All Chapters of I Chose to Leave: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

When we came out, there were only two seats left on the shuttle. Justin naturally took Maria by the hand and led her onto it."Jessica, you can walk over. We'll go ahead and take possession of the apartment. Since Maria is wearing heels, it would be hard for her to walk."He remembered Maria's heels, which were not even three centimetres high. Yet somehow, he forgot that I had injured my back while rushing to finish one of his projects. The injury had flared up again, and even standing for too long made it ache.I no longer expected him to remember as I turned toward the exit."I'm not going," I replied.Justin did not think much of it as he simply called after me, "You can stop by the rental agency and renew the lease. Today's the deadline."There would be no renewal. The lease termination agreement had already been sent to me, and I signed it without hesitation.…When I got home, I happened to see Maria's latest post on social media. She was standing in front of the floor-to

Maria said softly, "Forget it, Jessica. I'll look at some other designs. If I really can't find anything, I can design it myself. You're already so busy—""You haven't been in this industry for very long," Justin cut her off immediately. "You're already busy enough with work. Designing the whole place yourself would be exhausting."The concern in his voice came so naturally. So naturally that he seemed to have completely forgotten that I was still overseeing the project I had spent more than half a year working on. I was just as busy and exhausted, yet I was expected to make time to redesign someone else's home that was supposed to be mine."Put your current project on hold," Justin said as he turned to me. "You should focus on finishing Maria's place first.""Our interim deliverables are due next week.""You work fast. You can use three days for the drawings and spend the rest of the time overseeing the renovation. You'll make the deadline." He made it sound as though my time wer

Justin grabbed the rental agent by the arm. "Impossible. If she terminated the lease, where could she possibly go? You must have made a mistake!"The agent pulled his arm free and held out his phone. "Ms. Wilton submitted the termination request three days ago. The system sent her two confirmation notices, and she confirmed both of them. You can see it for yourself."The date on the screen was unmistakable. It was three days ago.As Justin thought about what he had been doing for the past three days, he realized he had been enthusiastically discussing renovation plans with Maria. Then, he told Jessica that he would put the apartment in Maria's name for now. He had worried that Maria might have difficulty walking because she was wearing heels less than three centimetres high.Meanwhile, he had told Jessica, whose back injury had flared up so badly she could barely stand, to walk to the apartment by herself.The reason Jessica had injured her back in the first place was that she h

"Hello, Ms. Wilton. I'm the head of Human Resources at Lonfare Group. We've heard about the dispute between you and your former company, and we understand that you're currently between jobs. We have a project we'd very much like you to lead. Would you be interested in discussing it?"The Lonfare Group was one of the top companies in the industry.I held the phone and looked out at the familiar street beyond the window.In the kitchen, my father stood with his back to me, washing dishes. Across from me, my mother was still pushing fruit toward my side of the table.For the first time in years, I felt completely at peace."Yes," I said. "I'd be happy to talk."…After I hung up, my mother was still smiling at me. The wrinkles around her eyes were deeper than they had been five years ago, but her eyes themselves were bright.In that split second, all the resentment and hurt I had carried for the past five years suddenly stopped mattering.Because I was home, from this moment on,

After that day, Justin seemed to lose whatever energy had once kept him going. He started skipping the company's regular meetings and running around trying to salvage projects. Calls from business partners came in one after another, but he ignored all of them.Two months later, the company was acquired at a steep discount. The buyer took over all of its assets and remaining projects for less than one-third of its previous valuation.On the day the acquisition papers were signed, Justin sat alone in the conference room and mechanically flipped through the final pages. When it came time to sign his name, he did not hesitate.After that, he began appearing outside Lonfare Group.He never went inside. Instead, he simply stood beneath the tree on the east side of the building, just so he could catch a glimpse of Jessica each day.On the seventh day, I went downstairs to pick up a coffee and found him waiting for me.The confident, high-spirited man he had once been was gone. Now, the