got into the Uber. The driver asked where I was heading, and I gave him the name of a hotel downtown. There was no business trip. I just didn’t want to go back to my parents’ house right now. I booked a room for a week at a hotel not far from my office. After dropping off my luggage, I sat on the edge of the bed and opened Cole’s Instagram. His most recent post was from three days ago—a group photo of him and some friends at a barbecue place, all laughing happily. The photo included his sister Emma, his childhood friends Jake and Matt, my best friend Maya, and my brother Leo. I was the only one missing. I remembered that day. I had asked him what he was doing that night, and he said he was working late. I had even texted him, “Don’t work too hard,” and he had replied with a simple, “Yeah.” It turns out that “Yeah” meant: I am currently hanging out with everyone behind your back, stop bothering me. I tossed my phone onto the mattress and lay back. A tidal wave of exhaustion washed over me. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. A little while later, Cole called. “Did you get there? Which city are you in?” “I’m here.” “Stay safe, don’t go out too late tonight.” “Got it.” “Alright, I’m hanging up then, I’m pretty busy today too.” Busy with what? I wondered. Busy planning the next group activity I’m not invited to? “Okay.” The call ended. I stayed at the hotel for three days, and no one realized I wasn’t actually on a business trip. On the fourth day, Maya asked me out for coffee. She said her overtime was finally over and she wanted to catch up. I agreed. Sitting in the café, she stirred her latte, smiling brightly as she asked, “So, back from your trip? Was it exhausting?” “It was fine.” “Did Cole call you while you were away?” “That guy is so clueless. Without you there, he probably didn’t even bother cooking for himself.” I looked directly into her eyes, searching for even the slightest flicker of guilt. There was none. She was acting so perfectly natural, as if absolutely nothing had happened. “Maya, how late did you have to work on Saturday?” She blinked. “Oh? Until like 9 PM. I was completely dead.” “That sounds exhausting.” “Tell me about it.” She sighed heavily. “I’ll definitely make it up to you next time.” I looked down and took a sip of my black coffee. It was incredibly bitter. But a sugarless Americano was a lot easier to swallow than her lies. On my way back to the hotel, I got a text from Cole: “Are you coming back tomorrow? The sink pipe is leaking a bit, can you call a plumber to look at it?” Four years. When he needed me, I was his roommate, his maid, his handyman. When he didn’t need me, I was the name excluded from the title of a group chat. I replied: “Call the building super.” He replied instantly: “The super takes forever. Just call a plumber and rush them a bit.” I stared at the screen, suddenly feeling how profoundly absurd this all was. Did this guy ever stop to wonder why I wasn’t home? Or did he just completely not care? “Call them yourself.” A long time passed before he finally replied: “Fine.” Not even a single question mark. 02 On the fifth day, I checked out of the hotel and went back to that apartment. Not because I had forgiven him, but because I needed to pack the rest of my things. When I pushed the door open, Cole was sitting on the couch playing video games. He glanced up at me. “You’re back? Why didn’t you tell me? I would have picked you up.” “No need, I just took an Uber.” He gave an “Oh” and his eyes snapped back to the screen. Through his headset, I could hear Jake’s voice shouting, “Cole, pay attention! We gotta win this match!” I dragged my suitcase into the bedroom and started shoving things into my backpack. My passport, my diplomas, my lease agreements, my bank books. The things that truly belonged to me were actually quite few. Halfway through packing, my phone rang. It was Cole’s sister, Emma. I picked up, and her tone was about 30% warmer than usual: “Hey Sarah! Are you coming to the family dinner this weekend? Mom says she hasn’t seen you in forever.” “When was this planned?” “Just yesterday! I completely forgot to tell you.” Forgot? Or did they confirm in the group chat that I would say yes before extending the invitation? “Let me check my schedule.” “Okay, just let me know when you decide.” “Oh, by the way—” She lowered her voice. “Cole is under a lot of pressure at work right now. You need to be a little more understanding. Stop picking fights with him.” I paused. “When have I ever picked a fight with him?” “He said you’ve been ignoring him the last few days, and you didn’t even check in during your business trip.” “Sarah, you guys have been together for four years. You need to take some initiative. Men need to be coaxed sometimes too.” So, in his version of the story, I was the one ignoring him.I was the one who wasn’t trying hard enough. “I understand, Emma.” I hung up and stood in the middle of the bedroom. Suddenly, I didn’t want to leave just yet. Not because I couldn’t bear to let go. But because leaving quietly felt like I was letting them off way too easy. Over seven hundred messages. A group chat active for over two years, where every single message was a discussion on how to exclude me. Did I not even deserve a single explanation? That evening, after Cole finished his game, he saw me sitting on the edge of the bed, staring blankly. He walked over and kissed my forehead. “What are you thinking about? Want to go out for dinner?” “Cole.” “Yeah?” “Are you hiding anything from me?” He froze for a second, then laughed. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with you today?” “Nothing. Just asking.” “Did you watch some TikTok video telling girls to interrogate their boyfriends? Stop letting the internet brainwash you.” He reached out and ruffled my hair, his tone patronizing, like he was talking to a child. “Let’s go. We’ll get hot pot.” While we were eating hot pot, he got a call and stood up to step outside. I caught a glimpse of his screen as it lit up—it was Jake calling. He walked to the entrance of the restaurant, his back to me, and spoke in a hushed voice. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but I saw him laugh. It was a relaxed, completely unburdened laugh. He rarely laughed like that when he was with me. When he came back, he didn’t say a word and just went back to eating. “Who was that?” I asked. “Jake. Asking if I want to play basketball tomorrow.” “Are you going?” “Depends.” I bit down on a piece of beef.Depends. His “depends” translated to: Depends on what the group chat decides. The next day was Saturday. At 9:00 AM, Cole left the apartment, saying he was going to play basketball. I said okay. After he left, I opened the iPad he had left at home. His WhatsApp was still logged in. I found the group chat—”A Happy Life Without Sarah.” The latest messages were from 7:30 this morning. Jake: “Just confirming, Sarah’s not coming to the picnic today, right?” Maya: “Nope, definitely not. I told her yesterday I’m locking myself in my room to write a report.” Leo: “I told my sister I’m going to a friend’s house.” Emma: “Great. Meet at the North Gate of the Botanical Gardens at 2 PM.” Cole had replied with an “OK” emoji. Basketball. He told me he was playing basketball. I set the iPad down and leaned back in the chair. It felt like a heavy weight was crushing my chest. It wasn’t anger. It was a profound, suffocating sadness that I couldn’t even put into words. They had developed a complete, seamless protocol. First, confirm I wouldn’t be there. Then, split up and lie to me individually. Finally, meet up. It was like a highly coordinated military operation, and the only objective was to exclude Sarah. I checked the time. 9:40 AM. There were still over four hours until 2:00 PM. I scrolled through the group chat history for a long time. I scrolled all the way back to Thanksgiving last year. That day, I had waited at home for Cole to come back so we could eat dinner together. At 9:00 PM, he texted me saying a work dinner ran late and he couldn’t leave. The chat history from that day showed they were at Emma’s house making dumplings, and they even FaceTimed my brother. My brother had told me that day, “I’m out with friends, already ate.” Every single lie was coordinated. It was flawless. I logged out of his WhatsApp and put the iPad back exactly where I found it. Then I picked up my phone and texted Cole: “Where are you playing basketball today? Want to grab dinner after?” He replied almost instantly: “Still at the gym. Might be playing late, don’t wait up for me.” I didn’t reply again. He was probably on his way to the Botanical Gardens right now. To join those seven other people and enjoy their “Happy Life Without Sarah.” 03 On Monday, I took half the day off to go to the bank. In four years of dating and two years of living together, Cole and I had never formally separated our finances. The apartment was in his name, but I had paid for half the renovations. I bought two-thirds of the furniture and appliances. He transferred me $500 a month for living expenses, and I covered every other daily cost out of pocket. I printed out the bank statements, highlighted every transaction, and saved the files to my phone. I wasn’t planning on taking him to small claims court. I just needed a record for myself. When I got back to the office in the afternoon, Maya texted me: “Did you not see my message asking you to lunch?””I was in a meeting, didn’t look at my phone.””What about tonight? Dinner after work?””I have plans tonight.””With who?” I didn’t reply. Half a minute later, she texted again: “Being all mysterious… do you have a new friend or something? lol just kidding.” I stared at the “lol” and let my finger hover over the screen. When I first met Maya four years ago, she was ten times more enthusiastic than this. She invited me shopping, brought me into her friend group, introduced me to everyone she knew. I had just moved to the city back then, didn’t have many friends, and thought meeting her was my lucky break. Looking back now, she only got close to me because I was Cole’s girlfriend. And she eventually pushed me out for the exact same reason—because I was the girlfriend who made everyone “unable to relax and have fun.” I didn’t go home after work. I went to a mall and ate a bowl of beef noodle soup in the basement food court. Halfway through my meal, Cole texted me: “Are you coming home for dinner? I made congee.””No, working late.””This busy? Why have you been working so much overtime lately?” I didn’t reply. After finishing my noodles, I walked past a real estate agency. I walked in. “Do you have any one-bedroom apartments near a subway station under $1,500 a month?” The agent handed me a stack of listings. “Miss, are you looking to live alone or with roommates?” “Alone.” “Then I recommend these units, they’re all fully furnished…” I picked two apartments close to my office and scheduled viewings for Wednesday. By the time I left the agency, it was almost 9:00 PM. Cole called me, his tone laced with impatience. “Sarah, what time are you coming home? The congee is completely cold.” “Don’t wait for me, you go ahead and eat.” “What is going on with you the last few days?” “You’re giving me one-word answers, and you’re coming home later and later.” “What do you mean, what’s going on with me?” “You tell me,” he sighed. “I think something’s really off with your mood lately.” “My mood is the same as it’s always been.” “Fine. Whatever makes you happy.” He hung up.Whatever makes you happy. When he said that, he definitely thought he was being the bigger person. So accommodating, so understanding. But I wanted to ask him: Do you know why my mood is off?Have you spent even a single second considering that maybe it’s your fault? After viewing the apartments on Wednesday, I signed a lease on the spot. First month’s rent plus a security deposit. The landlord wanted me to move in by the end of the month, which was perfect timing. I had two weeks to prepare. Two weeks to completely erase myself from Cole’s life. On Thursday afternoon, I was at my desk organizing handover files—I was also preparing to change jobs. My phone buzzed. A voice memo from my brother, Leo. “Hey sis, are you coming to my birthday party next week?””Where is it?””At Cole’s place. He said he’s going to cook a huge dinner.” I bit my lip.”Who’s coming?””Just the usual crew. Jake and them, and Maya.” The usual crew. The eight people in that group chat. My brother’s birthday party was going to be held at my boyfriend’s apartment. And the guest list was composed entirely of the people who actively excluded me. And the only reason he was inviting me was because, technically, it was my apartment too. “I have something going on, I might not be able to make it.””What? Sis, what’s so important?””I only have a birthday once a year.””Leo, let me ask you something.””Yeah?””When did you and Cole get so close?” He paused for two seconds, then laughed. “We’ve always been close! He’s my future brother-in-law.” Brother-in-law. We weren’t even married yet, and he was already calling him that. “Okay. I’ll try my best to be there.” I hung up, buried my face in my arms on the desk, and closed my eyes for a long time. Nineteen-year-old Leo, happily coordinating with everyone in a group chat to lie to my face. He was the brother I practically raised myself. When our parents got divorced, he was twelve, and he lived with me for three whole years. I worked two jobs to put him through high school. I took him to amusement parks during the summer. I bought him new winter coats. When did he start thinking of me as someone who needed to be excluded? Did Cole plant the idea? Or did they all just feed off each other? Or maybe it had always been like this, and I was just the only one who didn’t know.

