Chapter 1

Before leaving for our vacation in Miami, I asked Ethan if he wanted to pack our matching couple's windbreakers.

He said they were just extra baggage and rejected the idea instantly.

By the third day of the trip, I was dragging two heavy suitcases, waiting at our designated meeting spot for three agonizing hours.

All I got was a Snapchat from him: "Stuck in traffic. Go check into the hotel first."

I lay on the bunk bed of a six-person hostel room, feeling strangely numb.

I mindlessly scrolled through Instagram and froze when Hailey's new post popped up.

In the beach selfie, she was wearing the exact matching windbreaker he had refused to pack because it was "too much trouble."

The caption read: "A spontaneous road trip. Thanks for taking a detour just to pick me up."

The location tag was California. That was literally on the other side of the country from Miami.

I stared at the familiar fabric in the photo, quietly hit the "like" button, and immediately booked the earliest flight back home.

At 2:00 AM, Ethan called. He sounded completely annoyed.

"What is your problem, Chloe? Hailey is like a little sister to me. Why are you throwing a tantrum?"

My voice was flat, devoid of any emotion.

"I’m not throwing a tantrum. I’m just done.

We should have ended this the moment you said I was too much trouble."

"Chloe, what is the meaning of you hanging up on me?"

My phone lit up again. The seventh call.

The white lights of the airport terminal made me dizzy. I stared at Ethan's name on the screen and declined it.

When the eighth call came through, I finally picked up.

"Where are you?" His voice carried that familiar, irritated edge.

"The airport."

"Are you out of your mind? Rebooking a flight in the middle of the night—who are you trying to put on a show for?"

I said nothing.

"Chloe, can you stop acting like this? Hailey just happened to be in California, and I gave her a ride because it was on the way. She bought that windbreaker online herself. It’s not even the same one you bought. Have you ever thought about how unreasonable you’re being right now?"

On the way. California and Miami are thousands of miles apart, and he called that "on the way."

"Are you done?" I asked.

"What is with your attitude?"

"My flight is boarding."

"Chloe!"

"Ethan, you said she bought that windbreaker herself."

"Yes, she did."

"It’s a matching couple's set. She bought just one for herself? Then who was the other one for?"

Silence stretched over the line for four long seconds.

I hung up.

I switched my phone to airplane mode as I boarded. The notification bar was flooded with over a dozen unread messages.

I glanced at them. The last one was a two-second voice note from him.

I didn't play it.

It was 6:00 AM when I landed. I took a cab back to the apartment we shared.

As I inserted the key into the lock, a sudden realization hit me.

He had given me this key two years ago, but the lease was solely in his name.

My name wasn't on the contract, nor was it registered with the building management. There was no trace of me next to the mailbox.

The place I had lived in for two years had absolutely nothing to do with me in any legal sense.

I started packing.

I opened the closet. His clothes occupied three-quarters of the space on the left. Mine were crammed into a tiny corner on the far right, like the luggage of a temporary guest.

Reaching into the deep back of the closet, my hand brushed against a paper bag.

I opened it. It was a white men's windbreaker.

I froze.

It wasn't the couple's set. It was another one I had bought him last year. He had complained that the collar felt uncomfortable and told me to return it, but I had forgotten.

I stared at that windbreaker for a long time.

He had never worn a single piece of clothing I bought him.

In the drawer, I found a stack of receipts. I hadn't intended to look, but the date on the top one was too painful to ignore.

March 14th.

My birthday.

He had told me he couldn't make it because of a corporate team-building event.

The receipt was from a high-end French restaurant. The total bill was $238.

I had kept that restaurant on my bucket list for six months, but he had always dismissed it, saying it was too far of a drive.

On the back of the receipt, there was a line written in blue pen. It wasn't his handwriting.

"Thanks, Ethan! I had so much fun today. The food was even better than I imagined."

I recognized Hailey's handwriting.

She had once left a sticky note on my desk that read, "Happy Birthday, Chloe."

On the exact same day, she used my birthday to eat at the restaurant I had dreamed of visiting.

Once I finished packing, everything fit into a single twenty-inch suitcase.

I placed the apartment key on the shoe rack by the entryway, dragged my suitcase, and walked to the door.

My phone rang. It was Maya.

"Chloe, are you home?"

"Yes. I've finished packing."

"Where is he?"

"Probably still in California."

Maya fell silent for a couple of seconds. "Did you manage to get a lot of things out of that apartment?"

I looked down at the suitcase beside me. "Just one suitcase."

"Five years, and only one suitcase," Maya's voice dropped low. "Chloe, do you know what that means?"

"It means that place was never my home."