Chapter 3

Beneath those vibrant, beautiful portraits of a young woman was my steadily deepening love for her.

In a romantic field of flowers, we kissed, and we officially became a couple.

Tragedy struck right after.

Overnight, I lost both of my parents. All they left behind was that single, functional camera.

Chloe was the only one beside me.

She told me to come back to her hometown with her. She promised she would always be there for me, that she would be the only one I needed.

Without looking back, I left the land filled with painful grief and followed Chloe to her home city.

At first, I struggled to adjust. Chloe took me out to join a local volunteer association.

I did everything I could to help people in need. Seeing their smiles slowly opened up my closed-off heart.

Chloe and I got our own place.

I poured my heart into decorating our little home, making it warm, lively, and full of comfort.

I landed a job at a media company owned by Chloe's friend, working as a photography magazine editor.

I loved the work. It allowed me to see incredible pieces from all over the world.

At the same time, I yearned to go out into the field and shoot my own projects again.

Yet Chloe always came up with excuses to keep me locked down at home.

"Women out there are manipulative. They'll just take advantage of you. I'm the only one who truly loves you."

It caused me endless distress, and petty arguments began to erupt constantly.

When I paid for a thirteen-year-old orphan girl's school tuition, Chloe mocked me viciously.

"Aren't you a saint? A thirteen-year-old girl—you really couldn't keep your hands to yourself, could you?"

I only sponsored the girl because she had lost her parents, just like me, and I felt for her.

When I rushed a woman in active labor to the emergency room, Chloe was furious.

"You just have to rescue every woman you see, don't you? Do you even care about your girlfriend?"

"And you carried her! You are not allowed to have physical contact with any other female!"

It had been an emergency. I literally had to lift the woman into my car to get her to the hospital in time.

Chloe's antics drained every ounce of energy from me.

Since when did helping someone require checking their gender first?

My misery at home naturally started bleeding into my work life.

Until Chloe's friend, the boss, told me:

"Chloe just cares about you too much. That's why she doesn't want you near any women."

"If you kept proper boundaries, why would Chloe get mad?"

Boundaries? I had never crossed a single line—not with a thirteen-year-old child, and certainly not with a pregnant stranger.

Wasn't helping people to the best of our ability the whole point of volunteering?

None of them understood how terrifying Chloe's possessiveness really was.

Once, just because I exchanged a few extra casual sentences with a female coworker about a project, Chloe stormed into the office.

She hurled humiliating insults, tearing that poor girl down in front of everyone.

And her friend, our boss, fired that coworker on the spot.

I will never forget the sheer hatred in that coworker's eyes when she packed her desk.

Women already faced so much unfairness in the workplace, and Chloe used her privilege to kick someone out over nothing.

I could never erase the image of Chloe looking down her nose, smug and cruel.

Chloe was supposed to be bright, innocent, and lively. Was this the girl I had fallen for, or had I never known the real Chloe at all?

Plagued by overwhelming doubt, the thought of ending things crossed my mind for the first time.

Maybe we were never meant to last.

Lost in my thoughts, the morning sun hit my face, dazzling my eyes.

I looked up and realized I had walked all the way to a local high school.

Vibrant teenagers were laughing and chatting as they walked through the campus gates.

Suddenly, a voice called out to me.

"Logan!"