When the accident happened, I called Annette Sullivan four times in a row.

Each call cut off mid-ring. Then her text came through.

【In a meeting. Whatever it is, we'll talk tonight.】

A second later, her assistant's post slid up my social media feed.

"Thanks to the boss, I got my first taste of the season—crab, and it was incredible!"

What I noticed was the little black fan on the table. It was running off her charger.

Lying there on the stretcher, I felt the ache spread through every part of me.

Ten years together, and her need for order had always run deep.

She hated broken rules, resisted change anyone else brought into her space, pushed back against any person or thing that disrupted her rhythm.

The charger was one of those rules.

Once, when my phone wouldn't charge, I borrowed hers to test it. She found out, threw it straight in the trash, and gave me the silent treatment for a week.

It only ended when I caved and wrote her an apology.

And now someone had broken one of her rules and walked into her life without a scratch.

Five minutes later, I saved the photo and sent it to her.

【We're done. Be moved out within twenty-four hours.】

……

The nurse looked over at me, her voice gentle.

"When is your family coming?"

"This needs stitches in the ER. We'll need someone to sign."

I thought about it, then texted my friend.

Twenty minutes later, Annette arrived—with Leigh Delgado trailing behind her.

I'd just finished with the wound, and Kevin Dickerson was wheeling me off to settle the bill when he saw her. His face twisted into a sneer.

"Well, look at this. Ms. Sullivan came to see her ex, and she brought her little assistant along too?"

Annette's brows drew tight. She didn't answer him. Instead she crouched in front of me, her tone smoothing into something soothing.

"Oliver, what did the doctor say? Where's the driver?"

"It's nothing. Six stitches."

"He took off. I already called the police."

I moved away from her hand and answered flatly.

She drew it back, awkward, then guilt seemed to settle over her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't ignore your calls on purpose."

I looked at her and cut in, calm.

"I know. You don't need to apologize."

"We're nothing to each other now."

Her face shifted. Her voice dropped.

"Oliver, we've been together ten years. You're really breaking up with me over a charger?"

I laughed softly, my eyes moving to Leigh, standing behind her.

"What else? Was I supposed to wait until he was in your bed?"

"Mr. Lyons, I know you have a problem with me, but you can't humiliate me like this."

Leigh's voice caught, his eyes going red at the rims.

"Ms. Sullivan and I have a perfectly professional relationship."

"I break out in hives when I overheat, so I borrowed her charger for the fan. It won't happen again."

I was about to ask whether there wasn't a single public charging station nearby—but Annette shot to her feet.

She planted herself in front of Leigh, her voice gone cold.

"Oliver Lyons, are you done? "

"Is there any point to bullying him like this?"

I tipped my head back to look at her, a sting rising behind my nose.

"Who exactly is bullying who?"

"You."

She said it without hesitation, her voice like ice.

"Apologize to Leigh."

My eyes dropped to the watch on my wrist. I swallowed down the tightness in my throat.

"An apology's not happening."

"You've got just under twenty-three hours left. Pack your things and go."

"And I'll let both sets of parents know in the group chat that we split on good terms."

Then I worked the engagement ring off my finger and held it out to her.

"You know how Aunt Darlene feels about homewreckers."

Panic flickered through her eyes. She started to say something, but behind her Leigh Delgado sucked in a sharp breath.

"Ah! My hands!"

Annette turned, saw the angry red welts spreading across his skin, and at once draped his arm over her shoulder.

"Oliver, I don't agree to break up, and I'm not moving out."

"Wait for me."

Then she steadied Leigh and led him off to find a doctor.

His arm circled her slim waist, and she didn't push it away.

What kind of normal boss and subordinate touched each other like that?

I gave a tight smile, closed my fist around the ring, and signaled Kevin to push me over to the trash can.

I looked at the two labels, recyclable and non-recyclable.

I dropped it into the second one without a moment's hesitation.

"You're not even running a fever..."

Kevin pressed the back of his hand to my forehead and stared at me like he'd seen a ghost.

"Oliver, did that crash knock something loose in your head?"

"Since you were eighteen you've sworn it was Annette or no one, for the rest of your life. Why'd you finally wise up now?"

I leaned back in the wheelchair and let out a small laugh.

"I just suddenly felt like there was no point anymore."

Last night, when we got home, I'd said to Annette, fresh out of her shower:

"Tomorrow's Saturday. Let's go look at wedding dresses and suits, and we can settle on the reception outfit while we're at it."

She glanced at her phone.

"Tomorrow won't work. I have to meet an old classmate about a partnership."

"As for the dress, it's for the wedding photos, so pick whatever you like. I'll go along with whatever you choose."

I looked at her face and wanted to say that the wedding was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for both of us, that we could pick this part out together.

But the words stalled on my tongue, and remembering how she hated having her plans thrown off, I changed course and asked instead:

"Then can you drop me off tomorrow morning? My car's in for servicing."

She agreed without hesitation.

"Sure."

This morning I got up, finished getting ready, and sat in the living room waiting for her.

The phone she'd left on the table buzzed quickly, the contact name reading Assistant Delgado.

