Chapter 2

I pushed his arms away from me. My eyes landed on his phone, which he had tossed on the coffee table without locking.

The screen showed a live location-sharing map with Sienna. It had been running for fifteen hours straight.

My brain went completely numb.

Because of my extreme insecurity in this relationship, I had begged him for a month, with tears in my eyes, to share his location with me.

Back then, he had pushed my hand away with disgust and snapped cold words at me.

"Chloe, adults need personal space. This kind of stalker-like surveillance only makes me think you have mental issues."

But now, my heart, which had been hanging by a thread for years, finally died.

"Ethan, let's break up."

Ethan followed my gaze to the screen. Realizing I saw the location sharing, his face instantly hardened with self-righteous anger.

"Are you seriously throwing a tantrum in the middle of the night?"

"Sienna had a traumatic experience abroad. She just got back and doesn't know her way around. I only turned on the location to keep her safe. Are you seriously going to be petty about this?"

"You want security, right? Fine. I'll add your name to the house deed tomorrow. Is that enough? Stop whining about this childish drama!"

"You want to break up? Fine. Have it your way."

"When you drain all that jealous nonsense out of your head and stop acting crazy, we'll talk."

With that, he marched into the guest room and slammed the door behind him.

He didn't take my breakup seriously at all.

To him, I was just using the breakup as a threat to force him to bow down.

But he didn't know that when someone truly decides to leave, they do it in total silence.

The next morning.

Ethan was fully dressed and blocked me as I was heading out the door.

"Alright, are you still playing the drama queen?"

"Isn't today your follow-up appointment for your stomach at the downtown clinic?"

"I'm heading that way this morning. I'll drop you off."

Ethan wanted to use this minor favor to brush last night's argument under the rug. He was convinced that if he gave me a little sweet treat, I would swallow all my pain.

Not long after the car pulled out of our neighborhood, I looked out the window and spoke coldly.

"This isn't the way to the clinic. Where are you going?"

Without hesitation, Ethan crossed the double yellow line and headed toward the Rosewood, the most expensive luxury hotel downtown.

"To pick up Sienna."

"She had a terrible headache all night. Since you're going to the clinic anyway, I'll take her along to get checked out."

I had stayed up all night refreshing the patient portal to book that rare specialist appointment. Yet, he was giving my slot to another woman "along the way."

Because I hadn't eaten breakfast and the car's AC was blasting cold air, my stomach began to cramp painfully.

I stared silently at the passing streets outside. I didn't even have the energy to argue with him anymore.

When the car parked in front of the clinic, the waiting room was packed.

As a software engineer, my high-intensity work had ruined my health. That specialist appointment was a miracle booking.

Ethan looked at Sienna, who was leaning weakly against his shoulder, and held out his hand to me.

"Give me your appointment confirmation QR code."

I looked up at him. The sharp spasms in my stomach were making me break out in a cold sweat.

"This is my specialist appointment."

Ethan took my ice-cold hand and wrapped it in his warm palm.

"Sienna just got back. The jet lag and her severe anxiety have kept her crying all night. The doctor said she’s on the verge of a mental breakdown."

"Your stomach pain is bad, but it's a chronic issue. We have your prescription meds at home. You can just take two pills to suppress it. Can you please just bear with it for once?"

When we first got together, his friends used to whisper behind my back.

They said Ethan would always keep a place in his heart for his first love who had moved abroad for her dreams. They said no matter how hard I tried, I could never compete with his "white moonlight."

But over the last three years, Ethan had personally wiped away all my doubts.

During those three years, he would drive across the city in pouring rain just to pick me up from work. He would stay up all night rubbing my stomach when I had bad cramps.

I really thought I had finally replaced her.

Seeing me freeze, he leaned down and kissed my forehead gently.

"Be good, Chloe. You're my family. Do this for me, okay?"

"Tomorrow, once she's settled, I'll cancel all my meetings and spend the whole day with you, I promise."

I clutched the medical card inside my pocket. The sharp edges dug painfully into my fingers.

My mind suddenly drifted back to the early days of Ethan's startup. He had worked so hard that he drank himself to stomach bleeding.

To get him a specialist appointment, I had lined up in the freezing wind all night.

My hands got so frostbitten that night that they still peel every winter.

Back then, he had looked at me from his hospital bed with tears in his eyes.

"I will never let you suffer again in this life."

Sienna's eyes welled up with tears, and Ethan's expression grew impatient.

"Give it to me, Chloe. Don't be unreasonable."

I suddenly loosened my fingers and handed him the card. Ethan smiled, satisfied, and rubbed my hair.

"Good girl. I'll get someone to book another specialist for you next month."

The clinic door shut in my face.

I didn't expect the man inside to look back at me. I popped two painkillers out of my bag and swallowed them dry.

The pills tasted incredibly bitter as they scraped down my throat. I whispered in my heart:

"Ethan, there's no need for next month. There is no next month for us."

Just as I was about to call an Uber, my phone lit up. It was a Snapchat message from Ethan.

"The checkup is done. The doctor says Sienna needs some warm comfort food."

"Come to the Italian restaurant next door. Let's eat together."