My Husband Doesn’t Love Me, I Leave for My Freedom

At a friend's birthday party, Ivy Blair, Miles Gray's ex-girlfriend, cut the steak into pieces for him. Every single eye in the room snapped toward me, and every pair of eyes was glued to my face, waiting to see how I would react. But I wiped my hands clean, then slowly started clapping and wished them a lifetime of growing old together. I said, "Come on, the atmosphere is perfect right now. Why don't you two kiss?" ***** Miles's voice came through the phone. "Cora Hayes, where are you? Don't keep everyone waiting too long." I had just answered the call, and before I could even get a word out, Miles's harsh accusation came barreling at me. Just like that, every last bit of enthusiasm I had fizzled out into nothing. "I know," I blurted out, and I hung up on him immediately. As I stared at the blurred scenery zipping past my car window, the thick, twisting knot of irritation in my chest only grew tighter. Last month was Ivy's birthday. He booked out the entire fanciest restaurant in Loxley just to throw her a party, then stayed with her to watch the sunrise over the beach afterward. What was I doing that same day? I sat alone, staring at a table full of cold, leftover food until midnight. Then I scraped every last bite into the trash can. The next morning, I blew up at him, screaming and demanding answers. But he just stared at me with a cold, dead expression, said other people had gone with them too, and told me to stop looking for trouble and making up nonsense in my head. Then he slammed the door and stormed out. I stood there staring at the shut door behind him, and I could not even tell if my chest hurt more from sadness or from crushing disappointment. After that, Miles and I fell into a cold war that dragged on for a full two weeks. In fact, that was not the first time he had bailed on me because of Ivy, and it definitely would not be the last. Two days ago, he told me he had booked a table at that restaurant I loved for today. I knew what that meant — it was his way of offering me an out so we could patch things up. I was over the moon, already getting ready to go. But then he hit me with it: Ivy had finally gotten that job offer she had been obsessing over, so we were turning the reservation into a group celebration for her instead. I could still remember the icy chill in his voice through the phone. He said, "Cora, be good, okay? I'll make it up to you next time, I promise." Next time. It was always next time with him. Anything involving Ivy? I was always the one who had to step aside and make way. What Miles did not remember, though, was that today was my birthday. I had asked him time and time again why he was so good to Ivy. Every time, he would just say she had moved to Loxley all alone to build a life from scratch, and he was only helping her out as much as he could. How much of that story was actually true? Only he knew for sure. Here I was, Miles's official girlfriend, but I might as well have been the secret nobody could talk about around Ivy. Miles knew perfectly well how badly I had wanted to go to that restaurant. Ever since the start of the year, I had dropped hints and straight out told him over and over how badly I wanted to go. But every single time, he either brushed me off with empty words or came up with some excuse to put it off. So when he told me he had actually scored a reservation there, what did I feel? Was it more excitement, or more being moved? Thinking back, it was mostly being moved. For once in our relationship, it did not feel like I was the only one chasing after him, pining alone. It felt like all the years I had given to loving him had finally earned me a shot at a real place in his heart. Was I too giving, loving him with my whole heart and dropping everything the second he called? Was that why he never bothered to cherish me? But eventually I faced the truth. That was not it at all. Ivy would always hold an irreplaceable spot in his heart.