My Cheating Boyfriend Thought I Was Obedient—So I Married Someone Else Chapter 15

My Cheating Boyfriend Thought I Was Obedient—So I Married Someone Else Chapter 15

The next day, I heard my mom had chased Kael out of the diner with a broom. Banned him from

stepping foot inside again.

I didn’t pay it much attention. My eyes were on the admission letter on my laptop screen.

Truth was, from the day I started planning to leave Manhattan, I’d been working on two paths.

My mom didn’t need money. Add in everything I’d saved over the

years-

Realistically, I could stop working and lie flat for the rest of my life. I’d never run out.

I’d kept working all these years mostly to keep my head clear.

Right after college graduation, Kael had tried to get me to quit before I even started.

“How much can you even earn in a day? If you want something, just tell me. Why go work for someone else? Your daily allowance could cover months of that salary.”

His tone had been casual, but he wasn’t exactly gentle about it.

What he needed was a companion on call. Someone whose whole world revolved around him. If I couldn’t do it, he had a long list of women who could.

But back then, I don’t know why. I was stubborn. Determined to have my own job.

So I leaned in and kissed him. Soft voice. “Please?”

He couldn’t resist. Let me kiss him a few more times. Finally gave in.

That first month, my paycheck was just over nine hundred dollars. I scrimped for more than half a year to buy him a pair of cufflinks.

When he picked them up to look, I had one hand clenched nervously behind my back. I stood on my toes and pointed at the box.

“My own money. Didn’t spend a cent of yours.”

He probably had never worn cufflinks that cheap. Couldn’t even bring himself to compliment them.

He just smiled. Casual. “Oh yeah? So well-behaved. Even buying me gifts now.”

Later, I sat in front of my screen and typed into the search bar. [Is 26 too old to study abroad?]

A flood of consulting agencies and ads came up. I clicked into one post. A comment caught my eye.

[I’m in the U.K. right now. Want to know how old my classmate is? Seventy-five.]

[There’s no moment younger than today.]

I smiled quietly to myself. I knew I’d actually made the decision a long time ago.

Asking out loud was just another way of finding confirmation.

A few days later, my mom mentioned Kael had suddenly gone back to Manhattan for something.

I told her I planned to study abroad. She shut it down immediately.

“Have you lost your mind? You’re twenty-six. Almost twenty-seven. And you still want to be in

school?”

“The only thing you should be doing right now is getting married. You’re at the perfect age to find a husband, and you want to go back to college? All those books have rotted your brain. Completely

rotted it.”

I knew she wouldn’t accept it overnight. But from the day she sent me off to college in Manhattan-

She should’ve realized. My world was going to be wide.

Society was cruel about age.

Cruel enough that right after graduation, you needed a perfect job. Right after a job, a perfect partner. Right after marriage, ideally a son and a daughter. Everyone got disciplined into believing life had to march to a set beat.

My mom sat at the far extreme. She dropped the final threat.

“If you go abroad, don’t bother coming back. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have a daughter anymore.”

She’d controlled me my whole life. Now I’d slipped her grip, and she was panicking.

I didn’t change my mind. In the days after, we didn’t speak a single word to each other.

The day I left the country, I wasn’t planning to say goodbye. Just wanted to grab my suitcase and slip out quietly.

But I looked down. My bag had been stuffed full. Bundles of cash wrapped tight with rubber bands.

From our house to the nearest bank that exchanged foreign currency was over ten miles.

I held that money and looked at her closed bedroom door. My eyes burned.

At twenty-six, the plane disappeared into the clouds.

Thirty thousand feet up. My life restarted.