Chapter 7

Morgan

My head snapped toward the sound.

A young woman burst out of the bakery clutching a small paper bag tightly against her chest.

She looked no older than twenty-five.

Her clothes were faded. Her shoes were worn through. Her dark hair hung in tangled waves around a pale, exhausted face.

She ran only a few steps before someone grabbed the back of her jacket.

She crashed hard onto the pavement.

The paper bag burst open.

Several bread rolls scattered across the ground. “No!”

She scrambled desperately after them. “Please…They’re all I—”

The bakery owner reached her first. “You filthy thief!”

He raised his hand.

Before it could come down—

“That’s enough.” My voice stopped him cold.

The street fell silent.

Ruby and Violet stepped forward beside me.

The bakery owner frowned. “She stole from my shop.”

I looked at the bread on the pavement. “How much?”

“What?”

“How much did she steal?”

“Six dollars”

Without another word, Violet reached into her purse and handed him more than enough cash.

“Keep the change.”

The man’s anger disappeared almost instantly.

He pocketed the money. “…Fine.”

He turned and walked back into the bakery.

The small crowd slowly dispersed.

The young woman remained kneeling on the ground.

She quickly gathered the bread back into the torn paper bag as though it were treasure.

Only then did she finally look up at us.

Her eyes…They weren’t the eyes of a criminal. They were the eyes of someone who had lost everything.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “You didn’t have to do that.”

I held out my hand.

She stared at it.

For a long moment…she didn’t move.

Almost as though she’d forgotten what kindness looked like.

Finally…she placed her trembling hand in mine.

I helped her to her feet.

“What happened to you?” Violet asked gently.

The young woman’s lips parted. Then closed again.

She looked away.

“…It’s a long story.”

I looked at Ruby. Ruby looked at Violet.

Without saying a word…the three of us reached the very same conclusion.

This woman…was carrying a broken heart.

And broken hearts had a way of finding us.

****

Emily

The engagement ring landed at my feet.

I stared at it.

For a long moment, I couldn’t move.

The diamond sparkled beneath the restaurant lights, almost mocking me.

“I’m sorry.” His voice sounded distant, like it was coming from another room. “I never meant to hurt you.”

My fingers slowly curled into fists.

Seven years. Seven years of loving him. Seven years of believing every promise. Seven years…gone.

The restaurant around us had fallen silent.

Forks stopped clinking. Conversations faded. Even the pianist had stopped playing.

Everyone was watching us, watching me; the pathetic woman who had just been dumped.

“I didn’t plan for this,” Daniel continued.

“It just…” He looked toward the blonde woman standing a few feet away. “…happened.”

I followed his gaze.

She couldn’t have been older than twenty-three. Beautiful, elegant, perfect.

She rested a hand over the slight curve of her stomach and looked at me with a victorious smile, as though she’d already won.

Pregnant?

My stomach twisted.

I looked back at Daniel. “…How long?”

His eyes dropped. “Emily…”

“How long?”

“…Eight months.”

I laughed. Not because it was funny, because if I didn’t laugh…I’d scream.

“Eight months,” I whispered. “Eight months.”

While I’d been working overtime to help him keep his company alive…he’d been building another family.

I remembered the nights I skipped dinner so he could pay his employees.

The savings account I’d emptied without hesitation.

The second job I’d taken because he said, “Just a little longer, Em. When the company succeeds, everything will be worth it.”

I had believed him. Every single word.

I slowly bent down and picked up the engagement ring. The same ring I’d spent three years waiting for.

Daniel took a hesitant step toward me. “Emily…”

I gently blew the dust from the diamond before placing it back on the table.

“I hope,” I said quietly, “she never loves you the way I did.”

His face fell.

Without another word…I turned around and walked away.

Behind me…he called my name.

I didn’t stop.

Because if I looked back…I knew I’d never find the strength to leave.

—-

The cold evening air slapped against my face the moment I stepped outside. Only then did I realize I was crying.

I laughed bitterly. “Of course.”

Seven years…reduced to tears on a sidewalk.

Behind me, the restaurant doors burst open. “Emily!”

Daniel.

I didn’t turn around.

“Emily, please!” His footsteps echoed behind me. “Just let me explain.”