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Chapter 1 When Julian got home from his night shift, I had just placed a bowl of garlic butter noodles—his favorite—on the table. I wanted to tell him that my mother had finally agreed to let us get married. Instead, he tossed his car keys onto the table and said exhaustedly, “I got married.” The noodles were still steaming, but my heart instantly turned to ice. “What?” “I married the new nurse from the ER.” “She’s young, and she’s completely devoted to me. I couldn’t just leave her without any security.” I gripped my chopsticks, my fingertips trembling. “Then what about the eight years I spent waiting for you?” Julian looked up at me, and actually gave a small smile. “You’re different. You’re the person I can never let go of.” “As long as you don’t make a big deal out of it, we’re still family.” … I didn’t cry. I didn’t smash the bowl. I simply picked up that bowl of garlic butter noodles, walked into the kitchen, and dumped it straight into the trash can. Julian frowned. “Harper, I just worked an entire night shift. The thing I hate most is when you give me this silent treatment.” I turned to look at him. “When did you sign the papers?” He rubbed his temples. “Yesterday at noon.” “Chloe got off her night shift, City Hall wasn’t busy, so we just went since it was on the way.” On the way. Yesterday at noon, I was at the hospital with my mom for her dialysis evaluation. She lay in the hospital bed, holding my hand, and said: “Harper, I’ve thought it over. If you’re really set on Julian, then marry him.” I almost cried right then and there. I texted Julian immediately. “My mom finally said yes.” He never replied. Turns out, he was at City Hall. Taking marriage certificate photos with another woman. I asked: “Does she know about me?” Julian was silent for two seconds. “She knows.” “And she doesn’t care?” “She’s young. She’s insecure.” He sounded so exhausted saying it. As if I were the one being unreasonable. “She cried and told me she didn’t want a ring, she didn’t want a wedding. She just wanted the legal right to stand by my side.” I laughed. “I’ve stood by your side for eight years. Where do I stand now?” Julian looked at me. “Harper, those eight years weren’t for nothing.” “You can keep living in this house, and your life doesn’t have to change.” “Don’t make this sound uglier than it is.” I finally understood. His so-called “compensation” was letting me continue to live here. To keep cleaning his house. To keep taking care of him when his stomach hurt, when he pulled all-nighters, when he was exhausted from his shifts. Except I was being demoted from his girlfriend to a dirty little secret hidden in the shadows. I walked into the bedroom to pack my things. When I opened the closet, my hand froze. A row of clothes belonging to a stranger was hanging inside. A pink sweater, a floral dress, a nursing jacket. There was a pair of small white sneakers in the shoe rack. A new bottle of face wash on the bathroom counter. A thin hair tie resting on the nightstand. I picked it up and asked him: “She’s been coming here for a while?” Julian stood in the doorway. He didn’t deny it. “Chloe gets scared easily. She couldn’t sleep alone in the dorms.” I nodded. “So you let her sleep in my bed?” His face darkened. “Do you have to frame it like that?” I took off the ring he had given me and set it on the table. It was a silver ring he bought the year he finished his residency. He promised me that once he became an attending physician, he would replace it with a diamond. When he finally became an attending, he said we needed to wait until we bought a house and settled down. After we bought the house, he said we needed to wait for my mother’s approval. Now my mother had finally approved. And he was a married man. I pulled out my suitcase. Julian suddenly panicked. He hugged me from behind. “Harper, I never wanted to lose you.” “I just needed to secure things for Chloe first.” “She can’t survive without me. You’re different. You’re mature. You understand me.” Being held by him, I only felt a wave of absolute nausea. The doorbell rang. In the moment Julian let go of me, I actually wondered if he’d be too much of a coward to open the door. He opened it. Chloe stood in the doorway. Her face was small, her eyes red from crying. She was wearing a men’s jacket. It was the jacket I had waited in line for two hours in the freezing cold to buy for Julian last winter. She was holding a box of wedding favors. “Julian, I came to get my marriage certificate.” After she said that, she finally noticed me. She gave a timid, nervous smile. “Oh, Harper. You’re here too.” I didn’t say a word. She took off her shoes and slipped on some house slippers. They were the spare slippers I had bought for guests. She wore them naturally. Walking with complete familiarity, she went straight into the bedroom and opened the drawer of my nightstand. The marriage certificate was right there inside. Resting on top of an old photo album. Underneath the marriage certificate was a letter. A letter my mother had written to Julian. She had just finished writing it yesterday and asked me to hand-deliver it to him. The very first line on the page read:”Julian, I am entrusting Harper to you for the rest of her life.” Chloe picked up the letter and blinked innocently. “Is this a letter your mom wrote to you guys?” “Oh, I’m sorry. Was I not supposed to read this?” I reached out to grab it back. But Julian snatched it away first. The corner of the stationary tore. He said: “Don’t scare her.” Watching him stand protectively in front of Chloe, I suddenly felt like this apartment was completely foreign to me. I had lived here for five years. But standing here right now, I felt like a trespasser. I forcefully snatched the letter back. Chloe shrank behind Julian. Julian’s expression turned ugly. “Harper, you’re emotionally unstable right now. Don’t go to work at the hospital tomorrow.” I looked at him. “I am a supervisor in the Pathology Lab. I don’t answer to an ER doctor.” Chloe’s tears started falling on command. “Harper, I really didn’t want to steal anything from you.” “I just love Julian too much.” I laughed out loud. “You’re certainly good at loving someone. So good you loved your way right into someone else’s house.” Julian lowered his voice. “Don’t make this uglier than it needs to be.” My phone rang. It was the Dialysis Center. “Ms. Miller, your mother is experiencing sudden chest pain and her blood pressure is unstable. Please come immediately.” I grabbed my bag and rushed out. Julian instinctively followed me. For a split second, I actually felt a tiny wave of relief. But the very next second, Chloe clutched her stomach and crouched down. “Julian… I feel dizzy…” “I didn’t eat dinner last night. It might be my blood sugar.” Julian stopped dead in his tracks. He glanced at me. “You take an Uber.” “I’m going to take her to the ER. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I didn’t say a word. As the elevator doors closed, I saw him scoop Chloe up into his arms. In the back of the taxi, I called him three times. He didn’t answer. When I got to the hospital, my mom’s face was an ashen grey. The nurse slid a risk consent form across the counter to me. “Sign this. She might need to be put on life support, or we might need to resuscitate.” My hand was shaking so badly I couldn’t write my own name. For eight years, Julian had always promised: “Your mom is my mom.” He told me I never had to be afraid. He told me that if anything ever happened at the hospital, he would handle it. But when that day finally came, I was still the one holding the pen. Sitting outside the resuscitation room, I opened my phone. The very first post on my Instagram feed was from Julian. In the photo, he and Chloe were holding up their marriage certificates. The caption read: For the rest of our lives. Please guide me. It had been posted exactly when I was calling him for the third time. A bunch of his coworkers from the ER had liked it. Chloe had replied in the comments: “Thank you everyone! Julian said he’s bringing wedding candy for the whole department tonight.” I stared at those words, my hands slowly going ice cold. When my mom finally woke up, the first thing she asked was: “Where’s Julian?” I hid my phone in my palm. “He’s in the ER saving a patient.” “Doctors are busy. I know.” The family member of the patient in the next bed suddenly leaned over. “Wait, isn’t your son-in-law Dr. Vance?” “Oh man… he posted on his Instagram that he got married, but the bride isn’t your daughter!” She shoved her phone screen right in front of my mom’s face. I couldn’t stop her in time. The second my mom saw the photo, her breathing became violent and erratic. The heart monitor immediately started screaming. I sprinted out to scream for a doctor. As I ran past the nurses’ station, I saw Julian. He was holding Chloe’s hand, handing out boxes of wedding candy to the ER staff. Stacks of little red boxes covered the desk. Someone teased him: “Dr. Vance, you kept this a secret for a long time!” Chloe leaned against him, her face flushed red. When Julian saw me, his immediate reaction was to frown. The very first words out of his mouth were: “What did you do to make your mom this upset?” I stood frozen. I was still gripping my mother’s critical condition notice in my hand. In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to slap that piece of paper directly across his face. But my mom was still fighting for her life in that room. So all I could ask was: “Julian, where do you get the nerve?” The ER went dead silent. Chloe’s tears started falling again. She whispered, “Harper, please don’t blame Julian. It’s all my fault.” Julian stepped protectively in front of her. “We are in a hospital. Do not cause a scene.” I looked at the wedding candy in his hands. Suddenly, I found the whole thing incredibly hilarious. In a place dedicated to saving lives, he was throwing a funeral for my eight years of devotion. I didn’t cause a scene. I simply looked at him in front of his entire department and asked: “What gives you the right to blame me?” No one in the ER made a sound. Chloe hid behind Julian, sobbing softly. Julian lowered his voice. “Harper, stop interfering with our work.” “The only one interfering with work is you.” “My mother is fighting for her life in the observation ward, and you are standing here handing out candy.” A few nurses looked down, awkwardly pretending to organize charts. Suddenly, Chloe clamped a hand over her mouth. “I feel like I’m going to throw up…” The ER staff immediately started hooting. “Wow, good news already?” “Dr. Vance works fast!” Julian’s face changed. He immediately wrapped an arm around Chloe. “Let’s get some blood drawn. We’ll run a test.” My mother was still in critical observation. But Julian didn’t leave Chloe’s side for a single second while she got her blood drawn. Standing by the lab window, I watched him personally attach the label to her blood vial. The meticulous care in his movements was blindingly painful to watch. The results came back. Chloe just had gastritis. She rubbed her stomach, smiling bashfully. “I wish there really was a baby.” In front of all his coworkers, Julian told her: “When we have a baby, I’ll give you a proper home.” I thought that sentence had nothing to do with me. Until I went back to that apartment that night and saw a document sitting on the coffee table.Housing Arrangement Agreement. It read:In order to facilitate Chloe’s pregnancy preparation and future recovery, Harper Miller voluntarily agrees to vacate the master bedroom. Holding that piece of paper, I laughed for a long time. The twenty-thousand-dollar down payment for this apartment? I paid it. The renovation costs? I put them on my credit cards. For years, I had transferred three thousand dollars to Julian every single month to cover the mortgage. But the deed only had his name on it. Because he said getting the loan approved was easier for a doctor. He said, “Harper, what’s mine is yours. There’s no difference between us.” Now, he was making the difference very clear. The master bedroom was for Chloe. I had to give up my own bed. I asked: “What is the meaning of this?” Julian sat on the sofa. “Chloe and I are legally married now. It’s ridiculous for her to keep living in the dorms.” “The master bedroom gets the best sunlight. It’s better for her while we’re trying for a baby.” I slammed the agreement down in front of him. “Where is my twenty thousand?” “Where is the mortgage money I paid you?” He frowned. “We were together for eight years. Let’s not make this transactional and ugly.” Chloe walked out of the kitchen carrying two glasses of water. She was wearing an apron, looking like the perfect lady of the house. “Don’t worry, Harper. I won’t stay here for free.” “I’ll pay you eight hundred dollars a month in rent, is that okay?” I almost laughed in her face. “Eight hundred?” “Are you making a joke right now?” I picked up the agreement and ripped it into pieces. Julian violently grabbed my wrist. “If you keep acting like this, I’m going to have to transfer your mom to a regular ward.” I looked up at him. He continued: “And coordinating her dialysis schedule… I’m not the only one who can do that, you know.” The room went dead silent. Chloe had stopped crying. She stood behind Julian, looking down at me. Her expression was so innocent. And so incredibly smug. I slowly pulled my wrist out of his grip. “Julian… are you threatening me with my mother’s life?” He avoided my eyes. “I just want you to calm down.” I nodded. “Okay.” “I’ll calm down. I’ll be so calm that you’ll regret you ever met me.” The next day, I went to work at the Pathology Lab as usual. The very first thing I did when I walked into my office was export every single bank transfer I had ever sent to Julian. The down payment. The mortgage. The renovations. The medical bills I paid when his father was hospitalized. And the chat logs proving he had taken possession of my mother’s medical files. I uploaded every single document to the cloud. Julian texted me. “Don’t blow this out of proportion. We’ll talk when we get home tonight.” I didn’t reply. At 10:00 AM, Chloe showed up at the lab window. She slid a blood requisition form across the counter. “Harper, I think I might be pregnant. Can you expedite this for me?” The entire office went dead silent. Someone pretended to take a sip of water. Someone stared aggressively at their keyboard. I stuck to protocol. “Register, pay the fee, and wait in line.” Chloe’s eyes filled with tears. “Are you still mad at me?” I slid the form back to her. “This is a hospital, not your living room.” She bit her lip and walked away. To avoid any accusations of a conflict of interest, I personally handed her sample to a coworker and documented the entire chain of custody on video. The results came back at noon. HCG levels normal. Not pregnant. When Chloe saw the results, her face went completely pale. Half an hour later, news swept through the ER. Chloe was experiencing severe abdominal pain and bleeding. A suspected miscarriage. Julian stormed into the Pathology Lab. He was clutching a different lab report in his hand. That report showed Chloe’s HCG levels were elevated, consistent with early pregnancy. And the name of the authorizing technician at the bottom was mine. I glanced at the ID number on the report. “I didn’t authorize that.” “My login credentials weren’t used on this terminal at noon.” Julian wasn’t listening. He interrogated me in front of everyone: “Harper, why did you alter her lab results?!” Chloe appeared, supported by a nurse. She was pale, clutching her stomach. “Harper, it’s fine if you hate me.” “But the baby is innocent.” The way my coworkers looked at me instantly changed. The Department Director rushed in. “Harper, you are suspended pending an investigation.” I said: “Pull the security footage. Check the login IP logs.” Julian cut me off. “Now is not the time to argue over protocol!” “Chloe lost the baby because she was so stressed by your fake report!” I looked at him. “How can someone miscarry a baby they never had?” Chloe sobbed hysterically. Julian slammed a stack of papers down on the counter in front of me. The papers scattered everywhere. It was my mother’s dialysis deposit notice. And a hospital bed transfer request. He stared at me coldly. “Get on your knees and apologize to Chloe right now.” “And I promise your mother will still be on a dialysis machine tonight.” The entire department was staring at me. My professional reputation. My mother’s life. My eight years of devotion. He was trying to crush all of it with a single apology. I bent down to pick up the papers. Not to kneel. Just to pick them up. At the very bottom of the pile was an ultrasound report from a different hospital. Chloe had done it last week. The conclusion read: No evidence of pregnancy. I looked up at him. For the first time, Julian looked genuinely panicked. Chloe screamed: “That’s not mine!” The next second, the Director’s office door was pushed open. Members of the hospital’s Disciplinary Committee stood in the doorway. “Harper Miller, regarding the allegations of tampering with medical reports, you are to be suspended immediately pending a formal investigation.” I looked at Julian. He wasn’t looking at me anymore. He was staring at that ultrasound report. He knew the entire time.

