Chapter 3

The next morning, I stayed home packing my bags.

Looking around the cramped, dimly lit rental, there was surprisingly nothing worth taking with me.

Discarded birthday cards from a bakery, pretty stones I'd found on the street, rings crumpled from paper...

Leo had given me these as "surprises."

Only, every time I'd "unboxed" one, he'd look just as surprised.

Now I realized, those "gifts" were probably just something he had someone casually throw together. He probably didn't even know what was inside.

The only decent gift was a necklace he'd bought for $10 from a street vendor after his first "successful" venture.

Back then, I thought he was wasting money and was genuinely angry at him for it.

But Leo just looked at me with an amused smirk.

He called me silly, saying, "What if I actually get rich someday, and you still can't bring yourself to spend money?"

I thought he was being sweet, worried about me back then.

Now I know. He really just thought I was stupid.

In our dense SnapChat history, there were exactly 517 messages where Leo called me stupid.

I'd run across three streets to get him his favorite late-night snacks, and he'd text, "Ivy is such an idiot."

He had a fever, and I draped my only raincoat over him, carrying him to the emergency room. He later wrote, "She's laughably clueless."

Even when I was lying in his arms, dreaming about our happy future together, he'd still post in the group chat:

"Ivy's hopelessly stupid. So broke, yet she still dreams of a future with me..."

Even from those cold words, I could picture the sneer and mockery on his face as he typed them.

But it didn't matter anymore. From now on, there would be no Leo Donovan in Ivy Sterling's future.

I continued packing, but by the end, my large suitcase was still empty.

The trash can, however, was overflowing.

I took one last look at the place I'd called home for two years.

Peeling paint stained with watermarks, a three-legged chair, a bed cobbled together with bricks and planks...

When things were a little better, I'd dreamed of making this place truly a home.

But Leo always refused.

He'd say, "Once we're rich, we won't live here anymore, so there's no point decorating."

I believed every one of his promises, and stupidly waited in this crumbling home for them to come true.

Thinking about all of it, I suddenly felt a profound emptiness.

I snapped my suitcase shut. The agent called.

"Ms. Sterling, I can't finalize the transfer of the flower shop on my own. You'll need to speak with the landlord in person."

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