Chapter 3
I pulled out my phone and made a call.
“Professor, I’ve made up my mind. Book me a flight in three days.”
“Daphne, are you sure?” My professor sounded surprised.
“But isn’t your wedding in three days?”
Two days before my last gallery showing, my old professor reached out, asking if I’d consider an opportunity abroad.
Back then, I said no.
I was about to get married–I wanted to stay here with hìm.
She’d sounded disappointed but told me the offer would always be open.
Now, I took one last look at that closed office door.
Yes, I’m sure,” I said. “Tm going with you.”
Some things just aren’t meant to be. And that’s okay.
I’d spent enough years chasing something that was never mine to begin with.
Back at home, I packed up my things, erasing every trace of my life here.
When Lucas got home, he paused for a second, noticing the half–empty apartment.
He looked at me.
“Why are you packing all of a sudden?”
I lowered my gaze.
“Got tired of it. Felt like a change.”
Lucas let out a relieved sigh, then pulled out a card and placed it next to me.
“If you’re sick of it, then change it. Get whatever you want.”
He gestured toward a pile of designer perfume and makeup
21:23
ངེ་ཡིན།
Chapter 3
“My business partners sent over some samples. Pick whatever you like.”
I glanced at the perfectly packaged, high–end products.
All freebies.
I shook my head, about to say something, but before I could, Lucas spoke up again, this time with a bit of
urgency.
“Oh, by the way, Daphne–Victoria’s apartment lost power, so she’s staying over tonight.”
“I told her she could take the guest room. That okay?”
I let out a quiet laugh.
He’d already done everything behind my back, and now he was pretending to ask for permission?
It didn’t matter.
I wouldn’t be here much longer anyway.
I nodded.
“Just keep her out of my room.”
In my art studio, I stared at the dozens of paintings I’d made of Lucas over the years.
Happy, frustrated, confident, excited…
His face hadn’t changed. But the person I once saw in him was gone.
One by one, I fed the paintings into the shredder, watching the memories turn into meaningless scraps of
paper.
It was time.
Just then, my phone lit up with a message from an unknown number.
I clicked on it.
It was from Victoria.
A picture.
She was curled up in Lucas’s arms, wearing nothing but a silk nightgown, her expression smug. Their pose left no room for misinterpretation.
21:23
Boyfriend Let His Side Chick Ruin My Painting, Now He Regrets
2.1%
Chapter 3
Then the texts came.
“Daphne, you know… the person who isn’t loved is the real third wheel.”
“I heard you really wanted him to go to your gallery show?”
“Funny, every time he rejected you, he spent the night tangled up with me instead~”
“Oh, and those two meals you always packed for him? We shared them.”
“We’d eat one together, and after… well, we’d work up an appetite and eat the second one too.”
“By the way, Daphne, how are those leftover makeup samples I gave you?”
I closed my eyes.
So that’s what I was–just another pawn in their little game.
My gaze fell on the makeup boxes.
Lucas had given me makeup before.
It was after one of our worst fights.
He always forgot our anniversary, and I was so upset I ignored him for a week.
Then he showed up at my door with a suitcase full of beauty products, saying he was just a clueless guy who didn’t understand these things, that if he ever did anything wrong, I could yell at him, hit him,
whatever–just don’t ignore him.
But today, I finally realized-
He wasn’t like that with everyone.
21:23
