After the car accident, I was rushed to the ER. My boyfriend arrived late, with his personal assistant in tow. The rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor seemed to annoy Sophie. She turned to Gavin, pouting. "Gavin, baby, my phone died. Can you unplug this noisy machine so I can charge it?" Gavin looked at me, lying weak and pale on the hospital bed, and his voice was ice cold. "What a waste of a trip. I thought it was actually serious." "Just unplug it. It’s not like she’s going to die in the next five minutes." Without a second thought, Gavin yanked the plug of my heart monitor out of the wall and plugged in her charger. A chill ran through my bones that had nothing to do with the accident. I closed my eyes in resignation. The moment I was discharged, the first thing I did was cancel the wedding. 1 After the monitor was unplugged, the room fell into a dead silence. Sophie dragged a chair right next to my bed, sprawled out like she owned the place, and started scrolling through TikTok. Gavin paced over to the window and threw it open, completely ignoring the fact that I was shivering in a thin hospital gown. It was raining in Seattle—that bone-chilling, gray drizzle. A gust of wind blew in. I tucked the corner of the blanket tighter around myself and looked at him. "Close it, please. I'm cold." Gavin turned slowly, meeting my hollow gaze. "Oh, so you can talk? I thought the crash turned you mute since you haven't made a peep." The scene I just witnessed was still tearing me apart. When Gavin arrived, he didn't ask if I was okay. He didn't check my injuries. He unplugged my life-monitoring equipment because Sophie wanted to scroll on Instagram. lying in the wreckage, all I could think about was, If I die here, will Gavin be devastated? Will he tear the world apart looking for me? Now I had my answer. He wouldn't mourn. He’d probably be popping champagne with Sophie. I had loved him too much. "If I had been struck mute, you’d be happy, wouldn't you?" I asked, my voice raspy. His face darkened. He walked over, a sneer forming on his lips. "I saw you were fine, so I made a joke. Do you have to take everything so seriously?" "I told you this morning. It was windy and raining. I told you to take an Uber. But no, you had to ride that stupid Vespa." "Now look at you. Lying in a hospital bed. Happy now?" I looked away, staring at the scrapes covering my right hand and the thick cast encasing my broken left arm. Gavin could have driven me to work. But he left me behind to go pick up Sophie. The roads were slick. I skidded and was thrown ten feet. Even in that terrified state, I chose to trust him. I called him first. He never came. Not until long after the ambulance had brought me in, tests were run, and I was settled in a room. And even then, he brought her. "You knew the weather was bad, but you insisted on picking up Sophie. Is she really that much more important than me?" Gavin rolled his eyes, glancing at Sophie who was giggling at her phone. His eyes softened instantly. "Sophie isn't like you, Chloe. She doesn't know how to ride a scooter. If I didn't pick her up, she would have had to walk." "And you know her apartment is far from the office. Ubers add up." Sophie finally deigned to look up from her screen. She gave me a pitiful, martyr-like smile. "It was just a ride, Chloe. Are you really jealous of that? If you hate me that much, I just won't let Gavin pick me up anymore." Gavin immediately jumped to her defense. "Sophie, don't. Whether I pick you up isn't her decision to make." He glared at me. "Seriously, Chloe? There’s a limit to how jealous you can get..." His rant was cut short by a nurse storming into the room. 2 The nurse stood in the doorway, scanning the room with a look of absolute fury. "Do you people have zero common sense? The patient just stabilized! Who unplugged the monitor?" "What kind of family are you?" Gavin looked stunned. He froze, mouth opening to explain, but Sophie beat him to it. "She looks fine to me. It’s not like she needs saving," Sophie scoffed. "We just needed an outlet. Do you have to yell?" " careful, or I'll complain to your supervisor. You're just a nurse, get over yourself." Sophie sat there, acting like royalty. The nurse looked like she wanted to scream, but she maintained her professionalism. She yanked Sophie’s charger out of the wall and plugged the heart monitor back in. Sophie stomped her foot like a toddler. She turned to Gavin, pouting. "It’s just a few scratches. She’s acting like she’s dying. Since I’m clearly not welcome here, I’m leaving." She grabbed her bag and ran out the door. Gavin hesitated for a split second before deciding to chase after her. At the door, he turned back to me. "You're fine anyway. I'm not staying here just to be yelled at. We'll talk about the wedding when you get discharged." The wedding. He actually remembered we were getting married. If not for the accident, tomorrow would have been the day we picked out my gown. Now, it was the day I’d cancel it. My physical wounds weren't life-threatening, but my left arm was broken, making everything difficult. But Gavin’s attitude? That was the fatal blow. He was blind to the cast around my neck, blind to my pain. For the next three days, Gavin didn't visit once. But I saw plenty of him on Sophie’s Instagram. To apologize to her, Gavin rented a private yacht. He covered the deck in rose petals. Sophie posted a photo leaning against the railing, capturing Gavin meticulously spreading the flowers. Her caption: “Let’s just pretend this is a proposal.” The comments were flooding in. “OMG, Gavin is so romantic!” “If I were the main character here, I’d die of happiness!” “You two look way more than just friends...” While I lay alone in a hospital bed, struggling to drink water with one hand, he was out drinking wine with his assistant. I realized then that my title of "fiancée" meant nothing against his "soulmate" assistant. It looked so perfect, I couldn't help myself. I commented: “So, when do we get to drink at the wedding?” I put the phone down just as the nurse walked in with my discharge papers. "You need to rest. Don't move around too much. Come back in two weeks to get the cast checked," she said gently. I smiled and nodded. In three days, she was the only person who had shown me kindness. Leaving the hospital, I finally got a call from Gavin. Not to ask if I was okay. But to yell at me about the comment. "I'm being discharged today. If you have time, come get me. If not, forget it." Gavin was silent, probably loading up his ammunition to scold me. So, I broke the silence first. 