The blonde woman called after him anxiously. “Daniel?”

He didn’t stop.

“Daniel!” she called again, one hand instinctively resting on her stomach. “Where are you going?”

He ignored her and kept running after me.

Explain? Explain what? How he’d lied to me for eight months?

How he’d gotten another woman pregnant while kissing me goodbye every morning?

How he’d looked me in the eyes and promised we were building a future together… while planning one with someone else?

I kept walking.

“Emily!”

His hand caught my wrist.

I stopped.

Slowly, I looked down at his hand before raising my eyes to meet his.

For the first time in seven years…he looked like a stranger.

His eyes were red, his breathing was uneven.

“Please,” he whispered. “I know how this looks.”

A hollow laugh escaped me. “You know how this looks?” My voice was frighteningly calm. “It looks exactly like what it is.”

“It isn’t that simple.”

“No?”

I gently pulled my wrist free. “When did it become complicated, Daniel? When you slept with her? When you got her pregnant? Or when you decided to propose to her before telling the woman who wasted seven years loving you?”

He opened his mouth, nothing came out because there was nothing to say.

I smiled. It was the saddest smile I’d ever worn.

“I spent seven years believing I was the luckiest woman alive.”

I swallowed hard. “It turns out…I was just the easiest one to fool.”

I walked away.

This time…he didn’t follow.

——

Moments later, my phone began vibrating inside my purse.

Daniel Calling…

I stared at the screen until it stopped.

A second later…It rang again. Then again.

Then a message appeared.

Daniel: Please let me explain.

Another.

Daniel: Emily, answer your phone.

Then another.

Daniel: I’m begging you.

I switched my phone off, slipped it back in my purse. Then kept walking

The city lights blurred through my tears.

People brushed past me.

Cars rushed by.

No one knew that my entire world had just collapsed.

Half an hour later, I found myself standing in front of a small coffee shop.

It was the same café where Daniel and I had shared our first date.

I stared at it for a long time.

The corner table was still there.

The one where he’d smiled nervously before asking if I’d go out with him.

The one where he’d reached across the table to hold my hand for the first time.

The one where he’d promised— “I’ll never make you cry.”

A broken laugh escaped my lips. “What a liar…”

The memory hurt so much that my knees nearly gave out.

I sank onto a nearby bench and buried my face in my hands.

How was I supposed to go home? How was I supposed to tell my parents? How was I supposed to explain that the man I’d defended for seven years… The man I believed I would marry…already had another family waiting for him?

I closed my eyes.

For the first time in my life…I wished I had never fallen in love.

—-

I don’t know how long I sat there. Five minutes. Maybe thirty.

Time had become meaningless.

The cold seeped through my coat, but I barely felt it.

People came and went from the café, laughing, talking, living their ordinary lives.

Mine had stopped.

Eventually, I pushed myself to my feet. One unsteady step, then another.

I didn’t know where I was going. I only knew I couldn’t stay there, not another second.

The city lights blurred before my eyes as people brushed past me.

A loud laugh erupted from a nearby restaurant.

Someone else was celebrating. Someone else was falling in love. Someone else was probably getting engaged.

I almost laughed. “Life had a cruel sense of humor.”

My heels clicked against the pavement until the sound became unbearable.

I stopped beneath a streetlamp and slipped them off, carrying them in one hand.

The cold concrete bit into my feet.

I welcomed it.

At least it reminded me I could still feel something.

The farther I walked, the quieter everything became.

Or maybe…the world wasn’t quieter, I had simply stopped hearing it.

My legs carried me through crowded streets without direction.

A chilly breeze swept through the street, making me wrap my arms around myself.

Only then did I realize I was still wearing the dress I’d spent two hours getting ready in.

The dress Daniel had once said made me look beautiful.

I looked down at it.

Then laughed quietly. “What a waste.”

A tear rolled down my cheek before I could stop it.

I wiped it away impatiently. “No.”

My voice was barely above a whisper. “You’re not crying over him anymore.”

The words sounded stronger than I felt, because the truth was…I had no idea how to stop.

Seven years wasn’t something you walked away from in a single night; It followed you. In memories, in habits, in every dream you’d built around someone who was no longer yours.