Until I became the rat in the corner, staring up at their happy little life.

I'd cried. I'd screamed.

But Zachary always brushed me off with the same words: It's all for the company, isn't it? All so you can live a good life.

All for me.

An invisible weight pressed down over my head like an iron lid, smothering me until I couldn't breathe.

But to me, it was nothing but an excuse.

For the videos, Zachary took her to Tahiti, the place he'd promised me a thousand times and never once delivered on.

For the videos, he chartered more than a dozen helicopters to celebrate her birthday, forgetting that the same day was our fourth anniversary, the night I waited up for him in vain.

There was so much more. Even now, looking back, it still left me aching, bitter.

By the time I got to the office, Zachary was already inside.

I tucked my resignation letter beneath a stack of documents. He didn't look closely. He just signed.

I was about to leave when he called me back.

He took a velvet box from the drawer.

He opened it. Inside lay a glittering sapphire necklace.

His voice turned unusually gentle. “Do you like it? I bought it especially for you.”

Something in my chest trembled.

It had been so long since he'd given me a gift.

Let alone lowered his head to apologize first.

Before I could figure out what to say, his phone buzzed.

A message from Susan.

【So how'd it go, Zachary? Did Amelia like the necklace? My taste in gifts isn't bad, right?】

The air froze.

I tugged weakly at the corner of my mouth. So even the gift he gave me had been picked out by someone else.

I pushed the box back toward him. “No need. You can take it.”

Once, I would have flared up at him again. But today my heart was strangely calm.

Susan had been part of my relationship with Zachary for too long. Too deeply.

Even in the smallest corners of it.

The body wash at home suddenly changed scent, and Zachary said Susan had recommended it, that it smelled wonderful.

New sheets and a duvet cover appeared in the closet, and again Zachary said Susan had recommended the fabric and the pattern, that it was soft and beautiful.

At some point I stopped knowing when, my thoughts and feelings had come to mean less to him than a single offhand remark from Susan.

Zachary frowned, silent for a moment.

Before he could speak, another message from Susan came through.

【Or should I buy you two some little toys? Didn't you say Amelia loves……】

The voice message hadn't finished playing before Zachary cut it off.

My whole body went rigid. I couldn't believe what I'd just heard.

My lips went numb. “Zachary, you tell her even about what we do in bed?”

He visibly panicked. “Amelia, don't misunderstand. I can explain.”

Susan's voice message had carried clear mockery, clear teasing.

A cold laugh escaped me. What had I become to them?

“I don't want to hear your explanation. And I'm not something you two can joke about however you please.”

But Zachary frowned. “Is it really that serious, Amelia? Susan's your friend too, not some stranger. What's the harm in mentioning it? Do you really have to be this petty?”

My eyes stung. I curled my fingers.

“Even now, you still think I'm just throwing a tantrum,” I stared at him and said, word by word, “Zachary, let's break up.”

“What did you say?”

His face went ashen, a dark, brooding air rolling off him. “Amelia, you dare say that again?”

“I said, let's break up.”

Zachary tilted his head back against the couch and pinched the bridge of his nose, exhausted.

“Break up? You want to break up over something this small?”

His eyes were bloodshot as he looked at me, the disgust and impatience nearly spilling over.

And yet, back when we first got together, I had been his whole world. His eyes had been full of love every time they found me.

“Amelia,” Zachary said flatly, “you really are getting more boring by the day.”

My gaze drifted past him to the floor-to-ceiling glass behind him.

Today I wore the same plain work suit as always. I'd left in such a rush I hadn't even put on makeup, and faint shadows sat under my eyes.

I did look boring, it was true.

I asked him, “Then who counts as interesting in your eyes?”

Zachary froze for a beat and said nothing.

His phone was still open to his chat with Susan, the wallpaper a photo of the two of them at Disney.

In the sunlight, dressed in matching outfits, they laughed cheek to cheek, bright and radiant.

Zachary had probably forgotten that we used to be just as sweet, just as passionate.

So this was what people called the thrill of something new?

“Zachary, do you have any idea? While you and Susan were off at Disney, I was wining and dining a client. I drank until my stomach was bleeding just to close that deal.”

“While the two of you were having candlelit dinners at fancy restaurants, I was alone at the office working past midnight, no time to eat, gnawing on cold bread.”

“So I'm the boring one because all I think about is the company, and Susan is the interesting one because she eats and drinks and plays her way around the world with you. Is that it?”

Zachary softened his voice. “Amelia…… it's not like that……”

“Let's both just calm down, okay? I won't agree to a breakup.”

