He Left Me Behind, So I Married Someone Else Chapter 05

He Left Me Behind, So I Married Someone Else Chapter 05

“So you finally decided to answer?”

“Why would you leave the group chat like that?”

There was noise on his end, like he was still outside.

“I didn’t do anything,” I said. “It was just too loud.”

“What do you mean too loud? You’re a Hayes now. You’re my wife. They reached out to you, and you ignored them. Are they not allowed to say something?”

He paused.

Then his voice softened.

“And my mom is just like that. You know her.”

“She’s just worried about you. She was asking how your day went. What’s the big deal about replying?”

I looked up at the night sky.

It was a sheet of darkness, hiding everything from me.

“How was your day?” I asked.

“What?”

“Briarwood Old Town. Was it fun?”

“Grace’s Status looked beautiful.”

The phone went silent for two seconds.

Then he said,

“She happened to come here today too. We ran into each other, so we just walked around for a while.”

I listened to his explanation.

I didn’t say anything.

He quickly changed the subject.

“Did you get your ticket back? Have you arrived at the station?”

I let out a cold laugh.

“I’m here. Come pick me up.”

I hung up.

I called a car and went to the Airbnb I had just booked.

In Adrian’s mind, I was someone who overslept and could simply take the train back alone.

Someone who could be publicly humiliated in the group chat and then easily soothed with a few sweet words.

Someone whose location he never needed to ask about.

Because I would always find my way back.

He didn’t care.

Maybe there weren’t even any trains running at this hour.

He didn’t check.

He didn’t ask.

He just thought saying those words meant everything was solved.

Then let him experience what it felt like to arrive and find no one there.

That first night in Old Town at the final stop…

I had a restless, fragmented dream.

I dreamed of three years ago.

Back when I had just moved into Adrian’s place.

A girl stepped out of the apartment across the hall and smiled at me.

“New neighbor? I’m Grace!”

I reached out my hand.

“Nora.”

Back then, I didn’t know who she was.

I only thought she was friendly.

Later, I slowly realized…

Adrian was friendly with her too.

When she had a fever, he could get up in the middle of the night and drive her to the hospital.

On her birthday, he would ask me what gift he should buy her.

When she uploaded a post saying she wanted to eat something, he would make it for her the next day.

Compared to me….

When I had a fever, he would say,

“It’s not that bad.”

On my birthday, he would say he had to work overtime.

When I told him what I wanted to eat, he would always say,

“Next time.”

Next time.

He had promised it so many times.

But somehow, next time never came.

Later, when Adrian’s mom was chatting with the neighbors, I found out that Adrian and Grace had dated for

two months back in high school.

They broke up because their parents interfered.

The neighbor shook her head in surprise.

“Oh, that explains why he takes such good care of her. Everyone says first love from your school days is the

purest. Just don’t let Adrian’s fiancée hear this!”

But I had already heard.

That night, I asked Adrian directly.

“Grace is your ex-girlfriend?”

He froze for a few seconds.

Then he explained that it was something from high school.

It was already over.

I asked why he had never told me.

He looked at me.

His voice carried a hint of helplessness.

“Why would I? It’s nothing. She’s just our neighbor now. We look out for each other, that’s all.”

When I stayed silent, he rubbed his forehead impatiently.

“You don’t trust me?”

I did.

I trusted that they had broken up long ago.

I trusted that he didn’t have feelings for her anymore.

I trusted that he was just being kind.

But I also knew…

Whenever he was waiting for a message from her, he checked his phone again and again.

He remembered when she had her period.

Whenever his phone rang and it was her, no matter what he was doing, he would stop and answer.

None of those things were a big deal.

But together…

All those little things had led to this moment.

Me sitting on the wrong train and missing my stop.

And Adrian never noticing.

Because his attention was always somewhere else.

I had cried before.

I had argued before.

But only once.

I had asked him quietly, almost begging,

“Can you please stop being so good to her?”

He rubbed his forehead.

“What do you mean, ‘so good to her’? She’s just our neighbor. I’m helping her out. Don’t overthink everything.”

“I’m not overthinking.”

“Then what do you want me to do? Make her move away? Why?”

I had no answer.

Why?

She hadn’t done anything wrong.

And neither had he.

They were just friends.

They talked.

They helped each other.

They simply cared about each other a little more than they cared about me.

I had no reason to ask anyone to leave.

All I could do was watch.

Watch him care about her.

Watch myself slowly change from his girlfriend…

to his fiancée…

and then into nothing more than a habit.

Something familiar.

Something that had nothing to do with love.

When I woke up from the dream, the sky was just beginning to brighten.