After a decade-long romance with Alex, supporting him through the start-up phase and building our future together, I discovered just two days before our wedding that he had a 60-page document about other women.

I quietly canceled all the company's contracts and booked a flight abroad for the wedding day.

After running away, he went mad.

——

"Sarah, you were the one who set up this project. It's almost ready to launch with just a few tweaks. Are you sure you don’t want to sign?"

A friend, an executive at a publicly listed company, asked with some uncertainty.

"Yes, I won’t be signing. We’ll need to cancel the previous contracts too. I’m really sorry for the trouble this causes you."

“It’s no trouble at all. We’ve known each other for years and your proposal is actually more thorough than many from big companies. It’s a shame we can’t work together on this.”

I gave a quiet, trembling laugh, doing my best to mask the quiver in my voice.

“Well, let’s plan on collaborating when I return to the country. I’ll definitely reach out to you then.”

After ending the call, I stared blankly at the 60-page memo in Alex's file.

My fingers, resting on the mouse, were shaking uncontrollably.

Perhaps to prevent me from discovering it, he had renamed the file after the project.

If I hadn’t had to make last-minute changes to the final proposal tonight and left my laptop at the office,

I might have never discovered this.

The first 20 pages, densely packed with text, detailed the daily habits of that other woman.

The remaining 40 pages were filled with the sweet moments from the two months they’ve known each other.

There were not just words, but also photos.

Places I had wanted to visit with him but never got the chance, restaurants I had hoped to try and even a custom-designed diamond ring meant for a lifetime with one person.

Every wish I ever expressed, he had already fulfilled with someone else.

The woman in the photos was someone I knew—Emily, the secretary he personally hired.

He said that seeing Emily was like seeing another version of himself, struggling alone in the city.

The past ten years of our love played out before my eyes.

We’ve been together since our freshman year of college, marking a full decade now.

I gave up the opportunity to study abroad for him.

I endured the painful and tumultuous breakup season after graduation.

I chose to use my professional skills to help him build something from nothing.

During the day, I managed the company’s project, planning and business departments all on my own.

But after work, I still wanted to be a girl in love.

I asked him more than once to accompany me to trendy restaurants, to visit popular cities, to document each milestone of our startup, to capture every step of our journey together.

Yet, all I received were his cold refusals.

He said the business was too busy since the company was just starting out, that adults shouldn't be so childish and that documenting those moments was meaningless.

Until this moment, I finally understand that it wasn’t the records that were meaningless.

It's just that since I was the one being recorded, it was deemed meaningless.

The day I gave up studying abroad, my roommate's words echoed in my ears:

“Sarah, you’ll regret giving up your future for a man. Once Alex has money, you'll be the first to be discarded.”

She said that a blind person, once they regain their sight, will immediately throw away their cane.

I understood the logic, but I stubbornly believed that Alex was different from others.

Years later, those words finally struck me like a sharp sword, piercing right between my eyes.

Three days ago, when the engagement news was hurriedly announced, I hadn’t even had the chance to feel happy.

I heard his best friend instinctively say, “Yeah, yeah, hurry up and get married. It’ll be over if you wait any longer!”

At the time, I didn’t understand the deeper meaning behind his words.

Now that I think about it, as Alex’s closest friend, he must have noticed something long ago.

Unfortunately, it’s only now that I understand his subtle hint.

I took a deep breath to calm myself and shut down his computer.

I immediately sent out messages to several business partners to cancel our contracts.

Then I booked a flight for two days later to go abroad.

Only then did I open the chat window with Alex, preparing to break up with him.

I discovered that our chat history, starting from two months ago, had turned into dry work reports.

Indeed, the desire to share didn’t disappear.

It just shifted.

The only message related to our relationship was from three days ago, when I asked him to confirm the wedding hotel.

He still hadn’t replied.

When I checked his profile information, I found that his bio had been changed to:

[“Beneath the cold mask lies a belated and overwhelming affection.”]

