Chapter 2

I pulled out my phone and snapped a crisp photo of them.

Austin lunged forward to snatch it, but I dodged him.

"Clara! What the hell are you doing?"

"Taking a souvenir for court."

The irritation on his face finally morphed into raw panic.

"Delete it!"

"No."

"Are you sick in the head? Haven't you caused enough of a scene tonight?"

He reached for my phone again.

I dropped it straight into my purse and looked him dead in the eye. "Touch me one more time, and I’ll hit the nurse call button. I'll tell them you’re assaulting an IV patient."

His hand froze mid-air.

The woman tugged at his coat, subtly shaking her head.

Austin’s chest heaved with suppressed rage before he finally took a step back.

"Clara, you are an absolute disappointment."

"Right back at you."

"Let’s go, Chloe," he said, turning around and steering her away. "I’m taking you home."

Chloe hesitated, gave me one last pitiful glance, and hurried after him.

The glass automatic doors slid open, and they vanished into the night.

I sat alone on the cold plastic chair, listening to the steady drip of my IV bag.

A nurse walked over to check my line and frowned. "No family with you?"

"No."

"Someone should be monitoring you. Anaphylaxis is life-threatening."

"He's busy."

The nurse didn't pry further, adjusted the flow rate, and walked away.

By 4:15 AM, the drip finally ran dry.

It was almost 5:00 AM when I stepped through our front door.

The lock was already turned.

I pushed the door open. The living room light was on, but the apartment was dead quiet.

In the entryway, half of Austin’s shoes were gone.

I walked into the bedroom. The closet doors hung wide open; most of his suits and casual clothes had been cleared out.

In the bathroom, his electric toothbrush, razor, and skincare products were missing.

In the study, drawers were left a mess, with copies of documents scattered across the desk.

I stood in the living room for a long time, looking around the home we had shared for six years.

Back in college, when Austin and I first started dating, I accidentally cut my finger on a broken beaker in the lab.

It was just a tiny, shallow scratch.

He was in the middle of a basketball game when I texted him. He dropped the ball instantly and sprinted across three campuses in the pouring rain just to reach my lab.

He had burst through the doors, panting, gripping my hand with red, terrified eyes.

*How could you be so careless?*

*Don't you ever stay in the lab alone this late again.*

*Does it hurt?*

The words he had said to me back then were identical to the words he whispered to Chloe in the ER tonight.

It turned out he could say that to anyone.

It wasn't love. It was just a script he recycled.

I sat down at the desk, opened my laptop, and downloaded a standard divorce settlement template.

It took me forty minutes to fill out the terms.

The house stays with me. The car stays with me. Our savings are split fifty-fifty.

Sent.

I shut the laptop and walked over to the window.

The city lights were sparse against the twilight. I sat there in silence until dawn broke across the horizon, watching the first ray of golden sunlight hit my knees.

My phone buzzed.

Austin had replied.

Just three words: *What is this?*

I stared at the screen for a long time.

The sun was up now, glaring off the glass.

I typed back, letter by letter:

*Exactly what it looks like. Nine years. We’re done.*

He replied in seconds: *Have you completely lost your mind? What kind of midnight tantrum is this?*

I let out a cold laugh, my fingers flying over the keyboard.

*My mind has never been clearer.*

Thirty seconds ticked by before his next text popped up: *What do you actually want?*

*A divorce.*

*In your dreams.*

*Fine.*

I typed out one final sentence, paused for a beat, and hit send:

*Then I’m calling your mother right now to let her know you've been cheating.*

Silence hung over the chat for three full minutes.

Then my phone lit up with an incoming call from Austin.

I picked up.

"Clara, are you threatening me? I told you, I didn't cheat!"

"Austin, you forgot to clear out that old iPhone sitting in the study drawer."