Chapter 3

By the time we got back from the church, I was running a fever.

After I told Justin, Karen rummaged through her bag and pulled out a bottle of herbal medicine. "You probably got a little heatstroke. Here, drink this. I made sure to pack it before we left."

The sharp, medicinal stench hit me, and my stomach lurched.

Karen paused, caught off guard.

Justin's voice turned cold. "Zoe, you're a grown woman. Do you really have to act like such a princess?"

I leaned back against the headboard. My head felt heavier by the second, and before I knew it, I drifted into a feverish sleep.

When I woke up, the room was empty.

All I could hear was Justin's promise from our wedding day echoing in my mind. "I swear I'll spend the rest of my life taking care of Zoe. I'll treat her like a princess and protect her, always."

Only now did I understand. A promise was just a promise.

I called the front desk and ordered a bowl of chicken soup. While I waited, I saw Karen's latest post.

Justin was holding an umbrella over her as they strolled along the beach. Bathed in the glow of the setting sun, the two of them looked more like a couple on their honeymoon than we did.

Her caption read, "My son's all grown up. He's finally taking his mom on the vacation she's always deserved."

The comments were already pouring in.

"Karen, you're so lucky."

"Justin's such a devoted son."

"Where's your daughter-in-law? I don't see her anywhere."

Karen replied, "Zoe loves sleeping in. We didn't want to wake her."

I stared at those words.

"We didn't want to wake her."

My fingers slowly tightened around my phone. So, in her version of the story, the fever that had left me bedridden in the hotel room had become nothing more than me sleeping in.

A few minutes later, Justin posted, too. The photo showed him and Karen sitting by the shore, the sunset painting the sky behind them.

The caption was only one sentence that read, "Finally got to see the ocean with her."

I stared at that single word. Her.

He'd used it for me once. Back when we first started dating, he'd taken pictures of me by the river at sunset. The caption had read, "Finally got to watch the sunset with her."

I'd kept a screenshot of that post for the longest time. Only now did I realize that "her" had never belonged to me. It could be anyone.

The chicken soup arrived. I managed a couple of spoonfuls, but the hollow ache in my stomach refused to go away.

Justin and Karen didn't come back until well past midnight, chatting happily about the fireworks they'd watched that evening.

The noise woke me.

Only then did Justin notice I was awake. He rubbed his temples with a weary sigh. "It's Mom's first time traveling, Zoe. I couldn't exactly ruin it for you."

In the middle of the night, Karen called out for him again, saying she was having heart palpitations.

My fever had left me barely conscious. I reached out and caught his sleeve. "Don't go…"

He looked down at me as Karen called from the other bed, "Justin, am I dying?"

Without another word, he pulled his sleeve free from my grasp. "Mom's not feeling well."

He hurried over to her side, checked her blood pressure, poured her a glass of water, and gently rubbed her back.

Meanwhile, I lay shivering with a fever in the other bed. No one looked back at me. Not even once.