Chapter 3

"What happened to you?"

He immediately shrugged off his tailored suit jacket, wrapping it around my coffee-soaked shirt before scooping me into his arms bridal-style.

"Let's clean you up in the restroom. I'll get some ointment."

He had dressed up in an expensive bespoke suit today—probably to make buying the ring feel like a special occasion.

Now, draped over my stained, drenched clothes, the crisp fabric was ruined, soaked with dirty coffee.

I rinsed my face and hair in the sink. Smelling the sharp scent of coffee clinging to his expensive wool, I took out my phone to search for a tailor to replace it.

"I bought the burn cream. Come outside first. Don't worry about the jacket."

It was like he could read my mind. He cut off my search before I could even contact a shop.

Flushed with embarrassment, I walked out to the waiting area. Julian was sitting upright on the bench, holding shopping bags with a clean change of clothes and a pair of white sneakers.

"You're spending too much on me again."

After changing, I couldn't dodge his insistence on treating my burns. I had to sit down and let him tend to me.

The warmth of his palms helped the cooling gel absorb into my skin. His touch was firm yet incredibly gentle.

"If you really feel bad about it, stop running back to that boy," he said softly.

After making sure my ankle wasn't severely sprained, he knelt down and tied my laces.

"I looked into him. No savings, no car, no real estate, mediocre degree. The only reason he's surviving at his firm is because of your connections."

His tone was quiet, laced with genuine bewilderment that someone like Chase could even be considered competition.

I couldn't even defend myself.

Being with Chase in the first place had just been a desperate rebound to survive the agony of losing Julian.

By the time I realized how wrong we were for each other, guilt had paralyzed me. I felt dirty for using him, which made it impossible for me to pull the plug.

But now, every single drop of patience and decency between us was dead. There was nothing left to save.

I pulled out my phone, typed a breakup text, and hit send. A second later, Chase called.

"I canceled the restaurant. I'm back at our apartment with Rachel."

I froze. When I realized he hadn't even read my message, a bitter laugh escaped my lips.

Oblivious to my tone, he continued:

"Ever since Buster passed, Rachel has been an emotional wreck. Yesterday she drank all afternoon and broke my phone, and today his keepsake was ruined. She's been crying all day."

"I saw that she really liked your cat, so I told her she could take May home as a comfort animal. Make sure you text her the feeding schedule."

May was my cat. I had raised her for six years.

And he had just given her away like a cheap piece of junk.

The reason we had started dating in the first place was because he had run through a thunderstorm visiting every vet clinic in the city when May was sick.

He had solemnly sworn that seeing her would always remind him of me. That first winter, terrified she would catch a cold, he had spent weeks learning how to knit a sweater for her.

Had a few fake tears from Rachel erased all of that?

Remembering the vicious look in Rachel's eyes when she deliberately crushed that yarn charm, I took a screenshot of my emergency police report screen and sent it to him.

"Did you forget who pays every single cent of the rent for that apartment?"

"If you don't want you and your precious Rachel spending the night in a jail cell, that cat better not cross the threshold of my front door!"

I slammed the end-call button.

I didn't want to hear his voice for another second, so I blocked his number immediately.

Realizing his calls weren't going through, Chase blew up my SnapChat, completely unhinged:

"You dare block my number? Chloe, do you even want to get married anymore?!"

I picked up the ring box Julian had chosen, slid the ring onto my finger, and snapped a photo of our intertwined hands.

I sent it to him:

"No need."

"I already found someone who's actually willing to come home with me."

Without waiting for a response, I blocked his account, then immediately emailed HR requesting a transfer to our coastal branch as a regional manager.

From this moment on, Chase and I were complete strangers.