It came from nowhere, unbidden and unwelcome. It felt like a sharp stab of sadness, like a ghost from the life I almost had with him. Today was one of those days.
Lost in thought, I nearly jumped out of my chair when my phone rang. I glanced at the screen and BAM, I felt my heart skip a beat. It was David.
My fingers hovered over the answer button. A mix of curiosity and apprehension swirled within me as my heart started pounding. Why was he calling me now, after all this time?
Taking a deep breath, I did something I probably shouldn’t have. I answered the call.
“Hello?” I whispered, barely holding it together.
“Hi, Emma,” came the reply. His voice was both familiar and foreign with a tremor hinting at something significant.
He was crying, I realized.
“I’m getting married today.”
My heart dropped. He told me he only had a few minutes before the ceremony started and begged me not to hang up.
Then he said something that made the room tilt.
“Emma, I never cheated on you. It was all a lie.”
He said my parents made him do it. They wanted him out of my life because they thought it was best for me. They didn’t want me distracted from my studies or getting too serious too fast.
His words hit me like a tidal wave. The betrayal I had carried for five years had been a manufactured exit strategy. The people I trusted most had engineered my heartbreak.
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