Chapter 2

I pulled out my phone and looked at Derek's post from last night.

Still set to be visible only to me.

[Boss works so hard, working late and getting sick before her wedding. Brought her medicine and a late-night snack.]

The picture showed him making a peace sign next to Julia's sleeping face.

Since he wanted to move up so badly, I'd just let him have her.

I went to the wedding company to discuss the details of changing brides.

I'd handled all the wedding arrangements—Julia hadn't shown her face once, so it was easy to finalize everything.

Back home, looking at our wedding photos in the living room, I found them grating.

I took them down, along with all our photos together over the years, and packed everything in boxes to throw away.

A pink card fell out of the album.

It read: [Julia will always love Xavier Knight].

She'd written it five years ago when she confessed her feelings to me.

Over five years, I'd compromised again and again for love, becoming someone unlike myself, only to be met with disdain.

I crumpled the card into a ball and tossed it in the trash.

"What are you doing?"

Julia's voice came from behind me.

I looked up at the clock—it was already 7 PM.

Right when Julia got off work.

Today she hadn't worked late or had any social obligations. She'd come straight home.

I was a bit surprised and quietly closed the box.

"Just sorting through some trash."

She looked around, seeming to notice something missing from the living room.

"Where's our wedding photo?"

"The frame broke. Took it to get fixed."

I answered casually without looking up.

"Oh." Julia didn't ask more questions. She held up a box. "Stop working for now. I brought you shrimp. Come eat."

Seeing I didn't move, Julia frowned:

"What's wrong?"

"I'm allergic to shrimp."

She knew that. But she'd forgotten.

Julia's expression froze, guilt flashing across her face.

"Sorry, I forgot. Let me go buy you something else!"

She grabbed the box and headed out again. I took out my phone and, unsurprisingly, saw Derek's post.

[Boss brought me a love dinner—my favorite shrimp!]

I see.

It was just that Derek loved shrimp, and she'd brought me some on the side.

I smiled and continued packing.

Julia said: "You don't need to rush with the packing. After we get married, we'll move to the new house together. I'll help you organize then."

"Mm. I just want to throw out some useless stuff ahead of time." I replied perfunctorily.

Seeing my lack of enthusiasm, Julia took the initiative:

"You always said you wanted to see the Northern Lights in Iceland, right? For our honeymoon, I requested a month off. I'll go with you."

If this were before, hearing her say this would have made me excitedly spin her around.

But now, I knew we wouldn't be going together.

She held my face and kissed me, but her phone rang.

With just one glance, her expression changed.

"Honey, something came up at the company. I need to go back and work late."

I nodded and got up to carry the boxes out.

"Let me take out the trash." Julia eagerly took them from me and left.

Actually, if she'd just opened them and looked, she would have seen that the "trash" I was throwing away was our wedding photo, our couple's albums, and the confession card she'd written by hand.

Unfortunately, she never noticed.