He came to my side and reached out to pull me into his arms.

But all I felt for him now was disgust.

I shoved him away hard, repulsed, and turned to find the office door had opened at some point.

Susan stood there, already crying her heart out.

“I heard everything. You're breaking up because of me? Amelia, if you have to blame someone, blame me. It's all my fault. Don't be angry at Zachary.”

Zachary looked at her tears, and something tender and aching flickered in his eyes.

“Susan, this has nothing to do with you.”

I just found it absurd.

Susan walked over and grabbed my hand. “Amelia, it's all my fault. Will you forgive me? Please don't fight because of me, okay?”

Zachary chimed in. “Enough, Amelia. Susan's apologized to you. It's all a misunderstanding. There's no need to be so harsh with her. Isn't she your best friend?”

I watched the whole scene and let out a cold laugh. “Zachary, same as before. Break up. I'll let the two of you have each other.”

Zachary's brow knit, but before he could speak, Susan ran out in tears.

His eyes chased after her wounded, retreating figure, and he snapped, furious. “Amelia, is this what you wanted? Are you happy now that it's a mess like this? You've gone too far!”

The moment the words left his mouth, he spun around in a panic and went after Susan.

The door slammed shut.

The huge, empty office held only me again.

I smiled bitterly. It was fine. I was used to it.

Between Susan and me, he always put her first.

I went back to my desk. The coworkers who'd been watching the show all dropped their heads.

“What's going on? Isn't Mr. Stephens's girlfriend Susan? How'd Secretary Henson get tangled up in this?”

“No idea. What a mess that crowd is. But Susan and Mr. Stephens really are an adorable couple, so easy to root for.”

“Right? Don't tell me Secretary Henson's the other woman?”

“Hmph, who knows?”

I gave myself three days to erase every trace of myself from the company and from home, and then to leave this city for good.

I didn't see Zachary once in those three days.

My feed pushed another one of Susan's videos at me.

In it, she was drunk out of her mind, her makeup smeared all over her face, rubbing off onto her clothes and a white pillow.

The camera panned, and a large hand with sharply defined knuckles was carefully wiping the makeup off her face.

That was Zachary's hand. And on his face was a smile far too doting.

Zachary was a germaphobe.

Once, when I overslept and rushed out the door, I brought breakfast to eat in his car. All I got for it was a sharp scolding.

If I had any makeup on, I wasn't allowed to lean my face against him.

Yet in the video he wiped Susan's makeup off without a flicker of distaste, his white dress shirt smudged with her lipstick and eyeshadow.

Can loving someone really be faked that convincingly?

The video wasn't even finished when I dropped Susan's account into my blocked list.

What I didn't expect was that footage of the three of us in the office that day had been filmed by someone and posted online.

Public opinion boiled over fast.

To my surprise, almost every comment was tearing into Susan, calling her a homewrecker. The stock price of Zachary's company took a sharp dive.

I didn't much care, though. I was leaving anyway. None of it had anything to do with me.

I had just picked up my suitcase to head out the door.

Zachary stormed back in, Susan trailing behind him.

"Amelia, did you post it?"

He flung his phone at me.

On the screen was a post from an anonymous burner account, plainly stating that Susan was the other woman, complete with an attached PDF file.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "I have no interest in doing something like that."

"You think I'd believe that?" His voice was terrifyingly cold.

"Susan already apologized to you. What more do you want? Now her social media is being slandered and attacked, the stock price has dropped, and you still have to drag it this far?"

Susan sobbed, "Amelia, what exactly will it take for you to forgive me? Do I have to get down on my knees and beg you?"

As she spoke, she grabbed at me, making a show of sinking to her knees.

Zachary's fist clenched,

his hand seizing my arm,

then he shoved me away hard, gathering Susan into his arms.

I lost my footing. My lower back struck the corner of a low cabinet, and a sharp pain shot through me. The color drained from my face in an instant, my body going weak, unable to stand.

In the haze, I saw Zachary reach a hand toward me.

The next second he pulled it back.

"Zachary, I think I twisted my ankle. It hurts so much," Susan whimpered, trembling.

"Susan, are you okay? I'll take you to the hospital."

Every word dripped with tenderness and concern.

He swept Susan up into his arms, and when he looked back at me, his face was nothing but open, glaring disgust.

I pulled at the corner of my mouth.

It could finally be over.

Zachary rushed Susan off to the hospital,

while I forced my body upright, hailed a cab to the airport, and left the city.