Chapter 3

Thankfully, there were plenty of kind strangers at the restaurant, and they helped me get Mom to the hospital.

She'd suffered a brain hemorrhage brought on by sudden, extreme emotional distress.

When she finally came out of the operating room, I couldn't stop crying as I listened to the steady beeping of the heart monitor and stared at her pale, bloodless face.

I stayed by her bedside all night, but Huntley didn't call me even once. Nova, however, posted an update on her social media.

The photo showed Quinn's father solemnly placing Quinn's hand in Huntley's, while the caption read, "Seeing my bestie find her happily ever after… I think I'm happier than she is!"

It wasn't until my body was about to give out that the door to the hospital room finally opened. Huntley had finally arrived.

He steadied me as I swayed on my feet. "Why didn't you hire a private nurse? Look at the dark circles under your eyes. Are you trying to worry me to death?"

The concern in his eyes left me dazed for a second, as if yesterday had just been a bad dream.

But I knew better.

Mom was lying right there in the hospital bed, and the hickeys on his neck were a vivid, blinding shade of red.

The real dream had been the 17 years I'd spent quietly by his side.

I used what little strength I had left to push him away.

"We're over, Huntley. We're done. Do you understand?"

His broad arms around me didn't loosen. If anything, he held me tighter. He allowed me to struggle against him as he let out a sigh.

"Ains, we've been together since high school. It's been 17 years. We've long since woven ourselves into one another's flesh and bones.

"Break up? Could you really bring yourself to do that?"

I caught the familiar scent of gardenia drifting off him. It was a brand of soap he'd badgered me into buying him back in high school, and he'd used it for 17 years straight.

Back in high school, when Quinn and her clique cornered me in a dead-end alley and forced me to strip out of my school uniform, he was the one who vaulted over the wall and smashed his fist into it so hard that chunks of plaster, mixed with his blood, fell.

"If you dare bully Ainsley again, you'll have to answer to my fists first!"

In college, we spent years in a long-distance relationship, more than 600 miles apart. He saved every last cent of his living allowance to buy the cheapest train tickets, just so he could make the trip to see me as often as possible.

And after we started working, we opened a joint bank account to save up for our future home, depositing money bit by bit.

He was right. 17 years… We really had woven ourselves into one another's flesh and bones.

But now, he was someone else's husband. He was no longer the person I could rely on. He was the one tearing those fused flesh and bones apart.

So whether I could really bring myself to do it or not… Did I even have a say anymore?

Seeing my silence, he assumed I was backing down and pulled me even closer.

"After we graduated from high school, I happened to run into Quinn when she was drugged by those delinquents she used to hang around with, and I saved her. Even though she was always hanging around with guys, that was still her first time. I had to take responsibility for her, right?

"All these years, to keep from hurting you, I had her keep our relationship a secret, yet she never once complained about feeling wronged.

"But her father's dementia has gotten worse lately. All she wanted was for him to see her get married and know she'd found a good man to settle down with while he was still lucid. How could I have the heart to refuse her?

"I know the timing clashed with the plans with your mom. That was a scheduling oversight on my part. I'm sorry, okay?"

I found his ramblings absurdly hilarious.

So that was why he missed my birthday right after we graduated from high school. He'd been busy playing hero for Quinn—the same girl who'd bullied me for three straight years.

And when we first slept together in college, and I hadn't bled, he'd muttered to himself, "The one who looks filthy actually turned out clean, while the one who appears clean might not necessarily be so."

As it turned out, the scales in his heart had tipped toward Quinn a long, long time ago.

I closed my eyes, feeling utterly exhausted.

"Thank you for being honest with me, Huntley. It's made me realize that… I don't want to love you anymore!"