The phone slipped from my hand and fell onto the carpet.

I collapsed onto the sofa, overwhelmed by a wave of bitterness.

Before I saw those dozens of memos, I had thought he was just an introverted, naturally indifferent person.

Now, I realizes he simply hadn’t found his catalyst yet.

After a moment, I picked up my phone and changed his contact name to his full name, adding a countdown to my departure.

Just as I was about to start packing, I received a call from Emily.

“Ms. Mitchel, Mr. Carter has had too much to drink. We’re at the hotel and I’ll send you the address. Could you please come and pick him up?”

Through the phone, I could faintly hear Alex’s voice, drunk and agitated.

“Emmy... come here, don’t call her…”

There was a moment of stillness in my breath.

Even knowing about his betrayal, I couldn't bring myself to leave him alone, drunk and stranded.

I cursed myself for being weak as I changed clothes and headed out to catch a cab.

When I arrived at the private room's door, my hand was just about to touch it when I heard mocking laughter from inside.

“Mr. Carter’s secretary is quite considerate. Where did you find her? This service is way better than my wife’s. Can you recommend her to me as well—”

As I pushed open the door, the room fell silent and everyone’s faces shifted as they noticed my expression.

The room fell silent at once.

Emily was pressed close to Alex, seemingly carefully wiping his face.

In the past, whenever Alex got drunk, he would come home brimming with anger.

If I made even the slightest mistake in taking care of him, he would erupt immediately.

He would curse himself for being unsuccessful, complain about his career and rail against fate.

Yet tonight, despite drinking even more than usual and being more drunk than ever,

he was as docile as a lamb in front of Emily.

He allowed the damp tissues to rub against his face without a word.

After a moment, Emily finally noticed the sudden silence around her.

She turned to look at me, quickly detaching herself from Alex with an awkward smile, tinged with a hint of girlish shyness.

In the past, I might have lost control and acted like a jealous fury, rushing at her to slap her face,

warning her not to seduce my soon-to-be husband.

But now, I merely smiled indifferently.

As I stepped forward to take Alex home, my hand was about to rest on his shoulder when he roughly shrugged it off.

Emily's face turned awkward as she leaned in close to Alex's ear and explained, “This is Ms. Mitchel, your fiancée. She’s here to take you home!”

Hearing my name, his drunken haze lifted slightly. His brows furrowed deeply as he sneered coldly.

“What fiancée? That’s my boss, my superior, my employer!”

“I don’t have a home; that’s just another office for me…”

In an instant, my eyes flickered with a pang and my hand, which had been falling, clenched tightly into a fist.

The people around us, sensing the tension, began to disperse, casting curious glances as they left.

This wasn’t the first time Alex had mocked me.

Even back when the company was deciding its future direction, hiring each employee and selecting every project, his grievances had been apparent.

I had stubbornly poured all my efforts into supporting his dreams,

unaware that his heart had long since strayed off course.

Now, seeing his unfocused eyes, I reached out once more to help him up, only to be swatted away with even more force, leaving the back of my hand stinging red.

Emily, noticing the scene, whispered soothingly to him, coaxing him to shakily rise to his feet

and then handed him over to me.

My gaze fell on the diamond ring she wore and I murmured, “Your ring is beautiful, even more dazzling than in the pictures.”

She paused for a moment, then her lips curled into a smile.

I turned to leave with Alex, but as we took a few steps, his stride abruptly halted.

He turned his head, eyes wide open and earnestly instructed,

“Emmy, it’s late. Take the 28 bus when you head back; I checked and it’s still running. Don’t take a cab alone!”

Emily was amused by his serious tone and reached into her bag to retrieve Alex's car keys.

“I’ll drive your car home,” she said with a smile. “I haven’t had a drink, so don’t worry! I’ll text you when I get home.”

In that moment, my heart felt as if it had shattered into pieces. The bitterness overflowed, filling my chest with a heavy ache.

