Chapter 11
Nate didn’t accept the breakup.
He kept calling it a “cliff breakup,” like it had happened out of nowhere.
Like relationships collapse in a second instead of cracking slowly for years.
One evening, after most people had left work, he showed up at my office.
I was still at my desk when he burst in.
He looked awful. Pale. Tired. Like someone had scraped the shine right off him.
The second he saw me, he grabbed my hand.
“Why did you move out? Why did you suddenly leave me? Did you fall for someone else?”
His voice got harsher and more frantic with every question.
“What happened? Tell me!”
I looked at him and felt something close to curiosity.
How had I once been so in love with this man?
“There’s no such thing as a sudden breakup,” I said quietly. “Every breakup is premeditated. It just takes one person longer to notice.”
The truth was, I’d been done for a long time.
I was tired of being endlessly accommodating. Tired of always being the one who gave in. Tired of being in a relationship where our bodies shared space but our souls never really met.
I had always felt like my own lonely planet.
And Nate had only ever visited it. He never explored it.
With Olivia, it was different.
If I fell asleep on the couch, she covered me with a blanket.
If I got too quiet, she noticed.
If I withdrew, she came closer instead of punishing me for it.
Nate didn’t understand any of that.
He just wanted me back.
He swore he’d change. Swore he’d treat me better. Swore he’d finally become the man I’d once begged him to be.
But I was so tired.
During our whole relationship, I had told him again and again that I wanted respect. Communication. Care.
Every single time, he brushed it off or changed the subject.
Now, when I had finally stopped asking, now he wanted to learn.
But I wasn’t interested in teaching anymore.
You shouldn’t have to train someone into loving you properly.
He still wouldn’t let go of my wrist.
So half an hour earlier, I had texted Olivia.
And suddenly, she was there.
She came so fast I later learned she had rushed straight from the hospital, ripped out her IV on the way, and driven over with dried blood still staining the back of her hand.
The moment she saw Nate holding me, she didn’t hesitate.
She grabbed a metal thermos off a nearby cabinet and swung it straight at his head.
“Let go of Emma.”
Nate staggered back with a curse.
Olivia stepped in front of me, eyes cold enough to cut glass.
“Now you want to act devoted?” she said, voice dripping with contempt. “When I got back, you hovered around me like a dog, pretending it was friendship. You have no idea what boundaries are, do you?”
Nate’s face twisted. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m saying,” Olivia snapped, “that you ignored your own girlfriend’s feelings while wagging your tail around me. Did you think I enjoyed that? Did you think I didn’t see what you were doing? I looked down on you.”
Her words landed like knives.
“You didn’t care about the woman who had loved you for years. You only cared about showing off in front of some female friend who just got back from abroad. And now you want to perform heartbreak?”
Then she turned her head slightly and looked at me.
Her eyes were black and bright and devastating.
“Love is singular,” she said. “You don’t get to break it into pieces and hand it out in scraps.”
Was she talking to him?
Or confessing to me?
Maybe both.
Wind pushed in through the half-open window and lifted a few strands of her dark hair.
She looked like something wild and elegant and utterly certain.
Nate finally snapped.
He lunged at her, furious, trying to use his size against her.
Olivia smiled.
She caught him, twisted, and had his arm pinned behind his back in seconds.
Turns out the pretty rich girl knew how to fight.
“Listen carefully,” she said, tightening her hold. “If you ever come bother Emma again, I’ll make sure this is the least painful part of your day.”
I stood there staring.
And for the first time in years, I felt safe.