I picked it up and pressed answer, and Leigh's voice came through, thin and strained.

【"Ms. Sullivan... I know I shouldn't bother you on your day off, but Julie Fletcher, the CEO over at Apex Holdings, won't take no for an answer about brunch. I want to turn her down, but I'm afraid it'll hurt the new project..."】

I knew Annette's temper, so I answered for her.

【"Assistant Delgado, Ms. Sullivan has plans today. It's not convenient."】

【"If you can't handle it, then quit."】

The line went quiet, and finally he hung up.

Annette came out of the bedroom, walked up to me, and leaned her body forward toward mine.

"Who just called me?"

I tied her scarf for her, the same as always.

"Assistant Delgado."

"What did he say?"

"Julie Fletcher from Apex Holdings asked him to brunch, and I..."

Before I could finish, Annette snapped upright.

The scarf pulled taut against my fingernail and split it.

Her brows drew together and her face darkened.

"Julie Fletcher?"

I said nothing, eyes dropping to my split nail, a fine sting threading through the tip.

Her expression shifted, and she snatched up her phone, fired off a message at lightning speed, and hit send.

Then she dropped a kiss on the corner of my mouth.

"Take a cab over yourself. Whatever you like, just put it on my card."

"You know what Julie Fletcher's like. He can't handle her on his own."

With that she rushed out the door, never once noticing that I was wincing in pain.

I got out the first-aid kit, disinfected the nail, trimmed off the broken part with the clippers, and pressed on a bandage.

I'd lost any mood for trying on suits, so I just texted Kevin to go get a drink instead.

I didn't feel like calling an Uber, so I scanned a bike and pedaled along, taking my time.

Then bad luck piled on bad luck, and a car running a yellow light slammed into me.

Before I could even register what had happened, both the driver and the car were gone.

The kickstand had torn a bloody gash down my shin, and I lay sprawled on the asphalt, shaking all over from the pain.

A man got out of his car, called the police for me, and called an ambulance.

His phone kept ringing while we waited. The crowd was loud, so he put it on speaker, and I caught most of it.

He hadn't shown up on time, he'd held up work, and both his boss and his client were furious.

I felt awful about it and told him he should just go.

But he only smiled and said, "It's fine, man. This is nothing, I can handle it. Right now the main thing is you."

Then he stayed with me the whole time, kept me calm, and didn't leave until the paramedics arrived.

In the five minutes after I'd called Annette, my mind churned.

Three months ago, all I'd wanted was a seafood dinner while it was in season, but Annette said she didn't like food you had to crack open, so she told Kevin to take me and said she'd pick up the tab.

And today she'd gone out with Leigh.

She didn't like having her schedule thrown off, so I'd had to go try on the suit alone.

But she'd promised to drive me, and then one call from Leigh and she'd dumped me.

And then there was that charger.

Once, I'd only borrowed it to try it, and she'd given me the cold shoulder for a week.

Now Leigh was using it to run a little fan.

I thought again of that man's eyes when he said, "Right now the main thing is you."

When the traffic officer came, the stranger offered his contact information without being asked and said he'd be willing to serve as a witness.

I lay in the ambulance, the wound throbbing, while the paramedics took my blood pressure, stopped the bleeding, and asked about my medical history. Every one of them was gentle.

For ten years, I had been waiting for Annette to break a rule for me.

I waited for her to make one exception, to pick up one of my calls in the middle of her chaos, to shift her schedule once for my sake, to set me firmly at the very top of her priorities.

I kept to her rules, bent around her temper, loved her carefully for ten years.

And yet, in this moment, the one willing to put me first, to ache for me, to set me above everything else, was a stranger I'd met by chance.

That was when I finally understood. She didn't love me.

So I shouldn't keep setting myself up to be let down either.

Lying in the hospital bed, I typed and deleted and trimmed the message in the group chat with both sets of parents, and finally hit send.

I'd barely closed my eyes when the wound got infected and my fever spiked to nearly a hundred and four.

Kevin stayed by my side, running back and forth, and it wasn't until the middle of the night that the temperature came down.

Looking at how worn out his face had been lately from working on his project, I hired an aide and told him to go home and rest.

Early the next morning, a smothered sound of crying woke me.

I cracked my eyes open, groggy, every part of me aching and limp.

Through the blur, I saw Aunt Darlene standing in the doorway of the ward, wiping at her eyes, looking at Annette with the disappointment and anger of someone watching a child throw away everything good in her hands.

"Annie, how can you have so little sense?"

"Oliver's hurt this badly, and you still had it in you to go look after your assistant?"

"Tell me the truth. Did you really do something to wrong him?"

"He's been with you ten years. I know his temper, I know what kind of man he is. If he weren't truly done with you, he would never bring up a breakup at a time like this!"

Annette's brow furrowed.

"Mom, you don't understand what happened. Yesterday I couldn't just leave Leigh on his own..."

Aunt Darlene was shaking with anger, her voice climbing.

"But you could leave Oliver, is that it? Annette, how are you exactly like your father!"

As the words left her, she turned and met my eyes, gathered up a smile, and hurried into the room.