Chapter 5: The Lie That Finally Broke Us

The photo showed their hands tightly clasped together at sunset. The Patek Philippe watch Lincoln had thrown away was back on his wrist.

The caption read, "She said love comes without warning. I said I'd never stop hoping she'd feel the same."

My finger slipped and I accidentally liked the post. I quickly unliked it.

Gina showed no reaction.

By the time I got home, it was late. I had not eaten all day, so I made myself a bowl of instant noodles.

Halfway through eating, Gina came home. She smelled faintly of alcohol.

She had low alcohol tolerance. I used to care about her and never allowed her to attend drinking events.

In the past, I would have asked her where she had been drinking and made sure she hydrated and took aspirin. Now, I kept my head down and continued eating without looking up.

She kicked off her heels. Her nose twitched and her brow furrowed.

"Why didn't you wait for me? Didn't I tell you not to eat this kind of junk at home?"

Gina hated the smell of instant noodles. She thought it was cheap and disgusting. Now that I thought about it, what she found disgusting were the years we struggled together.

She walked over and accidentally bumped into my bag sitting on top of my suitcase. The documents I needed for going abroad scattered on the floor.

She picked up my passport. Her expression shifted slightly, then she suddenly smiled.

"Nathan, are you upset? Are you throwing a tantrum about going abroad?"

She casually tossed the passport back into my bag without a care.

Having made up with Lincoln, she was in a good mood. She pressed down on my shoulders with practiced ease.

"I got too into character today and was harsh with you. I apologize."

"But we've been planning this trap for a year. We can't let it end so sloppily."

"I've already convinced Lincoln to come back, but he'll definitely be on guard for a while. You and Anna just need to wait a bit longer. A month at most. Once I find the right opportunity, I'll humiliate him."

"But I know you're anxious, so I can—"

From two days to one month. At the end of the day, she just could not let him go.

Why bother making up excuses to deceive me?

"No need." I cut her off, slurped up the last of my noodles, and wiped my mouth with a napkin.

"Let's break up."

The moment those words left my mouth, I felt relieved. Gina's hand, which had been massaging my shoulders, froze.

I brushed her hand away and stood up to clean up the trash.

The alcohol had gone to her head. Her patience for coaxing me ran out, and her expression turned cold.

"Nathan, I just went to comfort Lincoln for a bit, and now you want to break up with me?"

"Or is it because I didn't advance you those three months of salary? Your sister is fine. It's not like she'll die without that money. Why are you throwing a fit at me?"

At the mention of my sister, my heart twisted painfully. My eyes turned red, but I had cried all my tears the day Anna died.

"Yes. It's because of those three months of salary."

"Gina, you can drop tens of millions on a mansion for Lincoln without blinking. Is it really that hard to give me thirty thousand dollars?"

At the mention of money, Gina's eyes filled with scorn. She kicked over the trash can.

"It's no wonder you kept saying you didn't want to play this game anymore. Turns out you're just vain. Lincoln was right. You're just like everyone else, trying to get money out of me."

I knew Gina grew up in foster care without much. She had an obsession with money.

I did not bother defending myself. I just said coldly, "Even though you removed me from my VP position, the amount of work I did didn't decrease at all. You should pay me an equivalent salary. I'm not asking for much. Just give me seventy thousand to make up the difference."

Seventy thousand was enough to buy out seven years of feelings and wipe the slate clean. I could use that money to buy Anna a burial plot abroad.

Gina's gaze turned ice cold.

"Nathan, I've endured humiliation for a year, and it was all for you. To be honest, if you weren't my boyfriend, you never would've been VP in the first place. Once we get married, everything will be yours anyway. Why are you in such a hurry?"

I stared at her, waiting for the anger to come. Instead, a strange calm settled over me.

She still believed marriage was a promise powerful enough to erase every wound she had inflicted. She thought that because I had waited seven years, I would wait forever.

But Anna would never walk down the aisle as our flower girl. She would never hold Gina's hand and scatter petals along the seaside. All those little dreams had died in a hospital room while Gina protected another man from the consequences of his own actions.

"You keep talking about our wedding," I said quietly. "Do you remember what Anna asked me before she died?"

Gina's expression flickered, but she quickly looked away.

"Nathan, don't bring Anna into this. I'm already trying to make things right."

"You had a chance to make things right."

My voice sounded unfamiliar even to me.

"You promised to send the money. I waited at the hospital all day. Anna died without the surgery you said you would pay for. And you still think this is about jealousy or money?"

For the first time, Gina had no immediate answer.

Then her phone vibrated. Lincoln's name lit up the screen.

Her eyes moved toward it instinctively.

That tiny movement told me everything I needed to know.

Even now, while I was telling her about the sister I had buried that morning, part of her attention belonged to him.

I turned away and picked up the scattered documents from the floor.

"Keep the wedding plans," I told her. "I won't be there."

Gina stood motionless behind me, apparently unable to decide whether to comfort me or answer her phone.

I didn't wait to find out.

Tomorrow was Lincoln's birthday. Gina intended to make a public spectacle of his downfall and then return to me as though nothing had changed.

But tomorrow, I would be gone.

She could destroy Lincoln, promote him, forgive him, or marry him for all I cared. None of it would change the fact that she had chosen him when my sister needed her most.

I closed my suitcase and checked that my passport was inside.

For seven years, I had believed love meant standing beside Gina even when she made me feel alone.

Now I finally understood that leaving her was not a betrayal.

It was the first honest thing I had done for myself in years.