Editing My Own Heartbreak의 모든 챕터: 챕터 1 - 챕터 9

The voice messages played one after another. I stared at the waveform on the screen, motionless for a long moment.When the young woman noticed my lack of reaction, she reached over and paused the playback. "I almost forgot to introduce myself. I'm Tamara Kelsey."I snapped out of my daze and nodded at her. "I'm Natalie Palmer. You don't have to keep calling me Miss Palmer.""Then I'll just call you Nat."With that, she leaned over the desk again to examine the 217 voice messages."I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. going through these. The more I listened, the harder it was to delete any of them. In the end, I couldn't bring myself to cut a single one. Did I just waste all that time?"I managed a faint smile. "You don't need to include everything in a proposal video. Just pick a few moments that stand out."Tamara considered my suggestion before opening another recording. "Then listen to this one."Christian's voice filled the room again. "I left the keys on the shoe cabinet. It's ge

Inside were a few old photo albums and a stack of documents from when they bought the apartment.Tamara crouched down and flipped through them. "We were supposed to throw these out, but Chris wouldn't let me. He said buying this place wasn't easy back then, so we should keep them as a memento."She pulled out the document on top and handed it to me with a smile. "Look, we could barely scrape together the down payment. He even had to borrow 85,000 dollars from a friend."I looked at the screenshot of the bank transfer.The date was June, three years ago. The amount was 120,000 dollars. The recipient was Christian Sharp.That day, he had sat outside my studio and told me all the company's cash was tied up in a project. If he didn't make the down payment soon, someone else would buy the apartment out from under him.I had transferred the 120,000 dollars I'd just managed to save to him.He'd held me close and said, "Nattie, once the paperwork's done, I'll put your name on it. I prom

Meanwhile, Tamara slipped off the ring she had just put on and set it on the table.Christian reached for her hand. "Tammy, don't do anything rash."Tamara pulled away. "When did you and Nat actually break up?"Christian said nothing. Those few seconds of silence were enough for everything to fall into place.Her eyes slowly reddened. "So you never actually broke up, did you?"Christian frowned and tried to explain. "The problems between us didn't start yesterday. We'd been together too long, and a lot had already changed."Tamara let out a bitter laugh. "But last night, you still lied to her about working late."Christian's expression stiffened.Tamara kept her gaze fixed on him. "We've been together for two years. All those business trips, all those late nights at the office. How many of them were even real?"Christian had no answer.Tamara looked down at the ring on the table. Just 10 minutes ago, she had been in tears as she said yes to his proposal. Now the whole thing f

It took another two days before I learned the full story behind Christian's texts.On the day I returned to the studio, he had been waiting downstairs since morning.Peggy lowered her voice as soon as she saw me walk in. "Nat, Mr. Sharp's in the meeting room. He's been waiting for over two hours."I set down my bag. "Let him in."When Christian pushed open the door, he still had the kraft paper envelope in his hand. He looked considerably more worn out than he had just a few days earlier.Instead of sitting down as he usually did, he stood in front of my desk and asked, "Did you read all the messages I sent you?"I nodded. "I did."Christian placed the proposal plan on my desk. "Two years ago, I really was planning to propose to you. The hotel, the ring, the video. I'd already started arranging everything."I flipped through one of the confirmation forms. "And then?"Christian stared at the papers for a long moment before he spoke. "I'd just met Tamara around that time. She wa

It was over two months before Christian came to see me again. He sat by the window with a kraft paper envelope in his hand."I'm putting Rocheston Bay up for sale," he said.I set my bag down beside me. "It's your place. You don't need to tell me."Christian fell silent for a moment. "I once promised it would be our home. Things didn't turn out that way, but I still felt you deserved to hear it from me."He placed the envelope on the table. Inside was the proposal plan from two years ago.I made no move to take it.Christian glanced at the envelope, then quietly took it back.The two months apart had made him noticeably quieter. At least this time, he hadn't immediately launched into an explanation or asked when I was coming back. Instead, he simply told me that Tamara had left the city. A month earlier, she had moved the last of her belongings out of Rocheston Bay, including Fortune.Before she left, she'd mailed the ring back to Christian. The package contained a single slip