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My older brother returned from his business trip in Paris with two shopping bags. One held an Hermès Birkin in classic gold togo leather. The other, a Chanel classic flap in black caviar. He went to my sister’s bedroom first. By the time he made it down the hall to my room, both shopping bags were gone. All that was left in his hands was a box of hazelnut chocolates you could buy at any corner drugstore. I wanted to tell my fiancé, Colin, about it. I needed to vent. But when I tracked his location to the boutiques on Fifth Avenue and walked in, I found him leaning against the glass display counters, agonizing over two necklaces. One was a Bulgari Divas’ Dream pendant. The other was a B.zero1 ceramic ring studded with diamonds. Which one should I give to your sister? He looked genuinely torn. My chest caved in. But I didn’t dare go home to cry. Instead, I hid in a quiet, marble-tiled alcove near the mall’s fitting rooms, pulling out my phone. I opened my messages and began typing through blurred vision to a guy I’d met in an online lobby six months ago. [My brother called me greedy, but I didn’t even ask for a bag. Am I really that greedy?] [Colin is supposed to be my fiancé, but he’s buying high jewelry for my sister. Am I just being petty?] The messages delivered. A moment later, a voice note popped up on my screen. “Why don’t you just be with me?” “However many bags, however many diamonds you want—I’ll give them all to you.” “I’d only ever give them to you. And I promise, no one would ever call you greedy or petty again.” 1 I froze. The sheer shock of it literally stopped my tears. For half a year, I had been chatting with this person whose screen name was simply “Gold,” their profile picture a blank white square. We had met through a co-op video game, and this was far from the first time I had cried to them. But usually, Gold only ever typed back, offering patient, quiet comfort. I had always assumed Gold was a gentle, soft-spoken girl. That was why I felt so safe pouring my heart out. But the voice that just played from my phone was undeniably male. It was a deep, unhurried baritone. Smooth and dangerously tender. A second voice note appeared. I pressed play. “More than that. If you were ever in danger, I’d save you. Only you. I can promise you that much,” the man’s voice murmured, a quiet gravity grounding every word. “Think about it.” I listened to it again. A sharp ache flared at the bridge of my nose. The tears I thought I had stopped suddenly spilled over my lashes, hot and heavy. 2 It wasn’t that I loved to cry. It was just that, most of the time, I didn’t know how to swallow the pain. When I was five, my parents divorced. To better care for my chronically ill older sister, Bella, my mother took her across the country to live in Los Angeles. My brother, Jon, and I were left in New York with my father. Three years ago, my father died in a multi-car pileup. Last year, my mother succumbed to breast cancer. But ever since Jon flew to California and brought Bella back to live with us in the New York townhouse, I realized I was no longer allowed to cry in my own home. “Mia, your sister’s heart condition acts up when she’s stressed. Are you trying to make her sick?” “What are you even sulking about? Crying like that—how do you think it makes Bella feel?” That was what Jon always said. After being scolded enough times, I didn’t even dare pull the covers over my head to weep in the dark. When the weight of it became too much, my only option was to flee the house and hide in the white noise of a crowded public space. Colin was the match my father had arranged for me before he passed. Our families moved in the same wealthy circles, and it was a quiet, understood agreement. In the beginning, Colin used to look out for me. When he found out Jon was bringing Bella gifts every single evening and ignoring me completely, he would hold my hand and say, “Why don’t we just get married the second you graduate?” “Once we’re married, whatever you want, I’ll buy it for you, okay?” When Bella took a liking to a wooden sculpture I had carved myself, and Jon screamed at me for refusing to give it to her, Colin had been furious on my behalf. “It’s your art. Why the hell should you have to give it up?” he had told me. “Mia, don’t you dare back down. You hear me?” That was how it was. Until four months ago, when Jon brought home a custom haute couture gown. I happened to be in the hallway when he handed the garment bag to Bella. I had only lingered for a second, my eyes catching on the intricate beadwork. Out of nowhere, Jon snapped. “Mia, have you ever lacked for anything in your entire life? Why do you always have to covet what belongs to your sister?” “Get out! Don’t come back until you figure out what you did wrong!” I sat on the limestone steps of our front porch for the entire night. The next morning, Colin came by to pick me up. Seeing me shivering in the autumn chill, he was immediately sympathetic. “It’s just a dress. How could Jon kick you out over that?” “Mia, are you crazy? Why didn’t you fight back?” But then, the heavy oak door opened, and Jon walked out—with Bella right behind him. Colin’s voice died in his throat. He stared. That was the very first time Colin ever laid eyes on my sister. He turned to me, blinking like a man waking from a dream. “Mia… is this your sister, Bella?” I gave a stiff, numb nod. And just like that, Colin’s tone completely shifted. “Oh. Well, then this is on you, Mia.” “You really should learn to compromise for her.” 3 I caught a terrible fever that day. My body ached so profoundly I had no choice but to hide in my room, quietly wiping away tears while texting “Gold” about how much it hurt. But crying didn’t change reality. Because after that day, the frequency of Colin’s visits to our townhouse suddenly spiked. His family was incredibly wealthy. Whenever he brought me a pastry or a gift, he suddenly started bringing a matching one for Bella. On my birthday, he gave me a pair of diamond studs. He bought a second box for her. He’d say, “Mia, I only get Bella things because she’s your sister. Don’t overthink it.” But last month, Jon took Bella and me up to a luxury cabin retreat in the Catskills. Colin tagged along. The entire drive up, Colin’s eyes were glued to the rearview mirror, checking on Bella. He asked her if she was cold, if she was hungry, if the winding roads were making her dizzy. He didn’t ask me a single question. Later that evening, everything went to hell. A group of heavily intoxicated locals crashed the resort, starting a brawl and smashing the outdoor patio heaters. Colin immediately shielded Bella with his body. “Don’t look, Bella. I’ve got you,” he kept whispering. Jon didn’t even hesitate. While physically holding back two aggressive drunks, he yelled over his shoulder, “Colin, get Bella to the SUV! Go!” They rushed her to the car. Just as the heavy door slammed shut, one of the drunks lunged, grabbing my arm so hard I felt the bruise blooming instantly. Jon saw it happen. But he put the car in drive anyway. He rolled down the window just enough to shout, “Mia, wait right there! Let me get your sister to safety and I’ll come right back for you!” They never came back. When the men started smashing glass and throwing punches at the staff, a good Samaritan finally called the cops. In the end, it was a police cruiser that drove me home. When the officer dropped me off, the townhouse was completely silent. I was too terrified to go inside. I stood on the sidewalk for a long, long time, texting Gold, letting the digital text ground me. When my breathing finally steadied, I limped my way up the steps and unlocked the door. I braced myself for the chaos. But the house was dead quiet. Bella was sick. The “shock” of the evening had triggered her palpitations. She had taken her medication and was fast asleep in her plush bed. Colin had just left half an hour ago. And Jon was sitting in a velvet chair by her bedside, keeping watch. No one was looking for me. When Jon stepped out into the hallway and saw me standing there, bruised and shivering, his expression barely shifted. “Glad you made it back safe,” he said, keeping his voice to a low whisper. “Keep it down, don’t wake your sister. Go wash up and go to sleep.” The tears I had fought so hard to keep back nearly shattered the dam right then and there. 4 When I went looking for Colin today, it wasn’t actually to complain about Jon not giving me a Chanel bag. I was fine without it. Lately, I had been fine with having nothing at all. But yesterday, Jon had called me into his study. “Mia, the Carmichaels are a powerful family. Colin isn’t the primary heir, but he holds his own in our circle,” Jon had said, swirling a glass of scotch. “You’re still young. There’s no rush for you. But your sister’s health is delicate, and I can tell Colin genuinely cares for her. I think it’s best if you step aside and let Bella take this marriage arrangement.” It wasn’t a discussion. It was an eviction notice from my own future. I went to the mall today to ask Colin a simple question: Was this Jon’s idea, or was it his? But Colin had been distracted from the second I found him. Even while holding the two luxury necklaces, he had asked: “Mia, which one do you think Bella would like more?” Standing under the harsh, brilliant lighting of the jewelry boutique, looking at his conflicted face, I suddenly had my answer. “Why don’t you just buy both?” I told him quietly. “Give them both to her.” And now, sitting in the shadowy corner of the mall, listening to the deep, steady voice of the man on the phone. I wiped the dampness from my cheeks. My heart settled into a strange, terrifying calm. I pressed the microphone button. “Okay,” I whispered. “Let’s be together.” 5 By the time I dried my eyes and took an Uber home, dusk had fallen. Colin and Bella were standing on the front porch. The amber glow of the gas lamps stretched their shadows long, blending them into one. I watched from the bottom of the steps as Colin, his face flushed, handed her the velvet Bulgari boxes. What was he saying to her? I was too far away to hear. Then Bella spotted me. Her face lit up with a practiced, radiant smile, and she practically glided down the steps toward me. “Colin, you bought these beautiful necklaces for me, but what about Mia?” she asked, her voice light and teasing. “Did you get anything for Mia?” Her cold, manicured hand reached out and grasped mine. She hadn’t taken the boxes from him yet. She was performing the role of the protective, generous older sister. Colin froze. A beat of awkward silence hung in the air before he awkwardly reached into his tailored coat pocket and pulled out a flimsy, velvet pouch. “Of course. I got something for Mia, too.” Bella’s smile deepened, as if she were genuinely thrilled for me. She took the pouch, pulled out a thin silver chain, and draped it over my wrist, fastening the clasp. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at me. “Isn’t it pretty? It suits Mia so perfectly. Do you love it, Mia?” “No.” A wave of intense, suffocating humiliation crashed over me. This bracelet. Three months ago, for my birthday, Colin had given me the exact same one. He had told me then that he had spent hours picking it out. But today, standing at the jewelry counter, I had seen the truth. It was a promotional gift-with-purchase. The boutique had a whole drawer of them. You got one if you bought a necklace. You got one if you bought a watch. You got one if you bought earrings. The $30,000 diamond bracelet Colin had gifted Bella on my birthday—the one she was currently wearing on her left wrist? That was fine jewelry. The identical promotional freebie now resting against my skin was an afterthought. Bella had to have known. She shopped at these boutiques constantly. Colin definitely knew. 6 I didn’t want the bracelet. I undid the clasp, pulled off the one I was already wearing from my birthday, and threw both of them into Colin’s chest. As I turned and ran up the steps into the house, I heard Bella’s soft, distressed sigh behind me. “I’m so sorry, Colin. Mia didn’t accept your gift. If I take these necklaces now, it’ll just upset her even more…” I wasn’t an idiot. I could hear the subtle, poisoned needle hidden in those words. But I just didn’t understand. If she wanted to play hard to get with Colin, why did she have to use me as the stepping stone? Even though our parents had divorced, whenever I spent my summer vacations in LA when we were little, she had been so sweet to me. When our mother scolded me for being messy, Bella used to hide me in her closet and read me stories. Why had everything changed the second she moved into my house? I slept with my head buried under the duvet that night. When I woke up, my eyes were swollen to the size of walnuts. I was sitting in the kitchen pressing cold spoons against my eyelids when our housekeeper, Martha, came rushing in. “Mia, there are guests here to discuss marriage arrangements. Mrs. Carmichael is here!” “Hurry, go take a look.” Mrs. Carmichael. Colin’s mother? I blinked, confused. Martha was already pulling me up from the stool. Martha knew about the unspoken engagement my father had arranged with the Carmichaels. But she didn’t know Jon was planning to swap Bella in my place. And she certainly didn’t know Colin had already shifted his affections. Sure enough, when I reached the top of the grand staircase and peered into the living room, Mrs. Carmichael was seated on the velvet sofa. But she wasn’t alone. Sitting opposite her was an incredibly elegant, strikingly beautiful woman I had never seen before. Seeing me on the landing, Mrs. Carmichael’s smile turned brittle and strained. “Oh. Mia is home, too.” At her words, the other woman’s eyes lit up. A warm, genuine smile broke across her face. “Are you Mia?” I nodded slowly, my eyes sliding past the two matriarchs to look at Jon. I had never seen my brother look this ecstatic. He was practically vibrating with excitement, though he was trying hard to maintain a veneer of corporate humility. “Well, we are in the twenty-first century now. We don’t believe in arranged marriages in the traditional sense,” Jon was saying, adjusting his cuffs. “An alliance of this magnitude… I really must consult with my sister first.” He turned to Martha. “Go upstairs and bring the eldest Miss Davis down.” The elegant stranger immediately held up a hand, halting him. “The eldest?” she asked, her brow furrowing slightly. “No, no, there’s been a misunderstanding. The girl our family is here to propose to is Mia.” Mrs. Carmichael sat frozen, staring into her teacup, a humiliated flush creeping up her neck. A sharp prick of shock hit my chest. I instinctively looked at Jon. Jon’s triumphant smile faltered. He looked incredibly displeased that Bella wasn’t getting to choose between two elite suitors. He frowned at the elegant woman. “Mrs. Astor, are you absolutely certain you mean… Mia, and not Bella?” Before she could answer, a cold, authoritative voice drifted in from the grand entryway. “We are certain.” I whipped my head around. A man stood in the foyer. Dressed in a sharp black overcoat and tailored trousers, his features were strikingly handsome, his eyes dark and unreadable. “The woman I want,” he said, his voice dropping an octave, “is Mia.” 7 Theo Astor. The sole heir to the Astor dynasty. There wasn’t a single person in New York high society who didn’t know his name. His father was the Chairman of Astor Holdings. His mother was old-money New England royalty, a direct descendant of the Vanderbilt line. They were, without question, one of the top three most powerful families on the East Coast. Gold… was him? I stared blankly at the man walking into my living room. He was breathtaking. Broad shoulders, narrow waist—he looked like he had stepped straight out of a Tom Ford campaign. He stopped at the base of the stairs, looked up at me, and offered a soft, private smile. “We meet again, Mia.” The breath finally caught in my lungs. It was him. The voice was exactly the same. I lowered my eyes, my fingers gripping the mahogany banister to hide my trembling. “We meet again…” Theo’s dark gaze flicked to my swollen, red eyelids. For a fraction of a second, his jaw tightened. When he turned to look at my brother, the smile remained on his lips, but the warmth in his voice was completely gone. “Mr. Davis, do you have a problem with my judgment?” Jon offered a sycophantic, nervous laugh. “No, no, of course not.” “Then why did I just hear you question whether Mia was the one I wanted? Did you assume I’m incapable of recognizing the woman I have feelings for?” His tone was sharp, laced with a double meaning that cut through the room like glass. Jon’s laugh turned stiff. He shot me a dark, covert glare—I couldn’t tell if it was a warning or an accusation. “How could I ever assume that?” Jon muttered. Theo dismissed him entirely. He turned his attention back to me, and the ice in his voice melted instantly into something akin to a spring breeze. “So, Mia,” he asked gently. “This arrangement. Do you accept?” It felt like he was holding up the sky for me. Like he was coaxing me out of a dark corner. For some inexplicable reason, an ache rose in my throat. “I—” I wanted to say yes. We had agreed to it last night. But the moment I opened my mouth, a frantic voice interrupted from the top of the stairs. “Is that you? Theo?” It was Bella. She had slipped out of her room and was now standing on the landing above me, staring down at Theo with a mixture of breathless joy and engineered shyness. Theo? Why was she speaking to him so informally? My chest tightened. My fingers gripped the banister harder. Bella had already composed her features into a picture of elegant grace as she descended the stairs, bypassing me entirely. “Five years ago, at the Ivy League debate tournament in Boston. I was the second speaker for the opposition. Do you remember me?” 8 Did Theo remember her? Was he going to be just like Colin? Was he going to see Bella shining in the spotlight and immediately forget I existed? Was he going to be like Jon—the second Bella entered the room, all the gravity shifted to her? I stared at Theo, my stomach tying itself into a sickening knot. But Theo just looked at her. His gaze swept over Bella’s perfectly made-up face without a flicker of recognition. Without missing a beat, he asked in a voice made of absolute frost, “Who are you? And why on earth would I remember you?” Bella’s radiant smile shattered. Seeing her shock, Jon desperately tried to salvage the situation. “Oh, so Bella and Mr. Astor are old acquaintances! Well, looking at it that way, it must be destiny that you two reunited in my home today.” Destiny? But Theo came here for me. It felt like someone had poured battery acid straight into my chest. The sour, burning sting rushed right behind my eyes. Terrified that Jon would notice and reprimand me again, I ducked my head, trying to blink away the blurriness. Then, Theo’s voice sliced through the tension. “Mr. Davis, it was a collegiate debate tournament. By your logic, I’m ‘destined’ to marry half the corporate litigators in Manhattan.” He paused, and I heard his footsteps move closer to the stairs. “Mia.” His voice was back to that soft, steady rhythm. I looked up, straight into eyes that held absolutely no doubt. “You haven’t answered my question yet. Will you marry me?” It was as if a warm gust of wind had swept through the suffocating house, blowing away the dust and leaving nothing but sunlight. In that moment, I didn’t care about Jon’s suddenly furious expression. I didn’t care about Bella, who was standing there pale and trembling on the verge of tears. All I saw was Theo Astor, waiting for me with a patient, reassuring smile. “Yes,” I breathed out. “I will.”

