Chapter 1

At three in the morning, my phone's vibration yanked me out of sleep.

I opened my eyes. Staring at the screen, I saw dozens of missed calls and 99+ message notifications.

Before I could even process it, a few more messages flashed across my screen. [Emily, are you cheating on me? Why haven't you answered me all day?

[If you don't reply, we're over. I hate how you just stop caring once you get what you want. It's disgusting.

[Are you still screwing some random guy right now?]

Every word oozed sarcasm and suspicion.

I opened the chat and scrolled all the way to the top.

It was a message I'd sent at eight in the morning: [Victor, William was in a car accident and got admitted to the hospital. If you have time, could you come to the hospital?]

*****

The hallway window was still open. A breeze drifted in, and I shivered.

Right then, Victor Jones started a video call. It sounded noisy on his side.

I squinted.

Before I could even make out what was happening, Victor turned off his camera.

He scoffed. "Well, well, Miss Busy finally decided to answer. What, did that guy let you down, so now you're crawling back to me..."

After a whole day of nonstop hustle, I was completely drained.

On top of that, I'd been jolted awake in the middle of the night. Right now, all I felt was pure frustration.

I interrupted Victor's snide remarks. "Did you even see the message I sent?"

Victor didn't answer. Instead, he snickered and echoed my words in a mocking tone, "Did you even bother to read my messages?"

His voice was laced with that passive-aggressive sarcasm that made my skin crawl.

He continued, "Busy lady, you only sent a couple, huh? I sent literally hundreds. Didn't you notice?

"Well, you're obviously too important to waste your precious time on someone like me, right?"

Victor kept going, whining endlessly about everything.

I gripped my phone, not typing a single word in response.

I didn't rush to defend myself like I always did—no more desperate, pathetic explanations.

At that moment, exhaustion took the place of love, and resignation replaced all the pointless arguments.

Noticing I was silent for a while, Victor hesitated for a moment before asking again, "Emily, don't tell me you're hooking up with that guy again.

"That's disgusting. Sleeping with some random guy and still picking up my call?"

He was always like this.

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to hold back the sting.

I asked, "Victor, is that seriously the only thing your mind ever goes to?"

I made sure to keep my voice down. William was right next door, still lying in his hospital bed.

I didn't want to wake him up, and I definitely didn't want anyone else to see how messed up I was.

I felt miserable and completely drained.

Victor just stopped talking. By the time I glanced at my phone again, the call was already over.

I sent a period, testing the waters.

Sure enough, there it was again. He blocked me. It was always the same.

I kept track in my head.

Five minutes later, a mutual friend messaged me. [Hey, Emily, please, I'm begging you.

[Go smooth things over with Victor, okay?

[It's three in the freaking morning. I have to work tomorrow. Can you and Victor stop messing up my life every time you break up?]

When I kept ignoring the messages, my friend just went ahead and called me.

I answered.

My friend said, "Hey, Emily, so you weren't asleep after all? Since you're up, why not go calm Victor down for me, huh?

"Victor is totally crazy about you, he cares so much. I just can't figure out why you always ignore his messages.

"Oh, and today, when you didn't reply, Victor was losing it. He was so desperate he almost called the police on you."

Call the police? How ironic.

My friend kept trying to talk me into patching things up with Victor, every word hinting that I should be the one to make peace.

Normally, I would've just gone along with it. But this time, I just couldn't do it anymore.

I told my friend. "I sent Victor a message at eight this morning, told him I was at the hospital."