It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to care; he simply didn’t care about me.

I had worked countless late nights for the company, hoping he would come to pick me up. Each time, he had found a different excuse to avoid it.

Even when I had offered to drive his car to work, he had flatly refused, citing social engagements as his reason.

To this day, I had never even been in that car.

I had moved from anger to resignation and eventually, I had deceived myself.

He was just too exhausted from work, his mind couldn't hold anything else.

Until today, when reality had slapped me hard.

I could no longer lie on his behalf.

I helped Alex into the house and settled him on the sofa. As soon as he was comfortable, Emily sent a message confirming she had made it home safely.

I instinctively tried to unlock the phone with my fingerprint but failed three times in a row.

It finally dawned on me that he had deleted my fingerprint information.

While Alex was still unconscious, I used his finger to unlock the screen.

My gaze fell on the screen full of chat bubbles from Alex and my fingers froze.

The screen was filled with endless text and cute emojis he had never sent me.

The intense emotions hidden behind his icy facade were indeed real.

Scrolling up, I saw a message from three days ago.

["Won't you regret it if I get married? Are you really going to watch me spend my life with someone I don’t love?"]

["Why are you silent? Fine, I’ll get married in five days. Don’t say you didn’t know."]

An hour later, Emily had replied, ["Then I'll take a week off." ]

My finger froze on the screen and I abruptly shut off the phone.

My breath quickened uncontrollably, as if no matter how much I gasped, the air couldn’t fill my lungs.

Tears streamed down my face, pouring out with increasing force.

No wonder he had suddenly proposed to me three days ago.

There was no ring, no wedding venue, no dowry.

Just a simple request: Don’t tell anyone in the family.

I thought he had intentionally set the wedding date for the day the new project launched out of guilt for making me wait six years. I believed that even though his career wasn’t successful yet, he had chosen to propose to me.

But I never imagined that the wedding I had been dreaming of for ten years was merely a pawn to make Emily yield.

That single word, "unlove," shattered the last shred of reluctance I had about this relationship.

At that moment, Alex woke up, stumbling into the bathroom to freshen up.

I sat alone on the sofa, lost in thought.

When he emerged, I received a text confirming my flight.

He glanced at it casually and asked, “Is something up?”

“Yeah, I have a project in another city. I need to check it out.”

He didn’t bother to ask any further questions or give any safety advice.

Instead, he turned and went back to the bedroom, grumbling, “Even when drunk, he couldn’t bother to change clothes for me. It’s so unpleasant…”

In the past, when he came home drunk from socializing, he never had to deal with these little things.

But now, I couldn’t be bothered.

And I certainly wouldn’t do it again in the future.

I spent the whole night wide awake.

The next day was supposed to be our wedding dress photo shoot.

When Alex woke up, it was as if nothing had happened. His attitude toward me remained as cold and indifferent as ever.

He didn’t even notice that I was sleeping on the sofa.

But after seeing his phone records, I no longer believed it was just his natural disposition.

He didn’t see the bloodshot eyes beneath my gaze. He walked over to me and said, “Forget about the photography studio. Let’s go to the beach instead; we can take a look around while we're there.”

I froze, my finger hovering over the screen.

On my phone was a post from Emily, showing her at the beach today.

“Sure, whatever you say,” I replied, my voice steady despite the turmoil inside.

I didn’t confront him about his lies or ask any questions.

On our final day together, I wanted to maintain some dignity for both of us.

Anticipating what might happen, I didn’t even bring my wedding dress.

As the photographer guided us to the beach, Alex’s eyes never stopped scanning the area.

After a few moments of searching, he finally spotted a familiar, striking figure.

Without a word, he abandoned me and the photographer and hurried over to Emily.

I turned to the confused photographer and offered an apologetic smile.

“Sorry for the trouble,” I said. “We won’t be taking the wedding photos after all. We’ll still cover the costs.”