Chapter 2

Three days later, Chloe showed up at my parents’ house. I was in the living room, staring at a blank TV screen. I hadn’t slept much. My mom let her in, her face tight with disapproval, then left us alone. Chloe looked tired, but she tried to smile. “Hey.” I just looked at her. “So,” she began, fiddling with the strap of her purse. “That was… a mess. I’m really sorry about how it happened.” “Are you?” I asked, my voice devoid of emotion. “Of course, I am! Damien was just… he was in a really bad place. I couldn’t abandon him.” The same old excuse. I’d heard it for five years. “And you could abandon me? At the altar?” She flinched. “It wasn’t like that, Ethan. I thought you’d understand. I was going to explain.” “There’s nothing to explain, Chloe.” I stood up. I felt strangely calm, a cold clarity settling in. “We’re done.” Her eyes widened. “What? Ethan, no. We can work through this. It was a mistake, a huge one, but…” “It wasn’t a mistake,” I said. “It was a choice. You chose Damien. You’ve always chosen Damien, in little ways. This was just the biggest way.” “That’s not fair!” “Isn’t it?” I walked closer to her. “All those times he needed money, and you gave it to him from our savings. All those nights you spent comforting him instead of being with me. I tolerated it, Chloe. I believed you when you said he was vulnerable, that he needed help.” “He does!” “He needs a professional. Not you. And I need a partner who chooses me.” Tears welled up in her eyes. The victim act was starting. “But I love you, Ethan.” “I loved you too,” I said, and the past tense hung in the air between us. “But I can’t do this anymore. I won’t.” “So that’s it? Five years, and you’re just throwing it away?” “You threw it away, Chloe. When you walked out on our wedding for him.” I went to my dad’s desk and pulled out a piece of paper. It was a list I’d started making. “We need to sort out our finances,” I said, my voice businesslike. “The joint savings account. The wedding gifts. The deposits we lost.” She stared at the paper, then at me, her expression shifting from pleading to disbelief. “You’re serious.” “Completely.” A few days after that, I went to the bank to close our joint savings account. The account where I’d been putting money aside for years, for a down payment on a condo. Our future home. The balance was much lower than I expected. Thousands lower. I asked the teller for a statement. There was a large withdrawal, made two months ago. Signed by Chloe. My blood ran cold. I called her immediately. “Chloe, the savings account. There’s almost twenty thousand dollars missing.” Silence on her end. “Chloe?” “Oh,” she finally said, her voice small. “That.” “Yes, that. Where is it?” “Damien… he needed it. For a rehab program. And he had some debts. Really serious ones. He was in trouble.” “Rehab?” I remembered her mentioning a new program he was supposedly starting. I’d even felt a flicker of hope. “You took twenty thousand dollars, our down payment, and gave it to Damien? Without telling me?” “I was going to tell you, Ethan! I was just waiting for the right time. He promised to pay it back.” “Pay it back?” I laughed, a bitter, hollow sound. “With what? He hasn’t held a job in years. He lives off you, Chloe!” “He’s trying to get better! This program was his last chance.” “His last chance with my money?” The betrayal was a fresh stab, deeper than the wedding. This was calculated. Deceitful. “It was our money,” she said defensively. “Most of it was mine, Chloe! From my bonuses, my savings before we even met! You know that.” “I was going to replace it,” she insisted. “How?” She didn’t have an answer. I hung up. The calmness I’d felt earlier was gone, replaced by a searing anger. I went back to my parents’ house, to the guest room I was staying in. I saw the wedding photo album we’d started putting together, filled with pictures of us smiling, happy. Pictures from before. I picked it up, my hands trembling, and threw it against the wall. The sound of it hitting, the frame cracking, was somehow satisfying. Five years. Five years of my life, my love, my money, all wasted on her and her endless, pathetic devotion to Damien. I sank onto the bed, my head in my hands. The disillusionment was complete. It wasn't just the wedding. It was everything. The whole relationship had been a lie, built on my patience and her manipulation.