Our Relationship Died When My Mom Did

I dug out all my winter clothes and neatly folded them into my suitcase.

Suddenly, the front door opened, and someone tiptoed over.

Ten cold fingers reached around from behind and covered my eyes. "Guess who…"

She deliberately lowered her voice and acted silly, just like how she used to mess with me whenever she came back from a business trip.

In the past, I would've smiled and answered, "My sweetheart, of course", before warming her cold hands with mine.

But the current me no longer felt an ounce of that sweetness, and I wasn't in the mood to play along.

I pulled her hands away and silently went back to folding my clothes.

My girlfriend, Natalie Crenshaw, stared at me in confusion. Her fingers curled slightly before she whined playfully, "What's wrong, Mr. Hottie? Isn't one month of giving me the cold shoulder long enough?

"You suddenly crashed the wedding before, making things super awkward for everyone. I had to spend forever explaining everything to clear things up."

A cold, mocking smile tugged at the corner of my lips.

A month ago, I had become the laughingstock in the eyes of all my friends and family—all because my bride had married someone else in front of everyone.

Mom had suffered a heart attack because of it, and Natalie had thrown me out of the venue like a stray mutt.

Even on the day of Mom's funeral, everyone from my hometown was still pointing fingers at me and giving me sneering looks.

"That's him, right? His bride ran off on their wedding day? And he's supposed to be some really smart guy as well, but he's already 30 years old, and he still can't find a wife!"

"How embarrassing! I heard he literally made his mother so mad that she keeled over and died. If I had a useless son like that, I'd have thrown myself off a cliff ages ago!"

That heavy, suffocating feeling from the funeral washed over me yet again. When I snapped back to reality, I said quietly, "I'm not giving you the cold shoulder…"

But before I could say the words, "Let's just break up", Natalie nodded and let out a drawn-out "Oh".

"It's not the cold shoulder, but an actual fight, right? Alright, didn't I already text you about it? Erik's fiancee ran off, and our families have been close for generations. Helping him out for a bit isn't going to hurt anyone."

She plopped down on the couch, casually picked up a dark gray sweater, and started folding it for me. Her delicate brows furrowed slightly as her red lips murmured, "This sweater is so ugly. You should just throw it away!"

I didn't say anything. I only stared at the dazzling diamond ring on her ring finger, suddenly realizing what that particularly icy sensation against my eyelid had been earlier.

Natalie followed my gaze and guiltily slipped off the ring, quickly putting it into her pocket. Then she stuck out her tongue and smiled.

"Commit to the act, right? I forgot to take it off. Robert, you jealous thing, you aren't going to be mad at me again, are you?"

To be honest, I wasn't mad at all.

I just suddenly remembered that when I proposed to her, I had gotten down on one knee and presented her with a custom-designed ring from a luxury brand. But she hadn't held her hand out.

She said she didn't like the constraining feeling of a ring and wanted to wait until we exchanged rings at the wedding before wearing one.

But in the end, she had put on the ring Erik Cuoco gave her first, and she'd even been so happy about it that she couldn't bear to take it off.

Mad? I'd never be mad again.

For the past month, I had tortured myself by watching news reports of Natalie and Erik traveling the world on their honeymoon.

By now, my heart was completely numb.