Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
On Valentine’s Day, I found proof on my boyfriend’s computer that he’d crossed a line.
He had bought two of the same necklace.
One for me.
One for his subordinate.
For the past six months, they had been texting each other good morning and good night every single day.
She had brought him breakfast. Bought him coffee.
He had stepped in for her at client dinners, shielding her from drinks, and given her the baby’s breath she liked.
After five years together, my trust in him suddenly looked ridiculous.
That night, I had some last-minute work to finish.
I’d left my own laptop at the office, so I borrowed my boyfriend Ethan Cole’s computer.
I had just wrapped everything up when several chat notifications popped up in a row.
I thought I was still on my own account and clicked them without thinking.
That was when I saw the open conversation between Ethan and his subordinate, Lila Monroe.
Her contact name was saved as her full name.
At first, I meant to close it immediately.
Then Lila sent a photo, and my breathing stopped.
It felt as if all the blood in my body froze at once.
Because the photo was of a necklace.
Half an hour earlier, Ethan had just given me that exact same one.
A Valentine’s Day gift.
Lila’s message read: “Ethan, the necklace is so pretty. I love it!”
A cutesy emoji followed.
Instinctively, I glanced toward the kitchen.
Ethan was still cleaning up the dishes.
My hand moved before my mind caught up, scrolling up through their chat history.
For the past six months, they had been exchanging daily good-morning and good-night texts.
She had brought him breakfast. Bought him coffee.
He had covered for her when clients pushed drinks on her and sent her baby’s breath because she liked it.
She complained to him about impossible coworkers, pouted about how heavy her workload was and how difficult clients were.
She told him about funny things that happened in her day.
And he talked to her about me.
More than that—even the gifts I had received lately for Chinese Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day had been picked out with her help.
And all the while, clueless, I had teased Ethan that his taste had improved dramatically lately.
Only after reading their messages did I understand.
It wasn’t that his taste had gotten better.
It was that someone else had been advising him all along.
Ethan and I had been together for five years. We had made our relationship public. Our friends knew. Our old classmates knew.
We had mutual friends, shared circles, a whole life intertwined so thoroughly that neither of us had ever bothered hiding the other from the world.
According to our plan, we were supposed to get engaged in May and married in the fall.
I had already picked out where I wanted to do my wedding photos.
I had already imagined where we would travel after the wedding.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
But after seeing the chat logs between him and Lila, I knew.
There would be no future for us.
When Ethan came out, I was still clutching his laptop.
I thought I would cry.
But I couldn’t.
It was like all my tears had lodged somewhere deep in my chest, too heavy to ever make it to my eyes.
His expression changed at once. He must have guessed.
He walked toward me, his gaze flicking to the screen.
The chat window with Lila was still open in the middle of it.
Ethan set the laptop down on the coffee table.
Then he looked at me carefully and said, “Jenna, this isn’t what you think.”
I stared at him without expression. “What exactly do you think I’m thinking?”
The truth was, even I didn’t know.
My mind was a mess.
Six months of good-morning and good-night texts between them had hit me like a bolt out of nowhere.
I was still numb from it.
I couldn’t make myself believe that, in all the corners of his life I couldn’t see, Ethan had let another woman step into his world and share his moods, his thoughts, the rhythm of his days.
He dragged both hands through his hair and let out a long breath.
“Jenna, she’s just my subordinate. She’s young, outgoing, the kind of girl who gets familiar with everyone fast.”
He paused, then added, “You read the chat logs. Then you should know nothing actually happened between us.”
As he said it, he reached for my hand.
I pulled away.
A flicker of hurt crossed his face.
He drew his hand back awkwardly and continued, “The necklace was basically payment for helping me pick out your gift. I figured it was just buying one extra, so I said yes.”
Guilt showed plainly on his face. “Jenna, we’ve been together for so long. You know what kind of person I am. I would never do anything to betray you.”
I looked up at him and asked in an even voice, “To you, does it only count as crossing the line if you actually sleep together?”
But for me, the line had already been crossed the moment Ethan started sharing pieces of his life with her.
I’d met Lila before.
Sometimes she got off work with Ethan, and he’d drop her off near her apartment complex on the way.
She was a cute girl, the kind who looked soft and harmless.
Even her voice was sweet and delicate.
So all I had to do was close my eyes, and I could picture it perfectly—her in the passenger seat beside him on their business trips, eating snacks, complaining about her idiot boss in that sugary voice.
I never ate in the car.
Ethan didn’t either.
His car had never had snacks in it before.
Lila was the first person to bring them there.
By itself, maybe that was a small thing.
But when countless little things pile up, they become a blade sharp enough to cut straight through you.
I couldn’t accept what Ethan had done.
So even though it was Valentine’s Day, I packed up that same night and left the condo we had built together piece by piece.
Part of me wanted to lose control, to have a screaming fight with Ethan and pour out all the hurt and anger lodged in my chest.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
But even with all that bitterness choking me, when the words reached my lips, nothing came out.
I wanted to leave myself a little dignity.
My mother found out very quickly that I’d moved out of Ethan’s place.
She called me.
“Jenna, Ethan already told me what happened. Moving out so suddenly like that—are you really planning to break up with him?”
I hadn’t even spoken yet when she continued.
“He didn’t actually cheat on you. He was just a little too close with a subordinate. That’s not such a big deal.
“I’ve seen how well Ethan treated you all these years. Breaking up over something this small really isn’t necessary.
“If he’s sincerely sorry, then let it go. Even the best relationship can be worn down if you drag a fight out too long.
“Don’t wait until you’ve actually broken up to regret it. By then it’ll be too late.”
I almost laughed when I heard her.
“Mom, do you know why I never told you about any of this? Because the moment I moved out, I already knew exactly how you’d react.”
After that, I hung up before she could say anything else.
I’d expected it, but hearing my own mother decide without even asking me a single question that I was just making a fuss still hurt more than I wanted to admit.
My relationship with my family had always been distant.
The reason I could predict her reaction so easily was because something almost identical had already happened in our family once before.
Back then, my brother and his girlfriend were already talking seriously about marriage.
Then she found out he’d been having intensely flirtatious conversations with a coworker.
So she broke things off immediately.
Even the wedding they’d already begun planning was canceled because of it.
And before that, my mother had praised that girlfriend endlessly. She liked everything about her.
But the moment she chose to leave because of my brother’s emotional infidelity, my mother decided she was overreacting.
That was when my relationship with my family started growing colder.
Because my mother resented me for taking my almost-sister-in-law’s side.
What I never expected was that now, when the same thing had happened to me, my mother would still tell me to forgive him.
But the knife wasn’t in her chest.
How could she possibly know how much it hurt?
Ethan and I had been in the same class in high school, and we went to the same college too.
We didn’t officially start dating until junior year.
But even before that, we’d liked each other.
Back then, both of us were careful when it came to love.
So even though the feelings were there, neither of us said anything.
We only crossed that final line once it was obvious how we felt.
Over the past five years, we’d gone from having nothing to finally building a foothold for ourselves in this city.