Chapter 3

Lena did not bother going back to the Johnson estate. Instead, she drove straight to the small apartment she had purchased with her own money. By the time she threw herself onto the soft bed, the night was dark.

Since the afternoon, Henry had not contacted her to check in on her or explain himself. He had not even bothered to ask why she left. Lena stared at her phone screen for a long time, so long that her eyes began to water. Finally, she tossed the phone to the side, closed her eyes, and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, she was woken up by a barrage of loud noises from the living room. Walking out to investigate, she was shocked to see Henry supervising a group of movers carrying boxes into her apartment.

The moment he spotted her, Henry quickly strode over and grabbed her hands, looking guilty.

“Lenny, I’m so sorry about yesterday. Something urgent came up at the company, and I had to rush off before I could tell you. I only found out later that there was an earthquake in that area! You aren’t hurt, are you?”

Lena stared at the man lying right to her face without breaking a sweat. A sharp, stinging pain pricked at her heart. He knew perfectly well that he owed her an explanation. Yet, he chose to construct that elaborate lie just to cover up the fact that he had abandoned her at the scene.

She could not understand it. If he was already in love with someone else, why was he pushing to marry her? Was it because he thought she was an easy target to fool, or did he just thoroughly enjoy having a reliable fiancée at home while keeping a mistress on the side?

Seeing Lena remain silent, Henry let out a sigh. He reached up to ruffle her hair and said in a soothing, affectionate tone, “I know how much you love these, so I bought you a bunch of designer jewelry to make it up to you. Don’t be mad at me anymore, okay?”

Lena pursed her lips. Before she could even force the word “okay” out of her mouth, his phone suddenly blared with a loud, frantic ringtone. Henry answered it, and whatever the person on the other end said made his expression shift.

He looked back at Lena with a conflicted expression and said, “Lenny, there’s another emergency at the company. I can’t stay to hang out. I’ve got to run!”

He did not even wait for Lena to respond before turning on his heel and bolting out the door. The apartment fell into a dead silence, save for the remaining movers quietly shuffling back and forth with the boxes.

After what felt like an eternity, her phone chimed with a notification. Lena unlocked it and saw that Ava had just posted a new update on social media. The photo showcased a massive pile of expensive jewelry, and in the corner of the frame rested a man’s elegant hand, where a ring she knew all too well sat on his middle finger. Since the jewelry in the photo was the same collection Henry had just delivered to her apartment, and the ring was an identical match to the one currently sitting on Lena’s finger, the hand could only be Henry’s.

Lena felt a lump in her throat, and her heart felt as though it was being squeezed by a giant pair of hands, making it hard for her to breathe. It seemed a person’s love really could be divided into two; Henry’s devotion had never belonged to her alone.

“Miss Lena, we’ve laid out all the jewelry pieces right here. Please take a look.”

The voice of one of the workers snapped her back to reality.

Lena stared fixedly at the gems on the table. Suddenly, her lips curled into a bitter smirk as she looked up at the worker and said, “Sell them all. I don’t want a single piece left behind.”

If a gift was not meant exclusively for her, she did not want it.

The moment the jewelry was cleared out, Henry’s name flashed on her incoming calls. Lena immediately declined it, and when he called again, she declined it again. After a few relentless attempts, he finally stopped calling and sent a text instead.

[If you don’t like those styles, I’ll take you out to pick some out yourself another day!]

Lena glanced at the screen, left it be, and scrolled through her contacts until she found her long-time best friend’s name. She sent over a text to meet up. Since she was leaving the country so soon, she needed to say a proper goodbye to the people who actually mattered.

By evening, Lena had changed into a fresh outfit and headed to a local upscale bar. Her best friend, Sydney Green, was already waiting for her there. The second Sydney heard about Lena’s plan to move abroad, her jaw dropped in shock. Then, she immediately began grilling Lena about Henry.

After downing a few drinks, Lena kept her eyes lowered, her tone calm. “I gave up the engagement. I’m letting Ava have it.”

“Are you insane?”

Sydney bolted upright in her seat, her voice an octave higher. “That’s Henry Hale we’re talking about! He treats you–”

“How he treats me doesn’t matter anymore,” Lena interrupted, shaking her head lightly as her voice turned raspy. “And I’m not insane.”

The image of Henry holding that child with Ava leaning happily against his shoulder flashed in her mind again. It felt like a thorn, twisting deeper into her chest.

An unfaithful man was someone Lena had no use for.

Sydney opened her mouth to argue further, but Lena stood up. “I’m going to use the restroom.”

As she walked down the dimly lit hallway past a row of private rooms, a familiar male voice drifted out from one of the rooms. Lena’s footsteps halted. Peering through the cracked-open door, she froze.

There sat Henry in the center, his face partially obscured by the moody lighting, and sitting right beside him in a white dress was Ava.