I walked across the bridge alone.

I couldn't stop the memory that kept surfacing—the rush I'd felt when I accidentally stumbled onto Samantha's proposal plan.

The stylist had been booked a month in advance. The suit and dress shirt were ordered through a personal shopper.

I usually spent a few hundred dollars on clothes at most, but I'd gritted my teeth and dropped three months' salary.

When the day finally came, I was so wound up I didn't sleep a wink.

I leaned back against the headboard, unable to stop picturing the look on Samantha's face when she proposed.

She was always so composed, so self-possessed. I wondered if she'd stumble over her words, or if the tips of her ears would go red.

But whatever happened, I would take the ring, pull her into my arms.

And then I'd say it, loud and clear:

"I do!"

If the sunset over the river hit just right.

If the light poured over us the way it did in the movies, gilding our silhouettes in gold.

And if some passerby happened to capture the moment.

I'd make it the cover of our wedding album, hang it in the most eye-catching spot in the home we'd build together.

The more I imagined it, the harder it got to keep the smile off my face. A laugh slipped out before I could stop it.

"Honk—"

A car horn dragged me back to reality.

Now I stood in a shirt torn ragged, dusty shoe-prints stamped across it.

Walking alone under the night sky.

My phone buzzed.

A message from Samantha.

【Edgar, I'm sorry.】

I stopped walking.

【But let's just go along with it for now. Mike already said yes in front of everyone. Don't make things awkward for him.】

【I'll explain to everyone later that it was a Truth-or-Dare penalty.】

Just a few lines. I stared at them for a long time.

But I wasn't surprised.

From the second Samantha called out the wrong name, I'd known exactly what she would do.

Just like on Valentine's Day, when the dozen red roses she'd had sent to the office landed in Mike's hands by mistake.

When I went to take them back, she pressed my hand down, gently.

"Sorry, Edgar. I wrote the wrong recipient by accident."

"Just let Mike keep them. Taking them back in front of this many people would embarrass him."

A message popped up in the retreat group chat.

【Director Mason's treating everyone to an engagement dinner—meet in the second-floor restaurant of the hotel!】

Not a last-minute decision. Part of the proposal plan.

Since she'd proposed to the wrong man, then everything would just go along with the mistake and go to Mike.

That was always how Samantha did things.

Someone had snapped a photo of the table.

The hotel's top-tier banquet spread. The main dish was king crab.

I'm allergic to shellfish. Samantha could never seem to remember that.

But it happened to be Mike's favorite.

Maybe this was fate steering her back onto the right track.

I closed the message and pulled up the ride-hailing app instead.

Whatever happened, I chose to walk away.

I went back to the apartment alone.

I pushed open the door, and the first thing I saw was the couple's photo on the cabinet by the entryway.

My steps stalled for a beat.

Samantha hated having her picture taken. It had taken me forever to wear her down for this one.

I remembered the day we moved into this place, holding the photo and pacing around, trying it in every spot.

Samantha watched me, indifferent.

"It's just a photo. What does it matter where you put it?"

I turned and shook my head at her, dead serious.

"No. I want it to be the first thing everyone sees the moment they walk in!"

The spot on the entryway cabinet, close to the door, was the place I'd chosen after careful thought.

Open the door, and the hallway light would fall on it first.

A little proclamation of just how happy the person who lived here was.

It was also my only comfort coming home after working late into the night, all so I could put down roots in this city.

But was I really happy?

I picked up the frame, running my fingers over it inch by inch.

Even in a couple's photo, Samantha still wore that cold, composed, doll-pretty face.

The dozens of photos my coworkers had dumped into the group chat flooded back into my head all at once.

In every single one she was leaning into Mike's arms, smiling with a softness I'd never seen on her.

Maybe the only one who'd ever felt happy was me.

I flipped the photos face-down on the cabinet and turned to start packing.

Clothes, shoes…

My hands stilled only when I got to the ties.

The one lying most prominently in the organizer box was the birthday gift Samantha had given me last year.

I thought about it, then dug out every gift we'd exchanged over the years.

Since I'd decided to break up, there was no reason to keep any of it.

The first year, the second year.

Every gift we gave had its match in return.

Only the third year was missing—Samantha's anniversary gift and her Valentine's gift to me.

Because she'd filled in the wrong recipient, they'd all been delivered to Mike instead.

I sent Samantha a message.

【The things I gave you, I've already thrown out. What you gave me is in the bedroom cabinet.】

【Do whatever you want with it.】

By the time I finished packing everything, there was still no reply in the message thread.

I opened the group chat. They were still going strong, only just now wrapping up.

Mike had posted on social media.

【You say he's someone you're settling for, an obligation, that you have no choice. It's okay. I'll wait for you as long as it takes…】

No comments, no likes. This was posted for me alone to see.

I liked it, shut off my phone, grabbed my suitcase, and headed for the door.

Whatever the two of them wanted to become after this had nothing to do with me anymore.

The moment I opened the door, I came face-to-face with Samantha, breathless.

The instant she saw me, she seemed to let out a breath of relief.

The next second, her brow furrowed again, her tone edged with reproach.

"Why come back all of a sudden without a word? I was running around frantic looking for you."