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On the first day of our sophomore year, Cassidy—who had just been voted the department’s “it-girl”—stopped me in my tracks. “Maeve, is it true that you and Lucas are childhood sweethearts?” “If I get selected as the freshman representative at convocation, would you mind… letting me have him?” Under the white orientation tents, the bustling campus suddenly went dead silent. I opened my mouth to speak. But Lucas, who had been holding the umbrella over my head, suddenly pulled his hand back. His voice was cool, his eyes heavy with an impatience and exhaustion that cut straight through me. “You don’t have to wait for convocation. You can have him now.” He turned his gaze to me, cold and distant. “Maeve, you’re an adult. Can you stop clinging to me all the time?” Cassidy blinked, caught off guard, before a smug, triumphant smile spread across her face. “Well, I guess twelve years of history doesn’t mean much after all.” Lucas didn’t defend me. Instead, he nudged my heavy suitcase aside and took Cassidy’s lightweight backpack from her hands. Watching him walk away without a single backward glance, a wave of nausea washed over me. Twelve years of devotion suddenly felt like ash in my mouth. If the falling leaves belong to the wind, then it was time for me to find my own path. … I dragged my suitcase up to the fourth floor by myself. The bag was heavy, the wheels clattering loudly against the edge of each concrete step, echoing in the stairwell. My roommate, Abby, heard the commotion and ran down to help me lift the last flight. “Where’s your family? Why are you hauling all of this alone?” I forced a small smile. “They’re busy.” But they weren’t. My mom had called Lucas first thing this morning, reminding him that I had a weak constitution and asking him to look out for me. Even Aunt Susan had laughed on the phone, saying, “Don’t you worry, Helen. With Lucas there, Maeve is in good hands. He’s been protecting her since they were in diapers.” But today, the person Lucas was protecting wasn’t me. As I finished making my bed, my phone buzzed on the mattress. A text from Lucas. “Where’s your dorm? I’ll have my mom send over a desk lamp for you.” I stared at the screen and didn’t reply. Ten minutes later, another text arrived. “Maeve, how long are you going to keep throwing this tantrum?” I flipped the phone face-down on the sheets. Abby leaned over, curiosity in her eyes. “Boyfriend?” “No,” I said quietly, my voice entirely flat. “Just a guy from back home.” Before she could ask more, Abby pointed out the window. “Whoa, look at that guy down there. He’s gorgeous.” I followed her gaze. Down in the courtyard, Lucas was bending over to pick up Cassidy’s luggage. He slung two massive duffel bags effortlessly over his shoulders and carried them up the steps. Cassidy stood beside him, smiling as she handed him a bottle of water. Lucas took it, twisted the cap, and drank. Watching them, my throat tightened, a sharp, familiar ache blooming behind my eyes. Throughout our three years of high school, I had handed Lucas water countless times. After basketball games, after late-night academic decathlons, after grueling study sessions. He had never accepted a single bottle from me. He used to say, “Maeve, don’t do this. Take care of your own things.” It wasn’t that he refused to drink water handed to him by others. It was just that the person offering it couldn’t be me. I turned toward the wall and lay down. Thinking I was exhausted, Abby quietly pulled the bed curtains shut to give me some privacy. In the dimness of my bunk, I kept my eyes wide open. The tears burned, but I didn’t let them fall. Suddenly, those twelve years felt like a solo performance, a play where I was the only actor on stage, and the audience had left long ago. In the afternoon, I walked over to the Study Abroad Office. The advisor scrolled through the database for a long time, looking apologetic. “Maeve, you voluntarily withdrew from the Paris exchange program last semester. That slot was already passed on to the runner-up.” “If you want to reapply, you’ll need signatures from both the department chair and your faculty advisor.” “There’s only one spot left, and the deadline is the fifteenth of next month.” I nodded slowly. “I understand. Thank you, Mrs. Abernathy.” Walking out of the building, I stopped in front of the glass display board. The list of last year’s selected exchange students was still pinned there. Behind my name, someone had drawn a thick, red line. Next to it, a single word was written in sharp print: “Withdrawn.” Six months ago, I had secured the department’s sole fully-funded exchange spot. I had worked on that research proposal since my freshman year, pulling countless all-nighters to perfect it. The day I received the acceptance letter, Lucas was the very first person I called. He was silent for a long time over the receiver, before saying quietly: “If you go to Paris for a year, who’s going to organize my competition materials?” He didn’t say he would miss me. He didn’t say he couldn’t bear to let me go. Yet, I had still withdrawn my application. Because back then, I foolishly believed he needed me. I stood in front of the board, staring at the red line for a long time. Finally, I pulled out my phone and took a photo. Not to remember what I lost. But to remind myself. This time, there would be no turning back. That evening, Abby dragged me to the campus diner. We had just sat down when she nudged my elbow. “Hey, that guy from your hometown is here.” I looked up. Lucas and Cassidy were sitting at a booth directly across from us. Cassidy was hovering over the menu, looking indecisive. “Lucas, is this good? Is that one too spicy?” Lucas took the menu from her hand, patiently explaining each dish. “This one is a bit sweet; you’ll like it. Avoid that one, it’s too greasy.” Cassidy giggled, her eyes shining. “How do you know everything?” A faint smile actually touched the corners of Lucas’s mouth. I remembered my first week as a freshman. I had dragged Lucas to this very diner, vibrating with excitement. “Let’s try every single thing on the menu this year, okay?” His face had remained entirely blank. “Maeve, you need someone to hold your hand just to eat a meal? Grow up.” Back then, I made excuses for him. “He’s just reserved. He doesn’t know how to express his feelings.” But now, watching him, his patience was laid out before Cassidy, soft and meticulous, like a finely woven safety net. I lowered my head and took a bite of my food. The soup tasted incredibly salty. So salty it made my throat ache. “Are you okay?” Abby asked gently. I put down my fork. “Yeah. I’m just not very hungry.” Around nine that night, I had just walked out of the shower when Abby poked her head into the room. “Maeve, someone’s downstairs for you. Looks like your hometown friend.” I threw a cardigan over my shoulders, my damp hair clinging to my neck, and went downstairs. Lucas was standing beneath the amber glow of the streetlight, holding a paper shopping bag. “Your mom asked me to bring you some of your fall sweaters.” I took the bag from him. “Thanks.” I turned to walk back inside. Lucas frowned, calling out to stop me. “Maeve, how long is this cold shoulder routine going to last?” I stopped, but I didn’t turn around. His voice carried that familiar edge of irritation. “Fine, I’m sorry about what happened today. Is that what you want to hear?” “Cassidy is a freshman, and she was overwhelmed. It’s normal for me to help her. We’ve known each other for over a decade—do you really have to throw a fit over something so trivial?” I slowly turned to face him. “I’m not mad, Lucas.” He froze, clearly not expecting that. “Then what is this attitude?” “Since we were kids, when have you ever said ‘thanks’ to me like a stranger?” “Are you treating me like an outsider now?” I looked at him, and for the first time, a small, genuine smile touched my lips. “Lucas, we “are” outsiders.” With that, I walked back into the lobby. Lucas stood under the light, motionless. After a long moment, I heard him let out a soft, mocking scoff. “There she goes again.” The next day was the official campus tour for the incoming freshmen. As the vice president of the Student Union, Lucas was leading the main group. I wasn’t supposed to be there, but Abby was volunteering and practically dragged me along for company. I lingered at the very back of the crowd. Lucas walked at the front, with Cassidy glued to his side. “Lucas, what time does the library close?” “Are there any tricks to getting into the high-demand seminars?” “Is the club fair really as crazy as they say?” Her questions were endless and trivial. Yet Lucas answered every single one. As we walked up the stone steps of the quad, Cassidy took a misstep and slipped. Lucas instantly reached out, catching her by the waist. “Careful,” he murmured. “These steps are uneven.” I stared at his hand. A memory from our freshman year flashed through my mind. It was the same campus tour. Lucas was leading the group then, too. I had followed closely behind him, whispering, “Lucas, which club should I sign up for?” He hadn’t even looked back. “Look at the board yourself, Maeve. This is college, not high school. Stop asking me everything.” I had pressed on. “What about course registration?” He let out a sharp, impatient sigh. “Do you have any independent judgment at all, Maeve?” The questions Cassidy was asking now were far more trivial than mine had ever been. Yet Lucas hadn’t frowned once. When the tour wrapped up, Cassidy walked over to me, a sweet smile plastered on her face. “Maeve, Lucas is honestly so sweet.” She tilted her head, her voice pitched just loud enough for the surrounding freshmen to hear. “Do you think I asked him too many questions? I hope I didn’t steal all his time away from you.” A few freshmen nearby glanced over, whispering among themselves. “Gosh, is she always this sensitive?” one whispered. I looked at the bright, flawless smile on Cassidy’s face. Suddenly, an overwhelming wave of exhaustion crashed over me. “No,” I said quietly. I turned and walked away from the crowd. The afternoon sun felt blindingly bright. Not because of the heat, but because the sting in my eyes was becoming too much to bear. I hurried into the nearest academic hall and splashed cold water on my face in the restroom. The girl in the mirror looked calm, almost hollow. But I knew that inside, some fragile, beautiful thing had shattered so completely that no amount of glue could ever put it back together. Leaving the restroom, I walked straight to the department chair’s office. She reviewed my file, letting out a soft sigh. “Maeve, if you want to reapply now, I will sign off on it. But you’ll have to explain this to Professor Kingsley yourself.” She paused, looking at me over her glasses. “He fought the committee tooth and nail to secure that funding for you last year. When you walked away from it, he was deeply disappointed.” I lowered my head, the guilt heavy in my chest. “I know. I’m so sorry to have let him down.” By the time I secured the first signature, a torrential downpour had started. I didn’t have an umbrella, so I stood in the lobby of the academic building, waiting for the storm to blow over. In the distance, I saw Lucas running toward the entrance. In that split second, my body reacted before my brain did. My heart leaped, foolishly thinking he had come for me. For twelve years, whenever it rained, he was always there. Through elementary school, middle school, high school. Even when his mouth was full of complaints—”Maeve, can’t you check the weather forecast for once?”—his umbrella would always tilt drastically to my side. His right shoulder was always soaked by the time we got home. Lucas ran up the steps, stopping just a few feet away from me. Then, his phone buzzed. Cassidy’s tearful voice echoed through the receiver. “Lucas, I’m stuck outside the Humanities building. My shoes are completely soaked…” Lucas glanced at me, a brief flash of hesitation crossing his face. “Wait here,” he said. “I’ll go bring her an umbrella first. She doesn’t have anyone else here.” Without waiting for my reply, he turned and sprinted back into the sheets of gray rain. I stood in the doorway, watching the downpour for fifteen minutes, completely numb. Eventually, Abby arrived with a spare umbrella to rescue me. “Why didn’t you call me?” she asked, her voice tight with worry. I wiped a stray drop of rain from my cheek. “I forgot.” But I hadn’t forgotten. I just realized, in that quiet fifteen minutes, that I no longer knew who I was supposed to call. At ten that night, I was sitting at my desk, filling out the online exchange application. A shout from below the window broke the silence of the courtyard. “Maeve!” It was Lucas. He was standing beneath the ginkgo tree, holding a thermal cup of warm lemon-ginger tea. “Wyatt told me you got caught in the rain.” I walked down, took the cup, and gave him a polite nod. “Thank you.” Lucas stood there, looking uncharacteristically awkward. “About this afternoon… it wasn’t that I didn’t care about you.” “Cassidy is new here. She doesn’t know her way around. I couldn’t just leave her stranded.” I nodded calmly. “I know.” Lucas’s brow furrowed. “Can you stop saying ‘I know’ like that?” “You’re not acting like yourself.” I looked at him, my voice barely a whisper. “Then how should I act, Lucas?” The question seemed to catch him off guard. