Chapter 2

After packing half a suitcase, I received a notification from Human Resources approving my resignation.

Nathaniel finally looked up. The moment he saw the suitcase on the floor, he shook his head without a second thought.

“I used up my vacation days on the trip to Mount Rainier, so I don’t have any time to take you anywhere right now. Maybe next time.

“We’ll have plenty of time in the future. There’s no need to rush, is there?”

He had time to spend with Isla.

He could take time off to go with her.

But when it came to me, suddenly he had no time left because he’d already used all his vacation days.

My hand went limp, and the clothes I was holding slipped from my fingers.

My mouth was filled with bitterness.

We had lived together for eight years, and the words Nathaniel had said to me most often weren’t “I love you.”

They were:

“Maybe next time.”

“There’s no need to rush, is there?”

Every time my parents came to visit, his reasons for disappearing were never anything out of a fairy tale.

The only thing they had in common was that they always involved Isla.

He went back to her hometown with her.

He accompanied her to a work presentation.

He took her to the hospital when she hurt her foot.

Whenever I questioned him, he would only mock me.

“Amelia, you’re not even as smart as Isla. Your only good quality is that you’re understanding.

“She’s your best friend. Don’t be so petty and throw away your last good quality, too…”

The one who loved more was always the one who compromised more easily.

After that, I stopped asking, and he stopped explaining.

And Isla became like air—everywhere, impossible to escape.

She filled every corner of the life Nathaniel and I shared.

Until this trip to Mount Rainier.

That was when I finally gave up.

After finishing my packing, I looked up at him.

“Nathaniel, let’s break up.”

Nathaniel paused, finally tearing his eyes away from his phone.

“What are you talking about?”

I zipped up my suitcase and stood it upright.

Then I gave a quiet hum.

He frowned as though I’d just told him a joke.

“Break up? Because Isla and I went to Mount Rainier? Because of your parents? Didn’t I already tell you we’d go somewhere together next time?”

He put down his phone and straightened up. Under the warm light, his face suddenly looked strangely unfamiliar.

“Isla and I are both programmers, and we work for the same company, so naturally we’re a little closer.

“But she’s your best friend. You shouldn’t be jealous of her.”

I lowered my eyes and said nothing.

Instead, I continued quietly, “Actually, you two make a good match. You were both top students in school, and now you’re both programmers at major tech companies.”

“Amelia! Stop saying pointless things! If I’d met her first, then sure, there wouldn’t have been a place for you. But there’s no going back in time.”

Nathaniel irritably pulled off his shirt, which he left lying beside my feet.

He shot me a cold sideways glance before heading toward the bathroom.

The lighting was dim, but it couldn’t hide the several bright red scratch marks across his back.

I stared at them for a long time.

Suddenly, I remembered what had happened yesterday, when I was ordering my third cup of coffee.

A hotel reservation notification had popped up on my phone:

Room 909 — Guests: Nathaniel Prescott, Isla Monroe

At that moment, I hadn’t had the time to process it.

Why would my best friend sleep with the man I loved most?

Why had they hurt me like this again and again?

All I could do was tremble as I compulsively added sugar to my coffee.

Even after I’d added more than enough, it still tasted bitter.

When I swallowed it, even my breath tasted bitter.

Thinking about it now, I called out to him before he could enter the bathroom.

“Let’s break up. I'm—”

The deafening slam of the bathroom door drowned out the rest of my words.

Even the words “getting married” disappeared beneath the sound.