Chapter 3

As I watched the elevator numbers change, I remembered what had happened when I was seventeen.

A group of boys had cornered me in a school hallway. After another student discovered what was happening, their ringleader slapped himself across the face and told the teacher first, "Sir, Evan hit me!"

"Sir, Evan hit me!"

I was just an ordinary kid being raised by one parent. The teacher didn't want the trouble. He was ready to suspend me without asking another question.

Then Elise stepped in.

She wore a white dress that day. Leaning against the railing, she regarded the teacher with almost lazy amusement.

"Seriously? You can't even see through a trick this cheap?"

She showed him a video of what had really happened. Just like that, my name was cleared.

"Stick with me from now on," she told me. "I'll look out for you. Nobody will dare mess with you again."

Her smile had been so brilliant that I'd fallen for her on the spot.

I stayed by her side for fifteen years.

Funny how life worked. The same cheap stunt she'd once protected me from had finally come back around, and this time she was the one falling for it.

Back home, I resumed packing. My phone wouldn't stop buzzing.

A clip from our live broadcast had gone viral.

People recognized Nico as a college lifestyle influencer with a modest online following. I opened the account they'd found.

His latest post showed him and Elise holding hands, fingers intertwined, their marriage certificate displayed in front of them.

Finally married the woman I've had a crush on for years. Couldn't be happier!

I swallowed the pain in my throat and scrolled down.

His feed showed me a version of Elise I'd never met.

At home, she'd never lifted a finger in the kitchen. For Nico, she cooked elaborate meals herself.

She couldn't tolerate spicy food, yet she'd eaten chili-laden dishes with him until she ended up in the hospital with an inflamed stomach.

Then I found a post from the day my father died.

I'd been alone at home, devastated by grief. Elise had said she was away on business. When she heard the news, she called to console me.

That same day, Nico had posted a message.

She's taking a call while we're doing it. So exciting.

I'd thought Elise's trembling voice on the phone meant she was holding back tears for me.

She'd been in bed with another man.

I sat in the dark all night, unable to move.

Elise didn't come home until noon the next day.

I didn't bother easing into it.

"So you've been sleeping together. Was it fun?"

She stopped halfway through changing her shoes. Her face darkened.

"Watch your mouth. Nico spent the whole night crying, and I was trying to comfort him."

I pointed to the mark on her neck.

"You comforted him in bed?"

Elise went still.

I held out my phone and showed her Nico's posts. This time, she had nothing to say at all.

After a long pause, she muttered, "He's a kid. He posts stupid things. Don't go after him over it. Blame me if you need someone to blame."

No explanation. No apology.

Her first instinct was to protect Nico.

My tears broke free.

"Elise, how can the two of you be so disgusting?"

She started to reach for me. Then she heard what I'd said, and her expression hardened.

"Oh, because you're so pure?" she scoffed. "You spent fifteen years following me around like a lovesick puppy. When I told you to get a vasectomy, you went and did it without a second thought. Now you can't even have children. You're damaged goods, Evan. At least Nico isn't. He's young, healthy, and full of life.

"Have you forgotten how you practically begged me to protect you when you were seventeen? You think anyone else is going to want you if you leave me? Who would take a loser like you?"

I stared at her.

The grief hit before the anger could.

We'd first slept together when I was eighteen, young and inexperienced, learning everything as we went. We'd grown up together through one difficult year after another.

I'd stood by her through every setback. When she said she didn't want children, I'd gotten a vasectomy without hesitation.

Knowing I would never have a child was a quiet heartbreak I'd carried ever since. I'd always believed my sacrifice meant something to her.

Now I knew what she really thought.

Damaged. Worthless. Less of a man.

I studied the face I'd loved for fifteen years and wondered when she'd become someone so cruel.

The girl in the white dress was dead to me now, once and for all.

Regret flickered in Elise's eyes. She seemed to realize she'd gone too far.

Before she could speak, a notification lit up her phone.

She glanced at the screen.

All the color drained from her face.