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Frustrated, he ran a hand through his damp hair. “Maeve, can you just stop this?” “We’ve known each other for so long. We’ve been through everything together.” His voice softened, dropping an octave. “Besides… didn’t we have a deal?” “We agreed we’d finally make it official sophomore year.” My fingers tightened around the warm thermal cup. Those words. I had waited years to hear them. Through the longing of seventeen, through the stress of college admissions, through my freshman year. I had survived on the hope of them. But hearing them now, they felt entirely hollow. “Let’s talk about that later,” I said softly. Lucas’s face darkened instantly. “Later?” “Maeve, you chased me for over a decade. Now that I’m finally saying yes, you want to wait?” “Are you messing with me?” I didn’t try to explain. “If there’s nothing else, I’m going back up.” As I walked up the stairs, the warmth of the tea seeped into my palms. If he had brought this to me this afternoon, I probably would have been overjoyed, just like I used to be. But it was six hours too late. Just like all of Lucas’s gestures of care. They were always late. And they were never meant for me first. The next day was the annual student club recruitment fair. It was also the day Lucas had promised to help me promote the Photography Club. Our booth was tucked away at the very end of the tree-lined path. I had founded this club during my freshman year. We had started with just three members, and by the end of the year, we had been named one of the top ten student organizations on campus. I had poured my soul into it. Lucas had once told me: “Next fall, I’ll stand at your booth. The Vice President of the Student Union has to have some pulling power, right?” I had stopped expecting him to keep his word, but I had still set up an empty chair behind our table. The entire morning passed. The chair remained empty. At noon, I went to grab a bottle of water, passing by the Debate Club’s booth on my way. Lucas was standing in front of Cassidy’s table, lifting a heavy crate of promotional flyers for her. Cassidy was beaming up at him. “Lucas, you’re the absolute best! Our club is definitely going to win Best Organization this year.” Lucas set the box down, a casual shrug of his shoulders. “Just helping out.” I stood across the pathway, watching them for a few silent seconds. Then, I walked back to the Photography Club’s booth and quietly folded up the empty chair. Abby glanced at me, her voice soft. “Wasn’t that seat for Lucas?” I cut her off gently. “No. It was just an extra.” As my fingers brushed the cold plastic of the chair, a memory from freshman year bubbled up. Our very first recruitment drive. We had only managed to sign up two people the entire afternoon. Lucas had sat beside me playing games on his phone, muttering his usual cynical remarks: “This little club of yours is going nowhere.” But when it was time to pack up, he had silently carried the heavy folding tables back to the storage room for me. That evening, he had looked at me and said, “Next year, I’ll help you draw a crowd.” I had been so happy I couldn’t sleep that night. It turned out that some promises are entirely sincere when they are spoken. And just as sincere when they are forgotten. That afternoon, I went to get Professor Kingsley’s signature. He stared at my application, a long, heavy silence stretching between us. “Maeve, do you have any idea how many arguments I had with the board to secure this spot for you?” His voice dropped, laced with a quiet disappointment. “The day you got accepted, I was more thrilled than you were.” “And then you walked in here and told me you couldn’t go.” My knuckles turned white against my notebook. Professor Kingsley looked at me. “You told me back then that there was someone very important who needed you here.” “What about now? Does he not need you anymore?” The question felt like a dull blade, slicing open the humiliation I had kept buried deep inside. I whispered, “Professor, I just… I finally figured things out for myself.” He let out a long sigh, unscrewing his pen, and signed his name at the bottom of the page. “If you back out this time, Maeve, I won’t help you again.” I took the paper with both hands and bowed slightly. “I won’t. I promise.” As I left his office, a cool autumn breeze swept through the hallway. I carefully folded the application and slipped it into my bag. My eyes stung. I had let down so many people for Lucas. Not just myself. But those who had truly believed in me. At nine-thirty that night, my phone rang. It was Lucas. I picked up. His voice sounded utterly exhausted. “Come downstairs.” When I walked out, golden ginkgo leaves littered the pavement. Lucas was standing beneath the branches. Seeing how thinly dressed I was, he frowned. Instinctively, he began to slide his jacket off his shoulders to drape it over me. But halfway through the motion, he froze. Slowly, he pulled the jacket back on. We stood in silence for what felt like an eternity. Finally, Lucas broke the quiet. “Maeve, how long do you want to keep punishing me?” “My patience has its limits.” “If you really don’t want to be with me anymore, just say it. Stop torturing us like this.” I looked up into his eyes, feeling a strange, hollow clarity. “Okay.” “I’ll say it.” “Lucas, I don’t want to be with you anymore.”

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Every single month since I moved into Lewis’s apartment, he collected rent from me like clockwork. This month, after draining my account to pay for my mother’s hospital admission fees, I swallowed my pride and asked Lewis for a temporary break. Just a few weeks. But his face remained set, unyielding. “Cara, I charge you rent to foster your financial independence. You wouldn’t want people thinking you’re freeloading off your boyfriend, would you?” “Besides, I’ve told you a thousand times—I’m just putting this money aside for you. It’s a rainy-day fund. You can use it when there’s an actual emergency.” I bit my lip, staring at the screen of my banking app, and transferred the last $631.60 of my balance to him. Lewis accepted the payment instantly, sending a quick follow-up text reminding me to pay the remaining balance as soon as possible. The very next day, I walked into the apartment after a brutal shift to find all my belongings piled in cardboard boxes in the living room. “Cara, since you couldn’t clear your rent this month, I figured you wouldn’t mind moving your things into the utility room for now. We need the guest bedroom for Isabel.” Isabel peeked out from behind him, her eyes bright with a childish, irritating excitement. “Lewis, are you sure? I can really stay here rent-free?” Lewis smiled at her, a warm, gentle expression I hadn’t seen directed at me in months, and immediately reached for her suitcase to help her unpack. I slipped my hand into my coat pocket, feeling the crumpled, hard-earned bills from my side-hustle. In that silent second, something snapped. I was done paying rent here. And I was done with him. … When I first moved in, Lewis’s contribution ended at carrying my suitcases to the door. He didn’t lift a finger to help me unpack or organize. “It’s good for you,” he’d said, wrapping his arms around me with a rehearsed sincerity. “Women need to be independent. I’m helping you build character.” But for Isabel, he was a different man. He was carrying her bags, hanging her coats, setting up her vanity while she stood by, cheering him on like a helpless princess. I glanced at the utility room—a cramped space barely large enough for the cheap air mattress he’d thrown on the floor. I turned around and approached Lewis, my hand outstretched. “That utility room is tiny, and it’s half-filled with your old sports gear. You owe me a two-hundred-dollar discount on this month’s rent.” Lewis’s face tightened. He grabbed my wrist, pulling me into the hallway, and lowered his voice to a sharp whisper. “What is wrong with you? Why are you bringing up money right now? What if Isabel hears you? Do you know how hard it was to convince her to move in here?” Not only was he giving his college junior a free place to crash, but I was also expected to walk on eggshells to preserve her delicate feelings. “What about me, Lewis? When you threw my life into a utility room, did you stop to think about how I would feel? I’m your girlfr—” His hand clapped over my mouth. He glanced nervously toward the living room where Isabel was unpacking. Seeing she hadn’t noticed, he let out a slow, irritated breath, turning back to me with eyes full of resentment. “Keep your voice down, will you? If you had paid your rent on time, would we even be having this conversation? I wouldn’t have had to reorganize the rooms.” It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours. I had woken up at four in the morning to pull an extra shift. I had dragged my exhausted body home, clutching the cash I needed to make things right, only to find my life shoved into a corner. As his girlfriend, I didn’t just have to pay rent; a single day’s delay was treated as an evictable offense. “Lewis, can you come with me to buy some groceries and apartment stuff?” Isabel called out, walking toward us. Lewis quickly let go of me, pulling out his phone to Venmo me two hundred dollars. “I sent it. Don’t mention rent in front of Isabel. Make sure dinner is ready by the time we get back. I’ll bring you those warm cinnamon donuts you like.” It wasn’t a request; it was an order. Before I could even respond, he was out the door with Isabel, her laughter echoing down the hallway. I stared at the notification on my screen. Two hundred dollars. A drop in the bucket, but money was tight enough that I couldn’t afford to be proud. I accepted it. They were gone for over three hours. When they returned, laden with shopping bags, the first thing Lewis did was toss his old, worn-out slippers into the trash. Those slippers were a pair I had bought for us with my very first paycheck. They were matching couple’s slippers. The soles had started to peel months ago, but Lewis had insisted on gluing them back together, claiming they still had life in them. “Mine are still fine, Lewis. If we’re replacing them, let’s get a new matching set. Otherwise, I’m keeping these,” I had said back then. But now, the moment Isabel moved in, he threw them away. In their place was a pair of plush, pastel pink slippers—a color he notoriously loathed. They matched Isabel’s perfectly. Feeling the weight of my gaze, Lewis cleared his throat, offering a weak defense. “They were buy-one-get-one-free. I figured since my old ones were falling apart, it made sense.” I nodded slowly, my voice flat. “Where are my cinnamon donuts?” Lewis froze. He reached into Isabel’s shopping bag and pulled out a container of fried shrimp tacos, handing them to me. I recognized the packaging. The taco truck was right next to the bakery that sold the cinnamon donuts. He had stood right there, in front of the bakery, and completely forgotten about me. I didn’t reach for the box. Lewis sighed, pulling out a plastic fork and offering me a bite. “Cara, come on. Donuts are just empty carbs anyway. They ruin your appetite. These tacos are savory and actually filling. It’s a win-win, right?” “I’m allergic to shellfish,” I said, tilting my head back to avoid his hand. The irritation on his face instantly dissolved into a flicker of panic. “Oh… Cara, I’m so sorry. It just slipped my mind.” I picked up a knit scarf draping over the back of the sofa. Lewis had knitted it for me during our sophomore year—one of his rare romantic gestures. “It’s fine. I forgot to make dinner, too. Let’s call it even.” Lewis’s hand clamped down on the other end of the scarf. “What? You didn’t make dinner?” I tried to pull the scarf toward me, but he tightened his grip, pulling back. The loosely knitted yarn, already fragile with age, snapped right down the middle. Isabel chose that moment to slide into the room. “Lewis, don’t be mad! Since you’re letting me stay here for free, it’s only right that I treat you and Cara to dinner. Let’s get hot pot!” Hot pot. Again. I couldn’t handle spicy food. But whenever the three of us went out, they always ordered the spiciest broth. Even a split-pot was out of the question because Isabel claimed the steam from the spicy side “ruined” the non-spicy broth. Every single time, while they ate happily, I sat there with a bowl of plain hot water, washing the chili oil off my vegetables just to have something to swallow. I tossed my half of the torn scarf onto the table and turned back toward the utility room. “I’m not going. I’m not hungry.” Lewis shouted something after me, but I didn’t care to listen. A moment later, the front door clicked shut. They were gone. I looked at the leftovers in the fridge—dishes I had reheated twice already. I pulled them out and ate alone in the quiet apartment. They were cold, but I was too tired to care. When I woke up the next morning, Lewis had already made breakfast. It was the fancy avocado and lox bagels that Isabel loved. Isabel offered me one with a sweet, pitying smile. “Cara, do you want to carpool with us to the office?” Lewis answered before I could open my mouth. “Her office is in the opposite direction. She can take the bus.” I caught the emphasis on “our” office. Lewis looked at me, his eyes narrowing. “What’s with that look, Cara? Isabel has her Master’s degree. You can’t honestly compare your bachelor’s degree to her credentials.” I squeezed the bagel in my hand until the avocado paste oozed out onto my fingers. I hadn’t asked Lewis to hand me a job at his firm. I had only asked for a simple internal referral—a chance to sit down for an interview. He had refused, claiming it would look like nepotism. But he had handed that referral to Isabel on a silver platter. I wasn’t a graduate student, yes. But I had been offered a fully funded Master’s fellowship back in college. I had turned it down because Lewis begged me not to leave, pleading that he couldn’t handle a long-distance relationship. And now, he was using the sacrifice I made for him as a weapon to make me feel small. I left the breakfast unfinished to catch my bus. Shortly after I reached the bus stop, the sky opened up into a torrential