Chapter 2

1.

I took an Uber home, my mind a chaotic mess of emotions.

The sky was dark, and someone was setting off brilliant fireworks by the pier.

As I watched the falling sparks, I thought of the wind-blown snow in their video.

My heart felt like it was being ripped out, and a deep, numbing cold settled into my bones.

The video was still trending, and more people were leaving supportive comments.

The words Sienna Sterling had pinned felt like a slap in the face.

"Your existence fills the void in my soul." This meant Zion Thorne was her true soulmate.

I was just the boring, safe choice she made because of social pressure.

When I got home, I walked into a dark, silent apartment.

The place I once loved now felt completely alien.

She was always busy, so I had handled the entire renovation of our future home myself. But when it was finished, she found a problem with everything.

She didn't hold back when she saw the bedroom.

"What kind of trash design is this? Is your taste stuck in the eighties?" she had snapped. "Nobody decorates like this anymore. It's so tacky. You have zero aesthetic sense."

She looked down on me for not being artistic. She hated everything about this home.

Now I knew why―it was because her first love, Zion, was the artistic one.

The problem wasn't the renovation; the problem was who she wanted to build a home with.

I thought back to our college days when we first met.

We were in the same campus club, and for me, it was love at sight.

But back then, she already had a boyfriend.

I waited until long after they broke up before I finally gathered the courage to ask her out.

I brought her breakfast every morning, walked her to every class, and planned every weekend.

She eventually said yes to being my girlfriend.

I really thought she had seen my devotion and chosen to be with me for real.

Since then, I gave her everything I had.

I lived on ramen for months just to save up for a luxury vacation for her.

When we got together, her friends warned me never to hurt her like her ex had.

We had been together for five years. I truly believed she had moved on from that toxic past.

I never imagined that just as we were about to get married, she would reignite things with him in another country.

In this entire story, I was the only clown.

I was just a placeholder meant to fill her inner loneliness.

Now that the real deal was back, I was being kicked to the curb.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Sienna's number.

It rang for a long time before she finally picked up, sounding incredibly annoyed.

"I told you I'm on an emergency assignment. Stop calling me for no reason."

I spoke into the phone with a calm, steady voice.

"Sienna, it's over. We're breaking up."

I don't love you anymore, and I refuse to be anyone's second choice.