Chapter 3

I didn’t sleep a wink that night. I lay in bed listening to the noise outside my door gradually fade into silence.

When daylight broke, I stepped out of the room and into a wreckage.

The living room was a mess. The coffee table and chairs were overturned, and the ornate cowboy clock and the hand-painted vase were gone.

They had once been Wyatt Harlan’s favorite decorations.

But now…

I took a deep breath and pulled out my phone, calling both my parents and Wyatt’s folks.

My parents stayed quiet on the other end of the line for a long time. In the end, they said nothing at all.

Wyatt’s parents, though, tore into me. They called me irresponsible, said I treated marriage like a joke. Martha even spat that Wyatt must’ve been cursed to end up with someone like me.

I said nothing. I simply sent them the video I’d taken at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar the night before.

I wondered what kind of expressions they’d wear when they saw their son, on the eve of his engagement, wrapped around another woman.

After that, I cleaned the entire condo top to bottom. I gathered all the things Wyatt hadn’t taken with him and packed them neatly into boxes.

I picked up my phone, ready to text him to come collect his stuff.

But the call wouldn’t go through. Even texts bounced back.

That’s when it hit me—Wyatt had blocked me on everything.

I stared at the red exclamation mark on my screen and let out a long sigh.

Just then, my phone rang. It was Cody Vance, his voice urgent on the line. “Riley, what the hell happened between you and Wyatt? You better check his posts!”

I let out a helpless laugh. “Can’t. We broke up. He blocked me.”

“You… what?” Cody sounded stunned. “When did this happen?”

“Last night.”

“What?!” His voice shot up. “He’s unbelievable! You just broke up yesterday, and today he’s already gone public with another woman?”

As he spoke, a screenshot popped up on my phone.

I opened it.

It was a close-up of Wyatt and Cassidy Brooks. Their faces were pressed together, wide smiles on both of them.

The caption read: Full circle years, glad I didn’t miss you.

Just a dozen words, but they stabbed me straight in the eyes.

Seven years of love, three years of sacrifice. In the end, I was nothing but a joke.

Cody must’ve sensed something in my silence. “Riley, you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

I tilted my head back, forcing down the heat rising behind my eyes. “It’s over. That’s all that matters.”

I asked Cody to send Wyatt a message for me, telling him to come pick up the rest of his things.

To my surprise, two days later, Wyatt added me back.

He didn’t send me a word, but his social feed lit up like fireworks—daily updates of him and Cassidy living their best life.

Photos of them in matching flannel, arms wrapped around each other, carefree and glowing.

I scrolled through them, one by one, like picking scabs off a wound.

Back when I’d asked Wyatt to go on trips or even just a weekend drive, he’d always said he was too busy with work.

Now he had time to fly all over the country with Cassidy. They ran through open meadows, kissed in front of music halls with doves swirling in the background, danced beneath the swirl of the northern lights.

It was only now that I finally admitted it to myself—Wyatt Harlan never loved me.

To him, I had always been a placeholder, someone convenient, someone he could live without.

Even though Cassidy had hurt him in the past—even though she’d left him during the hardest stretch of his life—Wyatt still fell head over heels for her.

At least I’d finally made the decision to walk away.

If he was so determined to leave, why should I keep begging for scraps?

More than half a month passed in a blur.

And slowly, I got used to life without him.

I didn’t have to worry about what he wanted for breakfast anymore, or whether he was too tired from work. I no longer had to live in that constant anxiety, wondering if I was enough.

Without Wyatt Harlan, my life settled into a calm I hadn’t known in years.

Until one day, at the start of the new month.

I got a message from him.

“Riley Hayes,” it read, “you’ve had time to think. You should know where you went wrong by now.”

My brows furrowed. “?”

“That night, if you hadn’t overreacted and falsely accused me and Cassidy, things wouldn’t have ended up like this.”

“Anyway, if you’re willing to admit your mistake and apologize, I’m still open to giving you another chance.”

“But you’ll need to bring a proper gift to my parents. How else can they explain the postponed engagement to the relatives? You should bring something nice—maybe some imported whiskey or high-end cigars. Otherwise…”