3 "What was with that passive-aggressive comment?" Gavin’s voice was low and annoyed. "I've told you a thousand times, Sophie and I are just friends." I let out a cold laugh. "Friends don't do things lovers do. Sophie called it a proposal. Are you assuming I’m blind?" "It was just a caption! Why are you so petty?" "Besides, we're getting married in a few days. What is your problem? Are you seriously still mad I didn't babysit you at the hospital?" He sounded so aggrieved, as if I were the villain in his story. He didn't think leaving me alone in a hospital for three days was a big deal. I only wanted a ride home. I wasn't asking for the stars like Sophie. "Yes, I am mad because you didn't take care of me," I said flatly. "So, are you going to rent a yacht for me to apologize? Like you did for Sophie?" Silence stretched on the line. Finally, Gavin spoke, his tone dripping with exhaustion. "Chloe, stop changing the subject. I called to ask why you would embarrass Sophie like that? She’s crying because of what you wrote." "Oh? Is she? She really is fragile, isn't she?" Gavin lost his patience. He muttered, "Unbelievable," and hung up. The rainy season in Seattle usually made me feel like I was molding from the inside out, but today, the sun finally broke through. My suppressed emotions vanished with the clouds. The first thing I did after leaving the hospital was go to the bridal shop and cancel everything. The clerk looked at my cast with pity. "The photos are ready. We just needed to fit the dress. It’s a shame." In the corner sat a massive framed canvas—Gavin and me, smiling like we were in love. My body was there, but my heart was already gone. A shell without a heart isn't worth keeping. Before I left, I told the staff to trash everything. The large frames were too big for the bin, so I told them to smash them and dump the pieces. As luck would have it, just as the last frame shattered into the dumpster... Gavin and Sophie walked up. He looked surprised to see me standing there. "Chloe? Why are you here? Did you not go home?" I stayed silent, watching as he instinctively linked arms with Sophie. "What happened to your arm? You just fell, right? You’re making a huge deal out of nothing," he said, his selective blindness kicking in again. "Nothing. Just a scratch." He noticed my stare and quickly dropped Sophie’s arm, looking flustered. He walked up to me, looking me up and down. "We're about to get married, stop acting like a child. The shop called me to pick up the photos. Did they call you too?" Sophie giggled. She peered into the dumpster. "Gavin... doesn't that guy in the trash look exactly like you?" Gavin walked over and flipped a piece of the broken canvas. It was his face, shattered under a layer of glass shards. His face turned red with rage. He marched over to me, fists clenched. "Chloe, have you lost your mind?" "The wedding is next week! Why did you throw away the photos? Are we getting married or not?!" My cast was heavy, weighing down my neck. I rolled my shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Didn't you propose to Sophie? Why would you marry me?" 4 Gavin’s chest heaved. He stepped closer, his breathing jagged. I knew that sound. He was truly angry. Smack. A heavy hand struck my face. My left cheek swelled instantly. He aimed for the left side, knowing I couldn't block it with my broken arm. "Did the crash scramble your brain? Let me help you wake up." He screamed the words, but I just smiled. I didn't care anymore, but the tears fell anyway. My heart gave a dull throb of pain. I wiped the tear with my good hand and looked at him. "Let's break up, Gavin. I'm tired." "I had a lot of time to think in the hospital. We aren't right for each other. Forcing it won't make us happy." ... After that day, the tension between us seemed to thaw—superficially. He apologized, vaguely. But I knew it wasn't sincere. I was just biding my time until my arm healed enough to leave. I treated him with icy indifference. No matter how many times he said sorry, it didn't matter. His actions had already pushed me out the door. Gavin knew I was going to the hospital today to get the cast removed, so he skipped work. He watched me packing a bag in the living room and assumed I was just organizing. He didn't know I was packing my life away. "When your arm is better, let's retake the photos," he chirped, holding my good hand. "You like boats, right? Let's do a yacht shoot." If he had done this days ago, maybe I wouldn't have canceled the wedding. We drove out of the garage. I watched the rain streak against the glass. It was raining like this the day of the accident. Sophie called him three times during the drive. He pretended not to care, but I saw his eyes darting to the screen every time it lit up. At the hospital, he sat on the bench, distracted. When the cast came off, I felt reborn. I looked at my pale, shrunken arm and remembered the crash. We walked downstairs. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. "Chloe, take an Uber home. There’s an emergency at the office." "I promise I'll be home by six for dinner." I knew it wasn't the office. It was Sophie. I feigned concern. "Go. Hurry." He jumped into the driver’s seat and sped off without looking back. I stood there watching him go. He had never driven that fast for me. I left the hospital, went to my company to finalize my resignation, and took a cab to Sea-Tac Airport. While waiting at the gate, I checked my feed. Sophie had posted a picture of a scraped knee. In the photo, Gavin was kneeling, carefully applying ointment with a Q-tip, his brow furrowed in deep concern. I did exactly what I did before. I commented: "Well, I wish you a lifetime of happiness. I won't be attending the wedding." Gavin saw it. He blew up my phone.
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