downpour. Lewis’s sedan pulled up to the curb. Just as I reached for the door handle, he rolled down the window and thrust an umbrella into my hands. “Keep yourself dry so you don’t catch a cold. Isabel and I have to run, we can’t be late.” Before I could speak, he stepped on the gas. The tires kicked up a massive puddle, splashing dirty rainwater all over my legs and coat. The tiny spark of warmth I had felt seeing his car pull up died instantly. The storm hadn’t wet me, but my boyfriend’s attempt to keep me dry had left me soaked. I pulled the damp, clinging fabric of my trousers away from my skin, swallowed my tears, and boarded the crowded bus. No sooner had I sat down at my desk than my phone buzzed. It was Lewis. Not asking if I had made it to work dry, but forwarding a massive folder of data. “Isabel is still adjusting to the workflow. Help her organize these spreadsheets.” I remembered my first week at my own job. I was drowning in paperwork, staying at the office until one in the morning. Lewis had driven over to pick me up, bringing my favorite takeout. But when I broke down and asked him to help me sort through some of the data, his face had hardened. “Cara, this is your job. You need to learn how to handle this independently. You can’t rely on me for everything.” Now, when Isabel faced the exact same hurdle, his immediate solution was to dump her work on me. I ignored the message and focused on my own tasks. Less than an hour later, my phone rang. Lewis’s voice was tight with impatience. “Cara, did you see my text? You’re the best at data organizing. Isabel is completely overwhelmed. Just do this for her.” If I recalled correctly, Lewis’s job was incredibly demanding. For four years, he was always “too busy” to reply to my texts during work hours. Yet, he suddenly had all the time in the world to call me on Isabel’s behalf. I swallowed the bitter taste in my mouth. “Lewis, you’re the one who taught me that women need to be independent. That applies to Isabel, too.” I hung up before he could argue. After work, I went straight to the hospital to see my mother. When I pushed the door open, her eyes immediately darted to the space behind me. She was looking for Lewis. Last week, Lewis had promised he would come visit her. He had even bought a gift basket of premium supplements, leaving them by our doorway. I had texted him earlier to see if he was still coming, but he hadn’t replied. He was likely too busy keeping Isabel company. I set the takeout container on her overbed table. “Lewis isn’t coming, Mom. His college junior moved into the apartment.” Back in college, everyone praised our “inseparable trio.” Only I knew the quiet misery of being the third wheel in my own relationship. Isabel always came first. Even on our anniversary, Isabel had tagged along because she “didn’t want to be lonely.” I had no one to turn to but my mother. But after graduation, Isabel went off to grad school. I thought Lewis and I would finally have a normal life together. And now, she was back. My mother patted the back of my hand, her eyes soft with worry. “Cara, sometimes letting go is the lighter path.” I blinked hard, forcing the tears back. “I know, Mom. But I paid my rent. I need to get my money’s worth first.” My entire paycheck had gone toward her medical bills. I had to endure that utility room a little longer. When I got back to the apartment, it was pitch black and empty. I didn’t text Lewis. Instead, I opened Isabel’s Instagram out of habit. “First day on the job was crazy, but thank God for my favorite mentor pulling an all-nighter with me! You’re the absolute best, Lewis!” The photo showed Lewis hunched over a laptop, meticulously organizing her files, while Isabel sat beside him, smiling brightly with a box of fried chicken. The comment section was filled with friends praising Lewis’s work ethic and envying Isabel’s luck. To be honest, I envied her too. Back in college, Lewis spent finals week tutoring Isabel. When she wanted to apply to grad school, Lewis gave her all my old study guides and begged his graduate friends to coach her. Now that she had graduated, he secured her a job and did her work for her. And she didn’t even have to worry about rent, because Lewis wouldn’t dream of charging her. Sometimes I couldn’t tell which of us was actually his girlfriend. It was three in the morning when Lewis and Isabel finally came home. Lewis shook me awake. “Cara, my stomach is killing me. Where did you put the antacids?” I turned over, facing the wall. “Third shelf of the pantry, in the white bin.” He stood there for a moment. “Aren’t you going to get them for me?” I didn’t move or reply. He lingered a bit longer before sighing and walking away. The next morning, there was no breakfast waiting for me. When I walked into the kitchen, Lewis reflexively shielded Isabel’s plate as if afraid I would take it. I filled my water bottle, never once looking at him. “Cara!” Lewis’s voice cracked with a mix of frustration and embarrassment. I played dumb, looking up calmly. “What?” He stared at me for a few seconds, but then Isabel walked in, and his attention instantly shifted. He was busy pulling out her chair, cutting her bagel, pouring her orange juice. By the time he looked up to find me, I was already gone. Maybe he wanted to ask why I wasn’t angry about breakfast, or why I hadn’t interrogated him about coming home so late. But the truth was, from the moment Isabel carried her bags through our door, I knew that in any choice between us, Lewis would always choose her. Anger was exhausting, and questions were pointless. Lewis and I weren’t partners anymore. We were just a landlord and a tenant. Halfway through my workday, the hospital called. My mother’s condition had relapsed. She needed a second surgery, and she needed it immediately. Though I had been working for four years, high rent and living expenses had eaten away at my savings. Her previous treatments had already drained over ten thousand dollars from my account. My savings were completely wiped out. The second surgery would cost close to two thousand dollars. It wasn’t a fortune to some, but to me, it was a mountain. I tried asking my manager for an advance on my salary, but corporate policy was unyielding. Desperate, I thought of Lewis. That evening, I cooked a full dinner and waited for him to come home. When I saw his mood was lighter, even offering to plate some food for me, I pulled him into the kitchen corner. “Lewis, you remember how you said you were charging me rent just to teach me independence, but you were actually saving it for me?” Lewis nodded, and a wave of relief washed over me. Over the past four years, my rent payments to him had totaled nearly eight thousand dollars. My voice grew lighter with hope. “Could I have that money back now? My mom needs a second surgery, and I’m completely short on—” “No,” Lewis said, his rejection instant and cold. I quickly swallowed my panic, trying a different angle. “Just consider it a loan, okay? I swear I’ll pay you back every cent as soon as I can!” Lewis still shook his head. My heart hammered against my ribs. “Why not even as a loan? Lewis, what do I have to do for you to give me my own money?” “Lewis, I think I should return this card to you now,” Isabel’s voice cut through the air. I turned and saw the silver debit card in her hand. It was the account Lewis had opened specifically for my rent deposits. “My brother’s down payment on his new car was six thousand dollars,” Isabel said smoothly. “You can check the bank statement. I promise I’ll pay you back as soon as I start earning more.” Lewis took the card from her, his lips curving into a warm smile. “Take your time. I’ve got plenty of savings.” I stared at the silver plastic. So that was why he couldn’t lend me my own money. He had already lent it to Isabel’s brother for a car. For four years, whenever I suggested buying a cheap electric scooter to save on bus fare, Lewis had shut me down. “Why waste the money when I have a car?” he’d say. But I barely ever rode in his car. I still took the bus to work every single day. “Cara, I know you’re just acting out because Isabel moved in,” Lewis said, his voice dropping into a patronizing, scolding tone. “You’re trying to claw back the rent money just to prove some point, to show you’re not inferior to her.” “But I’ve told you a thousand times—this money is safe with me. There’s no need to compete with Isabel. And you certainly don’t need to make up stories about your mother’s health just to get your hands on it.” He was lecturing me, his face grave with moral superiority. My jaw tightened. “Lewis, if you would just call the hospital—” “Lewis, I have a quick question about this client report,” Isabel interrupted, stepping between us and pulling Lewis away by the arm. A question that could have waited. But Lewis didn’t even give me the seconds I needed to finish my sentence. I watched their retreating backs, completely in sync. Then, I walked into the utility room and pulled out my suitcase. Over the past few days, I had been quietly moving my things out, piece by piece. This suitcase was the very last of it. Lewis saw me wheeling it out, but he simply turned back to Isabel’s laptop. “Lewis, Cara looks really upset. She’s leaving with her bags. Aren’t you going to stop her?” Isabel murmured. Lewis let out a cold, dismissive snort. “Let her go. She plays this card every time she wants attention. She’ll be back in forty-eight hours.” “No, I won’t,” I answered silently. My mother’s surgery couldn’t wait. I swallowed my pride and called every contact in my phone, borrowing small amounts from friends and former classmates until I scraped the medical fees together. The surgery was a success. The doctor assured me the threat was gone. By a stroke of luck, my company was looking for a volunteer to manage a new branch in my hometown. I took the transfer immediately, packed up my mother, and we went home. It took Lewis nearly two weeks to realize I was actually gone. Unable to swallow his pride and search for me, and realizing he didn’t even know my new office address or my current contact info, he finally picked up the dusty supplement basket he had bought weeks ago and drove to the hospital. The nurse at the desk looked at him in surprise. “Oh, Mrs. Morgan was discharged two days ago. Her daughter took her back to their hometown.”

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When my parents boarded a flight for the tenth time, traveling thousands of miles across the country to finally meet the man I was supposed to marry, Zachary chose to vanish. He wouldn’t pick up my calls. He didn’t reply to my texts. I sat at a corner table in the diner, ordering cup after cup of black coffee until my stomach burned, watching my screen. Then, a notification popped up. It was a post from Naomi, my best friend. It was a photo of a snow-dusted trail in Aspen, capturing two hands tightly clasped together. Her caption read: “Tenth trip to the mountains. Double digits of pure perfection.” My fingers curled around my phone, squeezing until my knuckles turned white. On my twenty-seventh call, Zachary finally picked up. “Where are you?” I asked. The howling wind of a ski slope roared through the receiver, followed by his deeply indifferent voice. “Just out. What’s up?” “What’s up? Zachary, this is the tenth time! My parents are at their age, they flew all this way, and you—” A beat of silence on his end, followed by a sigh of pure impatience. “Look, Naomi and I are having a blast in Aspen, and I lost track of time. Tell your parents to wait another three days. I’ll come back and see them once I’ve had my fun.” Before I could demand an explanation, the line went dead. My trembling lips reflected in the dark screen of my phone. I forced a small, hollow smile and looked up at my parents. “Since he’s not coming,” I said quietly, “let’s find someone else to meet.” … Three days later. Zachary dragged his suitcase through the front door, with Naomi trailing closely behind him. “Naomi is absolutely parched. Get her some water, quick!” Neither of them bothered to take off their shoes. They collapsed onto the living room sofa, their legs tangled together with an easy, shameless familiarity. “Babe, I want the peach yogurt,” Naomi called out. “And Isla, my usual,” Zachary chimed in. I didn’t say a word. I went to the kitchen, retrieved a peach yogurt and a sparkling water, and placed them on the coffee table. Without thinking, Zachary reached for the yogurt, twisted off the lid, and handed it to Naomi. Only then did he grab his sparkling water, chugging it down in massive gulps. As he drank, Naomi reached over with a tissue, naturally wiping the condensation and sweat from his jawline, his lips, and his neck. I stood by the kitchen island, completely ignored, like a hired waitress who had outlived her usefulness. Once he finished the bottle, Zachary finally looked at me. “We’re almost out of the peach yogurt in the fridge, aren’t we? Make sure you order another case. Otherwise, she won’t have anything to drink next time she comes over.” He had been home for ten minutes. He had spoken exactly three sentences. Two of them were about Naomi. As for my parents? Whether they were still in town, whether they were furious, how I had sent them off—he hadn’t asked a single question. He only cared about the yogurt Naomi liked. He had completely forgotten to ask if I still had enough of my favorite blueberry ones. I pulled out my phone, tapped the screen a few times, and cancelled my monthly subscription for the blueberry yogurt, swapping it entirely to peach. I held the screen up to his face. “Satisfied?” Perhaps noticing the coldness in my eyes, Naomi smiled, trying to soften the tension. “He’s only being this attentive because I’m your best friend—he basically treats me like his favorite bridesmaid. You don’t mind, do