My Perfect Fiancé Was Living a Second Life in Messages Chapter 05

My Perfect Fiancé Was Living a Second Life in Messages Chapter 05

The door opened. Four seconds passed. Then my hand let go, and I walked out.

Three hours later, I landed in the coastal town.

The salty sea air greeted me as I exited the airport.

I grabbed my suitcase and took a taxi to the apartment I had rented in advance.

A studio facing south; when I opened the window, I could see a slice of blue ocean.

I unpacked my suitcase, hanging my clothes one by one in the closet.

I didn’t bother sorting them by color or leaving even spaces between hangers.

The fridge was empty. I walked downstairs, bought milk and eggs, and came back to fry an egg for myself.

I sat by the window and ate in silence.

For the first time in five years, I chose my own breakfast.

When I finished, I took out my old phone, which had been off for a full day.

As soon as it powered on, notifications flooded the screen.

Thirty-seven missed calls. All from him.

At first, his voicemails and texts had his usual commanding tone.

“Answer the phone.”

“Where are you?”

“Come back here right now.”

A few hours later, his tone began to crack.

“Veronica, where the hell did you go?”

“The wedding is completely canceled. Did you do that?”

The last message came at 2:40 in the morning.

[Did you leave me?]

I stared at those four words.

I didn’t reply.

I tossed the phone on the couch and took a shower.

When I came out drying my hair, the phone was buzzing on the couch.

I glanced at the caller ID. Still him.

This time, I pressed answer.

For a moment, there was only heavy breathing on the other end.

Then came James’s hoarse voice. “Veronica. You finally picked up.”

I switched the phone to my other hand, my voice calm. “What do you want?”

Three seconds of silence. He took a deep breath.

“Where are you?”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“You canceled all the wedding arrangements.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

I stopped drying my hair and watched the seagulls outside the window for a moment. Then I said, “Because I

don’t want to have a wedding anymore.”

A dull thud came through the phone, his fist slamming on a desk.

James’s voice rose sharply. “Veronica, do you have any idea what you’re doing? The invitations have already

gone out! You can’t just cancel everything!”

I pulled open the curtain and looked at the darkening sky outside, my voice still soft.

“I asked you,”

He froze.

“Three days ago, I asked if you were free. I had something important to tell you in person.”

His breath hitched on the other end.

“You mean… that afternoon you were waiting for me?”

“I was waiting for you. But you said you had a breakfast meeting in the morning and a client meeting in the

afternoon.”

I paused, then spoke slowly, one word at a time. “But you didn’t have a breakfast meeting at all.”

There was dead silence on the line.

After a long pause, his voice dropped. “So that’s it? That’s why you canceled the wedding and ran away?”

I leaned against the windowsill, almost finding it funny.

“It’s not just that.”

“Then what is it?”

“Because your check-ins were never about me. They were just tasks on your relationship checklist.”

“You share everything with Chloe, the clouds, the coffee, the lobster bites, the collectible figures. That’s your

real life.”

“Me? I was just a project you checked in and out of.”

James didn’t respond. All I could hear was his uneven breathing.

Finally he said, “Are you done? Good. Now come back. We can talk about this. But you don’t get to handle it

this way.”

“I’m not coming back, James.” I cut him off. “We’re done.”

I ended the call.

As the screen went black, I saw my own reflection in it.

No tears. Just the hollow exhaustion of having nothing left.