Chapter 4

"What did you say?" Aiden whispered.

I stared straight into his eyes with an icy gaze and repeated myself, "I said, let's break up."

Aiden's eyes widened. He seemed unable and unwilling to believe that I would say something as decisive as that, especially since I was usually so gentle and accommodating with him.

Next to us, Tracy's eyes reddened as she bowed her head to make herself look guilty, saying aggrievedly, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Foley. It's all my fault. I'm sorry for being so thoughtless. Please don't be mad at me. I'll leave right now."

She then crouched over on the ground, frantically trying to tie her soaked shoelaces, her fingers trembling so violently that she failed to knot the laces several times.

Aiden got more agitated.

"Colleen! Are you done making a scene? Can't you see that it's pouring outside? Where do you expect a kid like her to go for the night? Are you only happy after forcing everyone into a corner?

"And you're always threatening me with a breakup! You're just using it to make me bow to your whims and fancies all the time, so I'd give in and admit defeat!

"You're always making baseless accusations and getting suspicious over nothing and making things difficult for others on purpose! You disgust me!"

He lashed out at me in a fit of anger fueled by shame, but even while doing that, he didn't forget to tend to Tracy the whole time.

He collected her bag, put his slippers on her, and draped a jacket over her shivering shoulders before dragging her out of the door with him.

But every time after we quarrelled, he never cared about me and just let me cry alone in the empty home until the next day.

I hadn't even managed to tell Aiden that I'd already resigned from my job and was going back to my hometown in two days when he left with Tracy, holding an umbrella over their heads.

I stood frozen by the window, gazing out through the rain-fogged glass panels.

The umbrella he took was one that he and I had picked out together five years ago. Back then, while walking together under the rain, he would tilt the entire umbrella toward me, leaving half his own shoulder to soak under the rain.

I would then tug at his sleeve, feeling sorry for him, and exclaiming, "This umbrella is too small!"

He'd just smile and reply, "It doesn't matter if it's small. The main thing is that I don't want you getting wet. Forget about me."

However, I also didn't want him to get drenched either. So, I'd just snap the umbrella shut and pull him headlong into the rain, making a dash for shelter.

But now, even though we used to only care about wanting to shield the other from the elements and only had eyes for each other, wanting to protect the other from the rain, we finally drifted apart.

…

I began packing my things diligently over the next two days.

There was the teddy bear that Aiden had bought for me. There were the raw maple leaves he'd personally gathered for me and stored in a small wooden box when we hiked into the mountains together.

There were also the botanical specimens we'd spent days and nights trekking across hills and rivers to collect.

Everything that I once cherished and held close to my heart as my most precious mementos was now tossed into the trash.

On my last working day at the supermarket, Aiden rushed in to make a rushed purchase. I was standing in the corner arranging the goods, and he didn't even see me because he was in such a rush.

After he checked out and left, I went over to the register to organize the receipts and spotted a box of condoms listed at the bottom of his receipt.

And for some reason, the obsession I'd held onto toward him for years suddenly vanished into thin air.

…

Right before boarding the plane home, Tracy sent me a message on my social media.

"Don't mind this, Mrs. Foley, but Dr. Foley had too much to drink last night. I swear that nothing actually happened between us."

Yet, the accompanying photos she sent were all taken from various intimate angles, each one more so than the last.

As my fingertips grazed the screen, I realized that there was no surge of resentment or bitterness in me.

Aiden and I were never meant to walk the same path after all. A relationship in which the both of us were forced to be together was bound to end with a breakup sooner or later anyway.

Tracy thought that she was playing it smart, flaunting her conquest under the guise of an explanation to me on my social media account instead of sending it to my text messages.

But she didn't know that Aiden was also able to access my account from his phone, the same way I could access his on mine. It was something we'd set up many years ago and never bothered removing.

In other words, every message and photo she sent to me was very easily visible to him as well.