I didn't answer. I only found it laughable.

Frantic, really.

So frantic she'd finished a whole meal, walked Mike through the entire proposal, and only then found the time to come looking for me.

Samantha squeezed her way inside.

Under the indoor lights, she finally saw the suitcase in my hand.

Her expression changed.

"It's this late—where are you going?"

I looked at her, my face blank.

"Moving out. I'll come back later for the rest."

Hearing that, Samantha didn't rush to keep me. Instead, impatience flooded her in an instant.

Just like before, when she'd called me by the wrong name and I'd lost my temper, and she'd promised over and over that she didn't love her ex anymore.

She drew a deep breath, forced her patience, and pulled the proposal ring out of her pocket.

"Enough. I swear I love only you—is that good enough?"

"Today really was an accident. And I only treated my coworkers to dinner because the deposit was already paid and I didn't want it to go to waste."

As if it were nothing more than grabbing some cheap barbecue at a roadside stand with coworkers, she soothed me halfheartedly.

"I explained everything to Mike, too. Look, I even got the proposal ring back."

"Let's just leave it here."

Samantha seized my hand and, without so much as asking, slid the ring onto my ring finger.

But it was far too loose.

The moment I lowered my hand, the ring slid straight off and rolled right to Samantha's feet.

The air went quiet for a beat.

Watching the stunned look on her face, I laughed, dripping with irony.

"Another accident? Filled in the wrong size when you ordered the ring?"

When that ring had been on Mike's finger, it fit like it had been made for him.

For once, Samantha looked a little guilty.

She picked the ring up, cleared her throat a few times, covering the awkwardness on her face.

"It was an accident. I'll have someone resize it later."

"Don't bother."

I cut her off coldly.

"When I said we're breaking up, I meant it. Let's just end it here."

Samantha paused, then slowly set the ring back in its box.

She closed the lid, and the flicker of guilt on her face was already gone, replaced by that same flat, unbothered look.

"Edgar, I told you I'd have it resized."

She looked at me the way you'd look at a child throwing a tantrum over nothing.

"Blowing this up into a breakup, storming out of the house every time over these little things—it's really getting old."

My breath caught.

In that instant I remembered the night of the project's victory dinner, when I'd won a week of paid vacation in the raffle.

I'd been over the moon.

Over the moon for the three months I'd gone without a day off, for the parents I hadn't seen in two years.

But by the time I'd bought my plane ticket and my parents had already booked their own time off, waiting for me to come home for the reunion—

HR told me the prize had already been redeemed.

"Director Mason came to claim it. She said you'd authorized it, and it went to that new intern in your department, Mike Fox."

I confronted her, my eyes red.

Samantha barely glanced up before lowering her head again, indifferent.

"Oh. I must have written down the wrong name by accident."

"Then go get it back for me!"

She just kept staring at her phone, so I snatched it from her hand in a fury.

What filled the screen was Mike's photo grid on social media.

【A paid trip to a concert is honestly the best—thanks to a certain someone~】

It hit me like a blow to the head.

Trembling, I held the phone up in front of Samantha, my vision blurred with tears.

"This is what you call writing down the wrong name?"

Samantha didn't explain. Instead, with a coldness that bordered on contempt, she turned it back on me.

"It's already done. I just maximized the value."

"Rewarding a subordinate now and then reinforces my authority as a leader."

"Edgar, you've been at this company long enough. Can't you look at the bigger picture?"

Her grand, self-righteous excuses drove me out of my mind.

That was the first time I'd ever mentioned breaking up with Samantha.

Not once—not through the tens of thousands of times she'd called me by the wrong name—had the thought even crossed my mind.

I stayed at a hotel for three days and never got a single message from her softening up.

Only later did it sink in: Samantha was counting on the fact that I loved her too much.

Otherwise, how could I have forgiven her, over and over, for calling me by his name?

I'd even given up a stable job back home the moment I learned she'd broken up with her ex over long distance, crossing a thousand miles to her city to build everything from scratch again.

The day I swallowed my pride and came home, she wore an expression that said she'd expected it all along.

She took the suitcase from me and said flatly,

"Don't make a scene next time. Grow up a little."

Samantha's face in front of me now slowly blurred into her face from that day.

But this time, I didn't want to back down.

I repeated it, firm and certain.

"I mean it. Let's break up."

The door slammed shut with a crack.

Leaving behind only one line.

"You're way too worked up right now. Go cool off on your own!"

I didn't care where she'd gone.

Mike's social media had already popped up in the same instant.

【I knew it. I'm still your first choice.】

That engagement ring, like it had finally found its rightful owner, was back on her finger.

I gave the post a like.

Then I took one last look at this little apartment I'd decorated piece by piece, and softly closed the door.

The next day at work, the two of them arrived together.

The office broke into a chorus of congratulations.

I ignored it, keeping my head down over my handover work.

Since joining this company, I'd closed deals totaling over a billion dollars.

Next week I'd be promoted to Director, running a department of my own, and I'd never have to work alongside Samantha again.

I stood up with my files, and my eyes met Samantha's.

Her lips parted, like she wanted to say something.

I turned away calmly and walked off in the other direction.