Chapter 3

At this moment, I finally understood: seven years of love and ten years of friendship, when faced with a board full of lies and betrayal, were nothing but an absurd joke.

And I had no intention of playing along with their act anymore.

I took out my phone, opened the airline's website, and calmly typed in my destination: Florence.

The day before my departure was our seventh anniversary.

I originally planned to wait for Arthur to come home tonight, lay all the ugliness out on the table, and end everything with a decent farewell.

But of course, he never showed up.

I waited until midnight before my screen lit up. It was just a single text from him: [Chloe had a complete emotional breakdown. I have to stay at her apartment with her. I'm sorry. You guys are best friends, you can understand, right?]

I mercilessly snuffed out the very last urge I had to say goodbye.

Perhaps there was no need to explain anything anymore. Because between Chloe and me, he had once again chosen her without hesitation, abandoning me.

Alone in the empty apartment, I stood up and started packing my things.

My movements were slow, as if I were cleaning up the aftermath of a long, failed surgery.

At 3:00 PM, just as I was about to leave, the apartment's electronic lock beeped.

The door was pushed open. It wasn't Arthur who walked in; it was Chloe.

She had the passcode to our place because Arthur once said, "Sometimes she needs a safe haven."

Seeing the suitcase on the floor, Chloe froze for a second before a flash of wild ecstasy crossed her eyes.

"You're leaving?" She leaned against the doorframe, not even bothering to pretend anymore.

I ignored her.

The humiliation of being ignored angered Chloe. She walked into the living room, looking around.

Her gaze finally landed on the custom glass hourglass sitting above the fireplace.

It wasn't an ordinary hourglass. Inside it were my mother's ashes. Before she died, my mom told me she didn't want to be trapped in a dark box; she wanted to watch time pass and watch me live a good life.

Chloe knew exactly what it was.

She walked over and reached out, picking up the hourglass.

"Elena, I really hate that high-and-mighty look of yours." Chloe toyed with the glass, a vicious smirk curling on her lips. "You already knew about Arthur and me, didn't you? Did you think that by not fighting for anything, Arthur would think you're special? The truth is, he got sick of a cold woman like you a long time ago. He needs a woman who makes him feel needed. Someone like me."

"Put it down." I stood up, glaring at her coldly.

"And if I don't?" Chloe looked at me provocatively. "What do you think you can protect? Even when your mom died, Arthur was in my bed—"

"I said, put it down!" I strode toward her.

A trace of panic flashed in Chloe's eyes, but then her gaze turned purely venomous.

Right in front of me, she flicked her wrist.

The crisp sound of shattering glass echoed through the living room.

The hourglass smashed into a thousand pieces, the pale gray ashes scattering all over the floor.

Thunder boomed outside.

In that moment, my mind went completely blank.

Trembling all over, I stared at the pile of ashes on the floor, feeling as if my soul was being torn apart alive.

Just then, the front door was pushed open again.

Arthur rushed in. "Chloe! I went back after buying the medicine and you weren't—"

His words came to an abrupt halt as he saw the mess in the living room.

In the exact second Arthur walked in, Chloe suddenly threw herself onto the broken glass.

The shards sliced into her palms and calves, and blood began to flow.

"It hurts... Arthur..." Chloe let out a gut-wrenching cry, curling up on the floor, trembling violently.

Arthur's face instantly dropped. He rushed over like a madman, snatching Chloe into his arms.

"Chloe! Don't move, let me look at the wounds!" Arthur checked her injuries, then suddenly whipped his head around, glaring at me with bloodshot eyes and roaring, "Elena! Are you crazy?! Why would you push her?!"

I stood frozen. I looked at his protective posture over Chloe, and watched as Chloe's blood mixed into my mother's ashes.

"She dropped it herself," my voice came out terrifyingly hoarse. "Those are... my mother's ashes."

Arthur froze for a second and glanced at the ashes on the floor. But the very next moment, he snarled at me through gritted teeth.

"So what?! Elena, that's just a pile of lifeless powder! Chloe is a human being! She is a living, breathing person! She's bleeding right now, she has depression—are you trying to drive her to her death?!"

Just a pile of lifeless powder.

Those words were like a blunt, rusty knife brutally stabbing into my heart, violently shredding all the flesh inside.

I looked at Arthur. I looked at this man I had loved for seven years.

His face was twisted in rage. For Chloe's sake, he was literally stepping on my mother's ashes, accusing me of being cold-blooded.

Suddenly, I felt so tired.

That utter exhaustion of a heart completely dying drained me of all my emotions in an instant.

I didn't cry, nor did I argue back.

I just looked at him with an unnatural calmness, and asked my very last question:

"Arthur... in your heart, as long as I'm not dead, will I always be second to Chloe?"

Arthur flinched, pierced by the lifeless look in my eyes. He instinctively avoided my gaze, shouting with a hollow bravado: "Now is not the time to talk about this! Chloe needs to go to the hospital to get her wounds treated!"

I smiled.

I looked down and, slowly, slid the engagement ring off my ring finger.

"Elena, what are you doing?!" Arthur's voice finally held a trace of panic.

I turned around, grabbed my suitcase, and walked toward the front door without looking back.

"Elena! If you dare walk out that door today, we are done!" Arthur roared furiously behind me.

I pulled the door open, letting the roaring storm pour inside.

"As you wish."