Chapter 5

An hour before I left, there was actually a small confrontation.

Just as I dragged my heavy bags to the foyer, the front door swung open.

Chris had rushed back to grab some of Grace's things, and we ran straight into each other.

Seeing my bags on the floor, Chris pinched the bridge of his nose in exhaustion, though his voice remained gentle.

"Chloe, didn't we agree you would stop throwing tantrums?"

"You're a high school teacher. Can't you be a little more mature?"

"Grace is literally lying in the ICU, and you're choosing this exact moment to play the runaway girlfriend?"

Grace’s nanny, who was following behind him to grab her pajamas, gave me a contemptuous look.

Chris stepped forward, placing his hand on my suitcase to stop me.

"Fine. I know you still have a few days left of your vacation."

"You’re going back home, right?"

"I’ll book you a first-class flight for tomorrow. Just stay at a hotel tonight, okay?"

"Grace can’t handle any stress when she gets discharged, so she has to stay here for a while."

"Go back to your quiet little town, teach your classes, and once she’s fully recovered, I’ll come get you."

He took it for granted that Grace could occupy his house, and he took it for granted that he could discard me back to what he assumed was my safety zone.

He was so certain that I couldn't leave my job, so certain that I couldn't survive in this massive city, that I would eventually crawl back to my comfort zone.

I looked at the face of the man I had loved for three years, and the very last spark in my heart died out.

I didn't argue. I didn't explain.

I had no home left to go back to.

In front of Chris, I pulled out my phone.

I opened the CoupleStreak app that had witnessed our 1000 days.

"Chris Blair," I called him by his full name.

"Thank you for taking care of me these past three years."

"But from now on, we don't need to keep our streak anymore."

Under Chris’s shocked gaze, I decisively tapped "Delete and Terminate Relationship."

The app let out a cold chime: Relationship terminated. All records have been cleared.

Chris's face went completely pale, but he still thought this was just a high-level tantrum.

"Are you crazy?"

"A thousand days of memories, and you just deleted them like that?"

"Do you really have to push me like this right now?"

I gently pulled my hand out of his grip. There was no hatred in my eyes, only the complete indifference you'd show a stranger.

"I'm not pushing you. I'm letting myself go."

"Grace needs you more. Take good care of her."

With that, I turned around, opened the door, and walked out.

I slammed the heavy security door shut behind me, leaving it all in the cold autumn wind.

Three hours later, at a run-down local community center in the far north of the city, I stood in my cheap sneakers with my hair tied back in a simple ponytail.

I signed my employment contract with the community outreach program.

My daily job would be walking through the alleys, handling trivial neighborhood issues. But the moment I wrote down my new address on the tax forms, I let out a long, deep sigh of relief.

From that moment on, in this crowded metropolis of twenty million people, there was one less codependent girlfriend, and one more ordinary working woman named Chloe.

And Chris was officially locked away in the grave of my past.

During lunch break, I sat at the entrance of the alley, eating a warm bowl of street pasta.

At the exact same time, Chris stared at the missing app on his phone, letting out a cold scoff as he muttered to himself:

"Fine. Delete it. Let's see how long she can hold out."