A Decade Undone by Deceit

my CEO girlfriend, Kendal. I gave up my music, my dreams, everythin

eeded emergency surg

was on the phone with another man, sweetly telling h

birthday, I went home and cooked her favorite meal.

night, drunk, carried pi

k t-shirts. His said, "I'm with

g in her throat. She scrambled off his

of me that could feel pain for her had been carved o

raight in the e

e, leaving her standing alone in the monument to our

pte

ger' s desk. The paper was crisp and white, a

her eyes wide with surprise. She picke

g from confusion to disbelief. "Yo

my throat too

rsary with Kendal next week. The whole com

and meaningless. A decade of my life, pour

couldn' t afford to let any emotion show.

in my eyes. She stood up. "I hav

aid, my voice flat. "T

e. This was the view from our new penthouse office, a symbol of the

earing Kendal' s looping, arrogant signature. She ha

was," Sarah said, her voice a

as. Always busy,

s you. Kendal... she needs you. You handle every

handled her family' s endless demands, who made sure her coffee was exactly how she liked it. I was her e

e one she' d promised would be our forever home. I came back from a late meeting to find a man' s watch on the

hat left me breathless. It wasn' t the first time. Not even the tenth. But this time, in o

ight in a hotel, the silence of the room screaming louder than any argument ever could. Ten years. I had

her. I told her I was le

sound that grated on my nerves. "Brock

eling like ice. "You' d never l

back. She didn' t believe me. She thought I was a permanent fixt

I knew it wa

onversation to the office a

e pulled me back to the

"Please find a replacement as soon as p

d out of her offic

h gala. Kendal, of course, was the

My blue dress.

t an order. She didn't even

andle it. Then, I drove to the dry cleaner' s myself. It was a habit

with her snobbish mother, Diane, who never missed a chance to remind me I wasn't good enough for he

onvenience. A tool she us

ce for the junior assistant to take

yway. A part of me needed

t was a high-profile event. She didn' t wan

en, charming and beautiful, a glass of champagne in her hand. She was talking to a hands

nt, the center of ev

my watch.

had loved for a decade. The woman who had

t of the gala, the sound of h

enough. It was tim