Three Years of not Being Chosen, I Left Chapter 02

Three Years of not Being Chosen, I Left Chapter 02

The next afternoon I went to Ethan’s place to collect my things.

Three years of scattered belongings. Time to clear them all out in one go.

The door opened onto Sophia’s laughter.

Ethan stood behind her, fastening a necklace around her neck.

“Why aren’t you wearing the one I gave you?”

Sophia touched the chain at her throat.

“That one’s too expensive. I’m scared I’ll lose it.”

Ethan chuckled.

“I bought it for you to wear. Lose it and I’ll get you another.”

Sophia started to answer, then caught sight of me in the entryway and froze.

“Nora? Don’t get the wrong idea. Ethan just picked this up for me on his last business trip.”

Ethan shrugged, casual.

“She’s been wanting one forever. I happened to see it.”

I frowned.

“That trip you were supposedly too busy to even grab me a souvenir?”

His expression flickered for half a second.

I didn’t push about the necklace. I looked at Sophia instead.

“Why are you here?”

She rubbed her nose.

“Phone died. I was in the neighborhood so I came up to charge it.”

I glanced at the phone on the coffee table.

“You live in the complex next door.”

Before Sophia could speak, Ethan cut in.

“Don’t give her a hard time. I asked her to come.”

“Company celebration dinner tonight. Plus-ones allowed. You hate those things, so I invited Sophia.”

The two of them started discussing plans for the evening like I wasn’t standing there.

I stayed in the entryway and suddenly remembered the beginning.

When Ethan and I first started dating, Sophia barely inserted herself into our plans.

I was the one who kept worrying about leaving her out. I’d invite her to dinner, buy an extra movie ticket without thinking.

Ethan used to complain,“Why do we always have to bring her on dates?”

I’d laugh and link arms with Sophia,“She’s my best friend. What’s the big deal?”

Eventually he stopped complaining.

Later he started asking her himself, even when I didn’t.

Somewhere along the way the space I’d deliberately made for her had swallowed the space that used to be mine.

I didn’t feel like asking any more questions.

“You two go ahead.”

Ethan looked up, a little surprised.

My phone buzzed. A message from Ethan’s mother.

【Nora, remember to come over with Ethan this weekend for dinner.】

【His father says it’s time we talked about the wedding.】

The next day at work I submitted my resignation.

I still hadn’t locked down a job back home, but I needed to finish what was on my plate here first.

While packing up files I remembered an important document still in Ethan’s car.

At lunch he had the office receptionist hand me the keys.

I went down to the underground garage during the break.

The file was wedged at the bottom of the passenger-side storage compartment. When I pulled it free, a bank statement fluttered out onto the floor.

I started to shove it back, then froze at the cardholder name.

Sophia Reed.

Six months of continuous charges.

Every single payment drawn from Ethan’s account.

I stared at the statement for a long time, then called him.

“Come downstairs.”

Ten minutes later he appeared.

I held out the paper.

“What is this?”

Ethan’s face changed the second he saw the name.

I kept my voice steady.

“Why have you been paying Sophia’s bills for the last six months?”

He was quiet for two seconds.

“She forgot to pay a couple times. I just set up auto-pay for her.”

I stared.

“So you’ve been covering everything for half a year?”

“She pays me back.”

His tone was already sliding into impatience.

“It’s a favor. Do you have to turn everything into a conspiracy?”

“Then why did you never tell me?”

He looked at me like the question itself was ridiculous.

“What’s there to tell? Her income’s unstable. Sometimes she has cash-flow issues. I float her.”

I looked back at the statement.

The most recent charge was over twenty thousand in luxury goods.

“This is a cash-flow issue?”

Ethan’s expression darkened.

“Nora, since when do you get to police what Sophia spends?”

He yanked the statement out of my hand.

“We’re just dating. Do I need to run every dollar of my own money past you?”

【Just dating.】

Those two words circled in my head.

Three years, and that was all it amounted to in his eyes.

My phone lit up with a message from HR asking when I could finish the resignation paperwork. I typed a date.

When I looked up, Ethan was already walking away.