you, Isla?” A laugh threatened to bubble up from my throat, bitter and sharp. My actual parents had traveled across the country ten times, and he couldn’t even bother to show his face. Yet here he was, playing the doting brother-in-law to her. He really thought I was a fool. “Isla is actually mad! Say something!” Naomi nudged Zachary’s shoulder, feigning disapproval. Zachary leaned back lazily. “Don’t worry. Compared to you, she’s easy to deal with. Just give her a cold shoulder for a couple of days, and she’ll come crawling back on her own.” He tilted his chin at me, his smile dripping with absolute certainty. “Right, Isla?” “Zacharyary!” Naomi bolted upright, kicking his shin. “I won’t let you talk to Isla like that. Apologize right now!” “Alright, alright. I’m sorry.” “That’s better…” Their playful banter echoed in my ears, making my chest tighten with a dull, suffocating ache. It looked like she was defending me, but only now did I realize I was merely an extra in their little game. Once Naomi finally left, Zachary finally remembered my parents. “Where are they, anyway?” Even as he asked, his eyes remained glued to his phone, a faint, private smile playing on his lips. “They went home.” I dragged my suitcase out from the closet, laid it flat in front of my desk, and began packing my belongings, piece by piece. There was silence from the living room. Then, a quiet, indifferent sound. “Oh.” Oh. My parents had braved their severe fear of flying to come here ten times. When I met them at the gate, their hands were shaking from the anxiety of the flight. But they never complained. They only wanted to see the man I was building a life with. And he had stood them up. No apology, no explanation. Just a casual, weightless “Oh.” Like this crowded, suffocating relationship we shared, everything looked sparkling on the surface, but there was no longer any room for me. Thankfully, I didn’t plan on waiting anymore. By the time my suitcase was half-full, my phone chimed. It was an email from HR, formally approving my resignation. Zachary finally looked up from his screen. Seeing the open suitcase, he shook his head without a second thought. “Isla, I used up all my PTO for the Aspen trip. I don’t have time to go on vacation with you right now. Let’s do it next time.” He stood up, walking toward me. “We have plenty of time down the road. There’s no need to rush into this right now, is there?” For Naomi, he had all the time in the world. For her, he could take his PTO. But when it came to me, he was out of time. My hand hovered over a stack of sweaters, suddenly lacking the strength to pick them up. My mouth tasted like ash. In our eight years of living together, the words he said to me most often were never “I love you.” They were “next time” and “there’s no rush.” Every time he vanished when my parents arrived, his excuses were never elaborate. But they always, without fail, involved Naomi. Helping Naomi move, driving Naomi to a conference, taking Naomi to the clinic for a sprained ankle… Whenever I dared to question it, he would sneer. “Isla, you’re not as smart or career-driven as Naomi. Being easygoing is your only real saving grace. She’s your best friend. Don’t lose your only good trait over petty jealousy.” The one who loves more is always the one who compromises. So, I stopped asking, and he stopped explaining. Naomi became like the air we breathed—invisible, yet occupying every corner of our lives. Until this Aspen trip. I was completely done. I raised my head and looked directly into his eyes. “Zachary, let’s break up.” He froze, finally putting his phone down. “What nonsense are you talking about now?” I zipped the suitcase, stood it upright, and let out a quiet breath. “I’m serious.” He frowned, looking at me as if I had just told a bad joke. “Break up? Because Naomi and I went to Aspen? Because of your parents? Didn’t I just say we’d go next time?” He stood under the warm light of the hallway, his face suddenly looking entirely unfamiliar. “Naomi and I are software engineers at the same firm. We work on the same projects. Of course we’re going to be close. But she’s your best friend. You shouldn’t be jealous of her.” I kept my eyes lowered. “Actually, you two make a great couple. High achievers in college, both working at a big tech giant now.” “Isla! Cut the crap! If I had met her first, maybe things would be different. But I didn’t.” Frustrated, Zachary ripped off his button-down shirt, tossing it carelessly near my feet, and turned toward the bathroom. The light in the hallway was dim, but it couldn’t hide the angry, fresh red scratch marks trailing down his shoulder blades. I stared at them for what felt like an eternity. And then I remembered yesterday, while ordering my third cup of coffee. My phone had buzzed with a shared account notification: Room 909 checked in. Guests: Zacharyary, Naomi. In that exact moment, I didn’t even have the energy to wonder why my best friend was sleeping with the man I loved. I had only stood there, hands shaking violently, tearing open sugar packet after sugar packet, dumping them into my mug. Even with all that sweetness, every breath I drew tasted bitter. “Let’s break up,” I called out to his retreating back. “I’m getting—” The deafening slam of the bathroom door cut me off, drowning out the word “married.” The next morning, back at the office to finish my transition paperwork, my colleague Katie leaned over my desk. “Isla, did you really break up with Zachary?” I nodded. A look of pure fury crossed her face. “Good. Honestly, he’s a piece of work. Just an hour ago, Naomi from Tech gagged a few times in the breakroom, and Zachary went completely pale. He literally scooped her up in his arms and rushed her to the hospital.” My fingers froze over the keyboard. “Gagged?” Katie nodded rapidly. “Yeah. Everyone’s whispering that she’s pregnant.” She glanced around, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Isla, I know she’s your best friend, but she’s no friend to you. She and Zachary have been messy for a long time. Naomi didn’t even meet the hiring criteria for this place; Zachary actually took a pay cut just to negotiate her entry onto his team. But when you applied years ago? He didn’t lift a finger to help you.” I felt a sharp, heavy ache in my chest. “So… she didn’t get the standard campus recruitment offer?” Katie shook her head, her eyes filled with pity. “Of course not. The HR director told me himself. You’re an award-winning designer, Isla, and you’ve been stuck working the front desk here. It’s a joke. Get out of here.” Katie’s eyes welled with tears as she helped me pack my desk into a single cardboard box. I had never wanted to move to San Francisco. But Zachary and Naomi had begged me, saying we all had job offers here and could look out for one another. And they certainly looked out for each other—all the way into the same bed. I had spent eight years at this company, yet my belongings didn’t even fill a small cardboard box. Just like the eight years I spent in that apartment, my entire life fit into a single twenty-inch suitcase. Zachary was right. I was stupid. Everyone else saw what was happening, yet I had to see a hotel booking with my own eyes before I finally let go. Because back in college, Naomi was the one who bought me heating pads when my cramps were unbearable. She was the one who grabbed my shoulders when I was too terrified to enter design competitions, declaring, “Our Isla is going to be a star!” She was the one who promised, “Zachary and I are going to build a shield around you. No one will ever hurt you.” She had looked at me with such fierce sincerity. I never imagined the person who would drive the knife deepest into my back would be her. But ten years of shared history don’t vanish overnight, no matter how much you want them to. When I walked into the hospital room with my box of belongings, I saw them through the glass, hugging tightly. Naomi was weeping, her voice trembling. “Zachary, let’s just terminate it. Isla has already planned the wedding. We can’t do this to her…” Zachary cut her off, his voice urgent. “No! I’m only going through the motions with her. You’re the one I actually love. I wanted to tell her parents the first time they came to visit, but you kept stopping me. This baby is a sign. We should—” I pushed the door open, the wood scraping loudly against the floor. I stood at the threshold, my face entirely drained of color. “Did you keep me in the dark because you assumed I was too stupid to ever find out?” Zachary spun around, freezing as if he had been pinned to the spot. His mouth hung slightly open, his eyes wide. Naomi frantically grabbed his arm. “Explain to her! Zachary, tell her it’s not what it looks like!” But Zachary only stared at me. “You know. Good. Keeping this from you was exhausting anyway.” “Zacharyary, shut up!” Naomi grabbed his sleeve, tears streaming down her face as she looked at me. “Isla, please, it was an accident. I swear. I’ll get an abortion and move far away. I’ll never show my face near you guys again. Please don’t hate me.” Seeing her cry, Zachary panicked. He pulled her tightly against his chest, cooing softly, “Naomi, don’t do this to yourself. It’s not your fault I don’t love her. Your tears are breaking my heart.” One crying, one comforting. I had never seen my boyfriend of ten years be so gentle. In all our years together, that tenderness, that soft surrender, had never been offered to me. It was always reserved for my best friend. A tear slipped down my cheek, but I wiped it away before they could see. I took a step back into the hallway. “Naomi, Zachary and I are done. Whatever you two do now has absolutely nothing to do with me.” With that, I shut the door, picked up my box, and walked away. Zachary didn’t come home that night. Instead, my phone lit up with endless texts from Naomi. Isla, please don’t blame me. You and Zachary were never a match. Since we’re best friends, it’s better he’s with me than some stranger. I grew up without a father, Isla. I can’t let my baby grow up without one too. I blocked her number without replying. Then I walked over to the refrigerator, pulled open the bottom drawer, and threw every single bottle of blueberry yogurt into the trash. Each dull thud against the bottom of the bin felt like a heavy blow to my chest. When we first moved in together, Zachary was just an intern. He had spent his very first paycheck to buy me yogurt, meticulously organizing them on the middle shelves so I wouldn’t have to bend down. He told me I was a space cadet outside of my drawings and needed someone to look after me. Back then, he could be fierce too. He would scold me as he threw away my instant ramen, pulling me against his chest and murmuring, “Isla, did you move in with me just to slowly poison yourself with trash?” When did he change? The tears blurred my vision again. I wiped them away and kept purging the apartment. The lucky clover sitting on my desk, the handwritten letters from our college days, the little clay figurines he had molded for me… every single piece went into the trash. When the sun broke through the curtains, the front door unlocked. Zachary stood in the entryway, his face set in a hard, cold line. He didn’t bother taking off his shoes. He marched straight up to me, pulling his keys from his pocket. But before he could even hand them over— Slap! A sharp, ringing blow struck my cheek, forcing my head to the side. I cradled my face, my fingers immediately coming away wet with a cold smear of blood. Zachary stared down at me, his eyes bloodshot and filled with pure, unadulterated disgust. “Because of you, Naomi terminated the pregnancy. Are you happy now?” “It was barely an embryo. It didn’t even have a heartbeat yet, and you had to go and attack her with your words? Now she’s hemorrhaging on an operating table, and we don’t even know if she’s going to make it! Is this what you wanted?” He screamed, his voice cracking with a raw, agonizing rage. There were no questions. No attempt to find the truth. Only a savage, absolute accusation. As if every tragedy in Naomi’s life was entirely my fault. I lifted my head and unlocked my phone, holding it out to him with a hand that wouldn’t stop shaking. “Did I say a single cruel word to her? Look at the texts yourself!” With a violent swipe of his hand, Zachary knocked the phone from my grip. It soared across the room, smashing against the far wall and shattering into pieces. That phone was the first gift he had ever bought me with his intern salary. Now it was broken. Completely. Just like the hollow remains of our relationship. I remembered how his face had flushed red when he gave it to me, shifting awkwardly before speaking. “We have the same phone now, just different colors. Like a couple’s set.” But over the years, he had changed his phone repeatedly, and every single time, he miraculously ended up with the exact color Naomi preferred. “Isla, I had a plan,” Zachary said, his voice dropping into a harsh whisper. “I was going to wait until the baby was born, and then I was going to cut Naomi out of my life completely. I was going to marry you. We were going to register our license. I was going to give you everything.” “But your malice ruined it all. You wanted a breakup? Fine. We’re done. Get the hell out of my sight.” He pointed toward the front door, his eyes swimming with a deep, bitter disappointment. Then, he turned and slammed the door behind him. His heavy footsteps faded down the hallway. The distant chime of the elevator echoed through the quiet. Once the building fell into a absolute silence, I placed my bloody keys on the entryway table. As the door clicked shut behind me, the tears finally spilled over, hot and fast. But I didn’t hesitate. I felt nothing but a profound, quiet relief. Naomi. Zachary. My life would never cross paths with either of them again.

