I Saved 10,000 Points For Our Wedding, He Deducted 500 For Her Chapter 05

I Saved 10,000 Points For Our Wedding, He Deducted 500 For Her Chapter 05

At three in the morning, Ethan lay awake, restless and irritated.

His phone lit up. Without thinking, he opened the points app.

He opened my account and tapped “Deduct,” his thumb already moving to enter “300” out of habit.

A system message appeared: “This account has been deleted. No changes can be made.”

A black pop-up with stark white text sat in the center of the screen.

He stared at them for two seconds, then scoffed.

“She’s actually serious?”

He turned the phone facedown on the nightstand.

The next day, he did not go home. He went to the track with Sienna.

Later, on a canyon road, he pushed the car past 110 mph. The friend in the passenger seat went white.

“What the fuck is wrong with you tonight?”

Ethan said nothing. His hands moved over the wheel with brutal precision.

As the tires skimmed the guardrail through a turn, he suddenly remembered the first time Claire had ridden in

his car.

She had clutched the seat belt, eyes huge. “Ethan, slow down. I’m scared.”

He had refused to slow down. Instead, he pressed harder on the gas, glanced at the way she curled into herself, and laughed.

Back then, she could forgive anything.

Eventually, he stopped needing forgiveness. He had the points instead.

If she got angry, he docked her. If she wanted something, he made her earn it.

He made the rules. That meant he always won.

When he came back to the apartment after midnight, it was dark and silent.

He stood in the entryway for two seconds, then walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.

A container on the top shelf had a sticky note in Claire’s rounded handwriting.

“Ethan’s BBQ ribs. Microwave 3 minutes.”

The container beside it read, “Ethan’s mashed potatoes. Lunch tomorrow.”

Everything underneath was labeled “Ethan’s.”

He pulled each container out and checked the dates.

The newest one was from a week ago.

He put the ribs in the microwave for three minutes.

He took one bite. The meat had dried out, and the sauce tasted bitter.

He chewed twice, then lost his appetite.

As he dumped the entire container into the trash, something at the bottom caught his eye.

The photo of the three of them lay inside, its frame shattered. Eighteen-year-old Claire smiled from the

picture, eyes bright.

There was a line in ballpoint pen on the back. He bent down, picked up the photo, and brought it closer.

“I got to stand in the middle today! I’ll remember this forever.”

She had pressed so hard the pen had nearly punched through the paper.

A week later.

A week later, Ethan sat in his office and buzzed his assistant in.

“Find out where Claire is.”

His assistant hesitated. “Ms. Bennett went to Utah.”

“Utah?” Ethan looked up, frowning. “What’s she doing in Utah?”

“Traveling.”

The assistant added, “She left last Friday.”

Ethan suddenly grabbed the glass on his desk and hurled it to the floor. Water splashed everywhere.

“Get out.”

After the door closed, the office went dead quiet.

He leaned back and remembered Claire stretched out on the couch one night, scrolling through photos of the

Bonneville Salt Flats after rain. Sky and clouds mirrored across the ground until the whole world looked like

glass.

She had looked up at him. “Ethan, when can we go see it?”

At the time, he had been editing Sienna’s track registration and had not even looked up. “Get to eight

thousand points first.”

She had gone quiet.

A moment later, she had only said, “Okay.”

That evening, Sienna asked him to dinner. On the way there, he stopped and bought her a new necklace.

Her eyes lit up when she opened the box, and she rose on her toes to throw her arms around his neck.

“You’re the best, Ethan.”

He smiled faintly and nudged an asparagus spear around his plate with his fork.

After putting on the necklace, Sienna asked, seemingly out of nowhere, “Ethan, do you think Claire’s really not coming back?”

His fork clinked sharply against the plate.

“What do you mean?”

“I was just asking…”

“Whether she comes back is none of your business.”

His voice rose so suddenly that Sienna froze, her eyes instantly turning red.

Ethan drew a breath, set down his fork, and wiped his mouth with his napkin.

“Don’t come looking for me again.”

Sienna pressed her lips together and said nothing.

He looked at her tear-filled eyes across the table and suddenly felt tired.

He got up and left.

Sienna called after him. He did not turn around.