Chapter 2

She stared at me, silent for a few seconds.

Finally, she reached out to adjust my collar. "Renovations are stressful. Go upstairs and get some rest."

"Julian said he got some new inspiration. He wants me to go over and look at the blueprints. Poor guy is pulling an all-nighter for us."

"Okay," I replied flatly.

She didn't get out of the car immediately.

She seemed to be waiting for me to act like my old self—to tell her not to stay out too late, or to complain about her meeting a guy this late.

But I just pushed the door open, stepped out, and walked away without looking back.

Behind me, I heard her engine rev as she drove off.

Back in the apartment, I collapsed onto the sofa.

It took me a long time to finally drag myself into the study.

As I passed the filing cabinet, I stopped.

We bought this cabinet together five years ago when we first decided to buy a house.

We had promised each other that it would be filled with blueprints of our future.

I pulled open the bottom drawer.

Hidden beneath a thick stack of renovation contracts and invoices was a yellowed piece of paper.

It was our hand-drawn floor plan. It had our scribbled ideas, her dream walk-in closet, my gaming setup...

At the bottom were our signatures side-by-side.

Her neat, elegant handwriting next to my bold strokes.

[Chief Designer: Ethan Vance. Chief Planner: Chloe Carter.]

Next to the signatures, I had written: "Building our dream home. A promise is a promise."

The warm light of the desk lamp hit those words, making them look like a cruel joke.

My phone rang. It was a FaceTime call from Chloe.

I didn't answer right away. I just watched the screen light up.

The phone rang relentlessly.

Finally, I swiped to accept.

Her excited voice blasted through the speaker. "Ethan! We made a new decision. Look at this rendering!"

She pointed her camera at a computer screen.

"Sure. Whatever you think is best." I didn't look at the screen. My eyes were still fixed on our old hand-drawn sketch.

Chloe noticed the paper through the camera.

"Why did you dig out that old drawing?" she asked, laughing. "Feeling nostalgic?"

I ignored her question and asked quietly, "Does the new plan require major changes again?"

She hesitated. "Just a few. Julian's mind works differently. His vision is on another level."

"I see." I slowly and carefully folded the paper and put it back in the drawer.

"We have a few more details to go over. I'm going to hang up," she said, ready to end the call.

I didn't hang up. I pushed myself up from the desk.

My back felt stiff from sitting too long, and I had to steady myself.

"Chloe."

"Yeah?" Her background was noisy.

"Let’s call off the engagement."

The line went quiet for a second, and then she let out a soft laugh.

"Are you seriously still throwing a tantrum over some pipes? Don't be childish."

Her tone was condescending, like she was dealing with a stubborn kid. "Alright, fine. I'll have him order the parts overnighted from the UK, okay? Go to sleep. You have work tomorrow."

She was about to end the call.

"Next month," I said clearly to the camera, "the wedding is happening."