Chapter 3

Ryan and I met on one of those blistering summer days.

I'd passed out from the heat on the sidewalk, and by some miracle, Ryan happened to be walking by. As a medical student, he didn't hesitate to jump in and help.

That's how it all started.

A few days later, I invited him out for a meal to thank him. Over dinner, we found out we had three hobbies in common. We clicked instantly, and the conversation never stopped.

Two years later, we got married.

Ryan's job as a doctor kept him busy, but I didn't mind. I worked full-time too, but I handled everything at home so he wouldn't have to worry about anything.

But then one day, I found a photo in his wallet. It was of him and another woman, looking pretty intimate.

I couldn't just let it slide, so I asked him straight up about it.

He told me it was a picture of his first love, Sophia Taylor. He watched me closely, waiting for my reaction.

I stayed calm and said, "Everyone has someone from their past they can't forget."

He seemed relieved, even moved by how understanding I was.

Later, when our daughter Keira was born, he tore up the photo in front of me, as if to prove his commitment to us.

For a while, everything was perfect. Just the three of us, living our happy little life.

But then, three years ago, Sophia got divorced, and that's when things started to shift.

Not only did Ryan begin financially supporting Sophia, but he also started giving her more of his time.

"Time is life," he'd always say.

He'd lie about business trips, telling me he was working when he was really with her. He'd get late-night calls, claiming they were emergencies, but it turned out they were just Sophia calling him after a nightmare, needing comfort.

His job already kept him away from Keira and me more than I liked. But now, he was giving what little time he had left to Sophia.

At first, I told myself that a horse that broke free would eventually return to the stable. I kept putting up with it, thinking things would get better. But they didn't, they just kept getting worse.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore.

It was Keira's birthday, and we were waiting for Ryan to take us to Disneyland. He was late, way later than the time we had agreed on.

I tried calling him, and he said there was an emergency at the hospital and told us to go without him.

But then I did something I'd never normally do, I checked his phone. And what I found confirmed all my suspicions.

There was a text exchange between Ryan and Sophia.

[Sophia: Ryan, I was thinking about when we were dating while I was cutting vegetables, and I accidentally cut my finger.]

And there, attached to the message, was a picture of her finger, a tiny cut.

I couldn't help but laugh. A little cut like that would've healed before Ryan even got there.

But of course, Ryan still dropped everything, ditched Keira and me on her birthday, to rush to Sophia's side.

That was the moment it hit me: I wasn't just being ignored. I was being played. And I was done.