Chapter 3

The next morning, I heard the lock turn.

Adrian walked in just as I finished sealing the last cardboard box.

Mia followed behind him.

They both paused when they saw the four boxes lined up neatly in the living room.

Adrian had arrived looking cold, probably because I never called him last night. But the moment he saw the boxes, his expression visibly eased.

He thought I was eager to move into the Tribeca penthouse.

“All right. Enough.”

Adrian walked over and glanced down at the boxes.

“Yesterday is over.”

“Stop fighting with me over Mia. I’ll add your fingerprint today, and the wedding is still happening.”

Mia stood behind him and spoke softly.

“Claire, don’t blame Adrian for yesterday. Everyone was only joking.”

She paused.

“That apartment is obviously your home. I was just helping get a few things ready.”

As she spoke, her hand settled naturally on Adrian’s arm.

Months ago, I would have stared at that hand and asked why she was touching my fiancé.

Now I only smiled.

“It’s fine.”

Adrian studied me for a few seconds, clearly pleased with my answer.

He reached out to touch my hair.

I tilted my head away.

Adrian didn’t seem to care.

“That’s better.”

He checked the time.

“I’m taking Mia back to the office to pick up a file. We’re having a housewarming at the new place tonight. Luca and the others will be there.”

“Come over when you’re done moving.”

Then he added,

“Don’t be late.”

“Okay.”

I answered immediately.

The corner of Adrian’s mouth lifted.

He probably really believed that what I had said last night about calling off the wedding was nothing more than the last bit of a tantrum I hadn’t quite gotten over.

A few minutes later, they left.

The moment the door closed, the smile faded from my face.

I took out my phone and called the moving company I had booked in advance.

“Hi. You can come up now.”

“Four boxes. They’re all going to San Francisco.”

The movers arrived half an hour later.

I wasn’t taking much with me.

My laptop, hard drives, design sketches, and the work materials I had accumulated over the years.

The clothes and jewelry Adrian had given me, along with everything that belonged to the two of us, stayed behind.

Once the boxes were gone, I returned to the desk.

Two printed emails were still lying there.

One was from our wedding planner.

The other was from the venue we had booked.

After I came home last night, I had officially canceled the wedding.

A confirmation soon appeared on my phone.

Your cancellation has been processed.

I looked at it for a few seconds, then closed the page.

Five years together, and in the end, all I really had to deal with were a few boxes and a handful of cancellation forms.

By that afternoon, the apartment was empty.

I shut off the power, checked each room one last time, and left with a single black suitcase.

Adrian still thought I was busy moving my things into our new home.

Maybe tonight he would sit in that penthouse with Luca and the others, waiting for me to show up.

I locked the door to the apartment where we had lived for five years and left the keys with building management.

Then I called a car.

The driver looked at me through the rearview mirror.

“Where to?”

I glanced at the boarding pass on my phone.

“JFK.”

The car merged into Manhattan traffic.

The building behind me grew smaller and smaller.

And even now, Adrian probably still believed I had finally learned to behave.

……

The second bottle of champagne had already been opened in the Tribeca penthouse.

Luca leaned back on the sofa, laughing so hard that he nearly spilled his drink.

“Adrian, I’ll give you this. Six months ago, Claire would’ve torn that door off its hinges if she found out Mia had access before she did.”

One of the others lifted his glass. “And tonight, she didn’t even make a scene.”

“Looks like she finally learned,” another man said with a laugh.

Adrian stood beside the bar, slowly turning the whiskey in his glass. His expression remained calm, but the satisfaction behind it was impossible to miss.

“She used to make everything bigger than it needed to be.”

Luca grinned. “So the fingerprint thing worked?”

Adrian lifted his chin slightly, looking completely unsurprised.

“She’s finally learning what it means to stand beside me. “If she’s finally learned how to be a proper Donna, then the wedding will go ahead as planned.”

Luca laughed and raised his glass.

“I told you she’d come around. Claire’s been obsessed with marrying you for years. She was never really going to walk away.”

The others laughed with him.

Even Mia smiled.

No one in the room seemed to doubt it.

Right then, his phone vibrated against the bar.

Luca laughed again. “Speak of the devil.”

Adrian glanced down with the faintest smile, already expecting another message from me asking whether he was still angry, or what time I should come over.

But the moment he read it, the glass slipped from his hand and shattered.

Adrian, we’re done.

You wanted me to stop caring who you were with. Now I don’t.

The wedding is canceled. You can be with whoever you want now.