His Betrayal, Her Dublin Escape

My ten-year relationship was supposed to end with our future in Dublin, a tribute to my late father. Instead, it ended when I overheard the man I loved call me a "stage-five clinger" he couldn't wait to get rid of.

He had secretly changed our corporate transfer to Austin for a new intern, boasting to his friends that I'd come running the second I found out.

To secure her promotion, he stole my father's priceless hard drive-his entire legacy. When I confronted them, his new girl dropped it into a puddle, destroying it right in front of me.

Ezekiel didn't apologize. He shielded her and screamed at me.

"Your dad is dead, Finley! Does Blake have to die over some dead guy's broken hard drive?!"

He gave me an ultimatum: apologize to her and change my transfer to Austin before the midnight deadline, or else.

He thought he had me on lock.

But as the clock ticked past midnight, I was on a one-way flight to Dublin, my old SIM card snapped in two. This time, I was choosing my father's legacy over him.

Chapter 1

Finley Church POV:

The ten-year relationship I thought was leading to our future in Dublin ended in a crowded office hallway, with a single, dismissive scoff from the man I loved.

Today was the deadline. The final day to confirm our corporate transfer. Dublin. It was more than a city; it was a promise, a tribute to my late father and his legacy in the gaming world. I held the confirmation form in my hand, the paper slick with the sweat from my palm.

I saw Ezekiel Phillips, my Ezekiel, leaning against the water cooler, surrounded by his team. His laughter, a sound that usually felt like home, now sent a shard of ice through my veins.

Mark, one of his project leads, clapped him on the back. "Austin, huh? Bold move, man. But what about Finley? I thought you two were set on Dublin."

Ezekiel waved a dismissive hand, as if swatting away a fly. As if swatting away me. He didn't even look in my direction, though I was standing just ten feet away, partially hidden by a potted plant.

"What's to worry about?" he said, his voice laced with an arrogance I'd always mistaken for confidence. "I didn't block her on LinkedIn. Her salary is nothing without my connections. The second she sees I've switched to the Austin office, she'll come running."

The air left my lungs in a silent gasp. The hallway seemed to warp, the cheerful office chatter fading into a dull roar in my ears. I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting back the hot sting of tears.

When I opened them again, he was still talking, his friends chuckling along. "Finley? I've got her on lock," he boasted, puffing out his chest. "She's a stage-five clinger."

My stomach clenched. Stage-five clinger. Is that what I was?

"You have no idea how annoying it is to have someone that attached," he complained, shaking his head as if he bore the world's greatest burden. "But I couldn't leave Blake to handle the new Austin project alone, so Finley will have to take one for the team."

Blake Whitaker. The new intern. The one with wide, innocent eyes who always seemed to need Ezekiel's help with the simplest tasks. The one he' d been staying late to "mentor" for weeks.

I felt frozen, rooted to the spot. The transfer form in my hand felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. I had excused his distance. I had told myself it was just stress about the move. I had made a hundred excuses for him. Ninety-nine steps I had taken toward him, over and over again.

This move to Dublin... this was supposed to be the first step I took for myself, for my father. And he expected me to abandon it. Just like that.

I turned and walked away before anyone could see the tears finally break free.

That night, in the quiet of our shared apartment, the silence was a physical weight. I opened my laptop, my movements stiff and robotic. I unfriended him. I blocked him. I went through our mutual connections, one by one, and erased every digital tie that bound us. I pretended nothing had happened.

He was important, yes. But my father' s legacy was more important.

For two days, I lived in a self-imposed silence. I packed my things in a daze. He never called. He never texted. It was as if I had simply vanished, and he hadn't noticed.

Then, on the third day, a text finally came through. Meet me at the food truck park near the university. We need to talk.

A flicker of hope, stupid and stubborn, ignited in my chest. If he apologizes, I told myself. If he just says he was wrong, I'll forgive him. Ten years. I couldn't just throw away ten years.

I waited for three hours under the sweltering Texas sun, the heat pressing down on me, mirroring the suffocation in my heart. He never showed.

Defeated, I started the long walk home. As I passed the coffee shop near our office, a familiar sight made me stop cold.

There he was. The man who stood me up. And he was with Blake. She was crying, her shoulders shaking, and he was tenderly wiping a tear from her cheek with his thumb.

"You're too sweet, Zeke," she sniffled, looking up at him through her lashes. "Changing your entire international transfer just for me... I don't know what to say. Will Finley be upset?"

Rage, hot and blinding, surged through me. I took a step forward, ready to confront them, to scream, to shatter this perfect, deceitful little scene.

But Ezekiel's words stopped me, freezing the blood in my veins.

"Finley?" He said her name with a sigh, a weary sort of patience in his voice. "She has no real ambition. She's happy wherever I am. But you... you just joined my team. I can't let you go it alone."

My heart didn't just break. It shattered into a million irreparable pieces.

I watched, numb, as he bought them a boba tea. They shared it, passing it back and forth, each taking a large sip from the same thick straw. Just like we shared a milkshake on our first date, all those years ago.

This wasn't an accident. This was a replacement. This was a deliberate, disrespectful, and final erasure of me.

This relationship had to end.

Back in the apartment, I pulled up my transfer application. My cursor hovered over the destination field. Dublin.

I didn' t change a thing. I clicked submit.