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With only seven days left until the wedding, the coordinator asked Larry and me to finalize our procession playlist. I had chosen the indie track that played during the credits of the very first movie we ever watched together. Larry looked at the screen, frowned, and deleted it. “It’s too obscure, Carol. No one is going to get it.” A second later, he dragged and dropped Sasha’s favorite song into the slot for our main theme. As I froze, Sasha offered a soft, apologetic smile. “Oh, Carol, please don’t be mad. I only mentioned that song once in passing. I had no idea he’d actually remember.” Larry took the iPad from my hands, his tone dismissive yet gentle. “You’ve never cared about these little details anyway, right?” But I did care. I cared deeply. To find that specific track, I had dug through an old memory box to find our ticket stub from seven years ago, spending hours hunting down the original vinyl rip. Later, when I went to the study to retrieve the ring box, I overheard Larry on the phone. “It’s just a wedding,” he was saying, his voice low. “She isn’t going to make a fuss over a song. But if you’re unhappy that day… that’s what I’m worried about.” Standing outside the half-open door, I suddenly felt the song lose all its meaning. I realized that when a relationship finally falls apart, the first thing to go quiet isn’t the music. It’s the silent accumulation of your own unspoken hurts. … I put the ring box back into the drawer just as Larry pushed the door open. He was holding the printed music cue sheet—the one with my song crossed out. “Why are you still up? You have your makeup trial tomorrow.” My eyes drifted to the black ink slashing through my choice. Larry followed my gaze and sighed softly. “It’s just a song, Carol. Don’t overthink it.” “Do you even remember it?” I asked. He paused, searching his memory. “Sure I do. That rainy afternoon at the indie theater. You cried so hard during the credits.” “You told me that day,” I murmured, “that we’d play it at our wedding.” Larry’s phone buzzed. A voice note from Sasha. Before tapping play, he shot me a warning look—a silent plea not to make a scene. Sasha’s bright, airy voice filled the quiet study: “Larry, I listened to the theme again. It really is perfect for you guys! Tell me if I’m being a total busybody, okay?” He typed back immediately: “Not at all. You’ve always had the best taste.” Watching him, my mind drifted back seven years to that tiny, run-down theater. When the credits rolled, he had pushed his half-eaten popcorn into my lap, teasing me for crying like my dog had died. He had laughed, wrapping an arm around me. “We’re playing this at our wedding. That way, everyone will know how easy you are to make happy.” Now, he didn’t remember the song’s name, let alone his promise. He only remembered that Sasha had good taste. “Carol, you know Sasha’s health has been delicate since we were kids. She’s sensitive. Don’t take things so personally.” I stared at him. “Is she really just your sister, Larry?” His brow furrowed, a flicker of irritation crossing his face. “In every way that matters, yes. My parents took her in when she was ten. You know this.” Of course I knew. Sasha was the daughter of his father’s late business partner. She moved into the Fletcher estate at ten, followed Larry to college in Boston at eighteen, and returned home at twenty-three to become the fragile girl who constantly needed his protection. In our seven years together, the phrases I heard most were “Sasha has had it hard”, “Sasha will be upset”, or “Sasha didn’t mean anything by it”. His phone lit up again. Sasha had sent a photo. In it, she was wearing a pair of vintage pearl earrings—the exact ones I had admired but ultimately decided not to buy when I picked out my wedding dress. “Larry, do you think these are too much for a bridesmaid? I don’t want to upstage the bride!” He gave a soft chuckle. “She’s just playing around. Don’t take it to heart.” I stared at the pearls. “Did you buy those for her?” Larry’s patience finally snapped. “She’s spending her whole day helping you with your fitting tomorrow. I picked them up as a small thank-you. Carol, stop overcomplicating everything.” I nodded slowly, sealing my lips. Satisfied with my silence, he reached out and gently stroked my hair. “That’s my girl. We only have seven days left. Let’s not make this harder on everyone than it needs to be.” I looked up into his eyes. “What if I told you I still want our song?” His hand froze. “The playlist has already been sent to the DJ, Carol. It looks unprofessional to keep changing things last minute.” A soft knock sounded at the door. Sasha peeked through the gap, her face bright with a helpful smile. “Am I interrupting? Larry, your parents said there’s a slight issue with the rehearsal seating chart. They wanted me to double-check with Carol.” She walked in carrying a printed seating layout. One glance at the head table made my chest tighten. Under “Mother of the Bride”, my late mother’s name had been neatly crossed out. Sasha placed the paper on the desk, her smile fading into a look of delicate concern. “Carol, please don’t take this the wrong way. I just thought… since your mom passed, leaving an empty seat at the front might feel a bit somber for the guests. People might whisper.” Standing behind her, Larry murmured his agreement. “Sasha makes a fair point. There will be a lot of people there. We don’t need guests whispering about an empty chair during the ceremony.” My throat burned. Before my mother passed away, her deepest regret was knowing she wouldn’t see me walk down the aisle. I had designed a quiet tribute: a reserved seat at the front, draped with a simple white ribbon, holding a single bouquet of her favorite yellow tulips. It was the only detail in this over-commercialized, heavily-altered wedding that still belonged entirely to me. I looked up at Larry. “You want to delete this, too?” He sighed, adjusting his cufflinks. “It’s not deleting, Carol. It’s about keeping things elegant. We have to design this for the living, too.” Sasha’s eyes instantly welled with tears. “Larry, please don’t argue with Carol because of me. I can sit at the back. It’s fine. I know I don’t really matter in this.” Larry turned to her, his voice softening. “Don’t say that.” A dry laugh escaped my throat. Larry shot me a warning look. “What’s funny?” I pushed the seating chart back toward them. “Nothing. Just realizing that I’m the one who doesn’t matter here.” The study fell dead silent. Larry picked up a pen and drew a circle next to my mother’s designated seat. “Let’s leave it like this for tonight. I’ll have the wedding planner adjust it before the rehearsal tomorrow.” I stared at the black ink. “Did you even think to ask me?” Larry paused, looking up. “Carol, you never used to be like this.” I wanted to ask him what “like this” meant. Did he mean the version of me who silently agreed when he changed the florist? The one who nodded when he swapped out the color scheme? The one who kept quiet as Sasha’s name crept into every single aspect of our wedding planning? Sasha gently tugged at Larry’s sleeve. “Larry, forget it. Carol is probably just feeling pre-wedding anxiety. I’m sure she isn’t targeting me on purpose.” She played the peacemaker beautifully, taking a step back with every word—while standing firmly on my ground. The next afternoon at the makeup trial, the stylist praised how a clean, low bun suited my features. Sasha sat nearby, resting her chin in her hands. “Don’t you think that’s a little too plain, Carol? Wedding cameras wash you out. Something bolder and brighter would look much better.” Larry didn’t even look up from his tablet. “Listen to Sasha. She’s helped coordinate charity galas before.” The stylist looked between us, clearing her throat. “Carol, what do you think?” I stared at my reflection, looking at the pale, heavily powdered face in the mirror. “I want to go with my original plan,” I said quietly. Sasha’s polite smile faltered. Larry finally put down his tablet and walked over, placing his hands on the back of my chair. “Let’s not make things difficult, Carol. There’s a whole crew waiting on the schedule today. If you change one detail, it affects the entire timeline.” Near the door, a few assistants paused their whispering and looked our way. Sasha stepped in with her usual gentle tone. “Larry, let’s just do what Carol wants. Even if it doesn’t photograph as well, her happiness is what matters.” In the mirror, I watched Larry’s expression turn ice-cold. He leaned down, whispering in my ear. “Do you really have to embarrass me in front of the staff?” My hands clenched into fists on my lap. The words were quiet, but they stung worse than the pen scratching out my mother’s seat. When the trial wrapped up, the stylist handed me a small, faded slip of paper. “Carol, this fell out of your folder when we were reviewing the playlist.” It was the movie ticket stub from seven years ago. The edges were yellowed, and on the back, in Larry’s messy, youthful handwriting, were the words: “We play this at our wedding. No excuses.” Sasha leaned over to read it, letting out a soft laugh. “Oh, that’s cute. Larry, your handwriting was so childish back then.” Larry stared at the ink, his face freezing for a fraction of a second. But just as quickly, he snatched the stub from my fingers and tossed it into a nearby trash bin. “That was a lifetime ago. Keeping things like this is pointless.” I reached for the bin, but an assistant had already picked it up, tossing it into a large heavy-duty bag filled with discarded mockups and trash. By the time I caught up with them at the end of the hallway, the bag was being handed over to the venue coordinator. The coordinator looked at me apologetically. “I’m sorry, Carol. That load is going straight to the incinerator. Mr. Fletcher told us earlier to clear out all the old, unnecessary clutter before tomorrow’s setup.” I turned to look at Larry. He was standing a few feet away, his tone exasperated. “It’s just a scrap of paper, Carol. Don’t make the entire staff stop their work to search for trash.” Sasha draped her bridesmaid shawl over her shoulders and stepped beside him. “Carol, I get that you’re sentimental, but a wedding is a public celebration. Things that are too private just don’t translate well to a crowd.” I felt a sudden, chilling admiration for her. She never had to grab anything with her own hands. She only had to whisper that something was “unsuitable,” and Larry would gladly tear it away from me for her. That evening, both of our families gathered for dinner. A long table was filled with Larry’s extended family. His mother, reviewing the itinerary, smiled warmly at Sasha. “Sasha, you’ve put so much effort into this. You’ve handled the music, the seating… honestly, anyone walking in would think you were the one getting married.” Laughter rippled across the table. Sasha lowered her head, blushing perfectly on cue. “Please don’t tease me, Mrs. Fletcher. I was just worried Larry would be overwhelmed with all the planning.” Larry placed a piece of roasted duck onto her plate. “You’ve been a lifesaver.” I sat next to him, watching the water in my glass go from warm to room temperature. His mother turned her gaze to me, her voice gentle but laced with a quiet reprimand. “Carol, dear, don’t stress yourself out too much. When it comes to weddings, it’s best to let the groom handle the heavy lifting. A woman who overthinks every detail only ends up exhausted.” “I only wanted to keep the seat for my mother,” I said softly. A sudden silence fell over the table. The smile on Mrs. Fletcher’s face withered. “Well, dear, she’s gone. It’s the thought that counts. A wedding is supposed to be a joyous occasion. Let’s not bring a somber note that makes the older relatives uncomfortable.” Larry gripped his water glass, his voice warning. “Carol.” Those two syllables weren’t comfort. They were a command to shut down. Sasha immediately stood up, holding her glass as she walked over to my side. “Carol, I’m so sorry. This is entirely my fault. If it makes you uncomfortable, I don’t have to sit at the head table. I can sit anywhere, really.” Her voice trembled with fragile grace, making it look as though I were publicly bullying her. Larry’s aunt frowned. “Sasha is such a sweet girl. Carol, you shouldn’t make a mountain out of a molehill. If you’re going to be this difficult before the wedding, how are you two going to survive a marriage?” I looked at Larry, waiting for him to say something. Anything. Just a simple acknowledgement that this was a tribute we had agreed on months ago. But he merely slid my water glass closer to me. “Take a sip of water. Let’s not make a scene.” At that moment, I realized I was done waiting. After dinner, I went to the restroom to touch up my lipstick. From inside the stall, I heard the door open, followed by Sasha’s voice and one of her friends. “Aren’t you worried Carol is going to snap?” the friend asked with a giggle. The sound of running water started. “Let her,” Sasha replied, her voice light and careless. “What’s she going to do? Larry can’t stand seeing me upset. Besides, she’s been putting up with it for seven years. She isn’t going to start fighting now.” The friend lowered her voice. “But he is actually marrying her.” There was a brief pause, then a soft chuckle from Sasha. “A wedding is just a show. People are what matter. The playlist is mine, the head table is mine. All she’s getting is a piece of paper.” The faucet clicked shut. “By the way, did you manage to grab that old ticket stub for me?” Sasha asked. “Yeah, it’s in your bag,” her friend replied, sounding curious. “Why do you even want it?” Sasha murmured, “Larry wrote something on the back years ago. I just wanted to see exactly how pathetic and childish he used to be for her.” Standing in the stall, my fingers trembled, the cap of my lipstick scraping against the red balm, smearing it across my palm. After their footsteps faded, I stepped out. There, sitting on the marble vanity, was Sasha’s designer clutch. The zipper was half-open, and the unmistakable yellowed corner of my ticket stub was peeking out. I pulled it out and slipped it behind my phone case. When I returned to the private dining room, Larry was finalizing the cue sheets with the coordinator. “Mr. Fletcher, we’ve updated the procession track to the version Sasha provided,” the coordinator said with a polite nod. “We’ll run the new track at tomorrow’s rehearsal.” I pulled out my chair and sat down. “What new version?” Larry glanced at me, a flicker of annoyance in his eyes at my interruption, though his voice remained measured. “Sasha found a modern arrangement that works better with the sound system. Your version is too old, and the audio quality isn’t great.” My fingers brushed the edge of my phone case. “Did you even listen to the original track I found?” The hand flipping through his itinerary paused. “It doesn’t matter, Carol. The guests want an atmosphere, not a soundtrack to your private memories.” Sasha slid a glass of warm water toward me. “Carol, please don’t be upset. I was just trying to polish things up. I’m not trying to take anything from you.” I looked directly into her eyes. “Was stealing my ticket stub part of your polishing process?” Sasha’s face drained of color. Larry frowned. “What ticket stub?” I placed my phone face down on the table. “The one from seven years ago. The one she had her friend salvage from the trash.” Sasha’s eyes filled with tears instantly. “Larry, I didn’t! I just knew how much it meant to Carol, so I wanted to find it for her.” She fumbled with her bag, pulling out a creased ticket slip. But it wasn’t mine. The seat numbers were wrong, and the handwriting on the back wasn’t Larry’s. Larry barely glanced at it before sliding it over to me. “See? She found it. Are you satisfied now?” I stared at the fake ticket stub. The energy to argue drained out of me completely. It didn’t matter what the truth was; the moment Sasha shed a tear, reality rearranged itself to protect her. During the rehearsal that night, the house lights dimmed, and the music swelled through the venue’s speakers. Within the first second of the intro, my chest tightened. The track used the sample from my original version, but they had edited out the quiet monologue at the end, weaving in the synth melodies Sasha preferred. It felt like someone had dismantled a sacred memory I’d kept safe for seven years, reconstructing it to spell out her name. “Bride, you may begin your procession!” the coordinator called out over the microphone. I held the mock bouquet and started walking down the aisle. The giant projector screens on either side of the altar were supposed to play a slideshow of Larry and me over the years. Instead, a video package Sasha had “curated” began to play. There she was with Larry on his college campus in Boston, standing together in the gardens of the Fletcher estate—reclaiming years I had never been a part of. A few wedding assistants whispered near the back. “Is this a tribute to the bridesmaid?” Sasha sprang up from her seat, looking horrified. “Oh my god, did they play the wrong file? Larry, I told them to delete that folder!” Larry strode quickly to the AV booth, his voice sharp and low. “Cut it. Now.” The screen froze on a single image: Larry’s twentieth birthday. Sasha was wearing a paper crown, leaning her head against his shoulder. In the corner of the wooden table in the background lay a movie ticket stub. The exact duplicate of the one behind my phone case. Finally, the pieces clicked together. Seven years ago, we hadn’t been alone in that theater. Sasha had been there, too. She hadn’t stumbled onto our song years later. She had known about it from the very beginning. The coordinator held the mic awkwardly. “Mr. Fletcher, which media package are we running for tomorrow?” Larry turned to look at me, his jaw tight. “Carol, let’s just get through the rehearsal first. Don’t stand there.” Sasha suddenly pressed a hand to her chest, her breathing turning shallow. “Larry… my chest feels tight. Did I ruin everything again?” Larry rushed to her side, catching her before she could stumble. He didn’t even look back at me as he instructed the coordinator, “Run Sasha’s cut tomorrow. I’ll handle Carol.” I looked down at my phone. The chat with the wedding planner was still open. Her last message read: “Carol, if you want to officially cancel the venue and vendors, I need your final confirmation.” Larry guided Sasha past me toward the exit, his voice low with exhaustion. “It’s just a rehearsal, Carol. Don’t start a fight now.” I tapped and held the microphone icon. “I confirm…”

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