Later, after we graduated, Zachary's company went bankrupt, leaving him millions in debt. It was during this darkest time that I became his shadow, never leaving his side, supporting him when no one else would. And after everything, after all those years, he finally agreed to be my boyfriend.
Desperate to help him rise again, I convinced my father to pour our family's resources into Zachary’s company, rebuilding it from the ashes. For five years, I worked silently in the background, making sure Zachary had everything he needed to succeed. The company thrived, and when it was about to go public, he finally proposed to me. At that time, I thought it was the start of our forever.
Little did I know that I was just part of his plan to make the woman he truly loved jealous, and was nothing more than a pawn in his game.
Tonight, Zachary rushed out for a business dinner, leaving in such a hurry that he forgot to log out of his Instagram on the computer. Despite the heartache from what I had already discovered in his chat history, I couldn’t stop myself from opening his timeline.
I had never bothered looking at his timeline before. After all, he rarely posted, not even about the trips we took together. To my surprise, when I opened it now, I realized he had been posting all along. It was just that he changed its share setting to close friends only, and I was not listed in it.
Scrolling through, I found a photo of a girl. Only her wrist was visible, but the gold bracelet she wore stood out. It was the same one I had recently found in Zachary’s suit pocket. At the time, I thought he’d finally learned how to be romantic and planned to surprise me with it on our wedding day.
But no. He gave it to someone else.
Turned out, Zachary knew how to be romantic—just not with me.
Just then, my phone rang, pulling me from my spiraling thoughts.
"Vivian! Get here fast—Zachary’s gotten into a fight!" My friend’s panicked voice pierced through the chaos in my head.
In the background, I heard Zachary’s furious shout. "You bastards better apologize to my girlfriend!"
My heart clenched hard. I wasn’t with him, so the "girlfriend" he was referring to was clearly not me.
I wanted to know what was going on tonight, so I grabbed a coat and rushed to the shoe cabinet, only to find the scarf I had given him lying quietly on the floor. When I picked it up, I saw that there were clear footprints on it.