Chapter 4

Ethan watched me, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"You're too calm, Sarah," he said one evening, finding me studying in the library. "It's not like you. What are you planning?"

I looked up from my textbook. "Planning? I'm just trying to be sensible. Isn't that what you always wanted?"

A muscle twitched in his jaw. "Don't play games with me. If you do anything to upset Chloe, you'll regret it."

"I have no intention of upsetting anyone," I said, turning back to my book.

He huffed in frustration and stormed out.

I let out a slow breath. My escape couldn't come soon enough.

Weeks turned into a couple of months. Ethan and Chloe were inseparable, their blissful romance on full display.

Then came the news.

Chloe was pregnant.

Ethan was ecstatic. He paraded Chloe around, his hand possessively on her small, still-flat stomach.

"We're going to have a baby!" he announced at dinner, beaming. "A son, I hope."

Wedding plans went into overdrive. It was going to be the event of the year.

While he was busy planning his perfect life, I was finalizing mine.

My acceptance letter to a prestigious university in England had arrived. My scholarship was approved. My student visa was stamped in my passport.

I booked my flight for the morning of his wedding.

One afternoon, I was careless. I left my laptop open on my desk, an email confirmation for my flight visible.

Ethan walked into my room without knocking, as usual.

He saw it.

"England?" he said, his voice dangerously quiet. "You're running away because I'm getting married?"

His eyes softened, a flicker of something I might have once mistaken for concern, but now I knew was just ego.

"Oh, Sarah," he said, a sigh in his voice. "You're still so dramatic."