You Left Me to Freeze, So I Left You

Chapter 2

I dragged my suitcase to the nearest hospital.

When the ER nurse pulled off my frost-crusted snow boots, she sucked in a sharp breath. "Sweetie, how did you get this bad?"

"Frostbite."

The damage was severe. The blisters had already burst and stuck to my socks.

I skipped the anesthetic when they cleaned the wound. I gritted my teeth and didn't make a sound. Wave after wave of stabbing pain kept me razor-sharp and fully conscious.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

It was a message from Liam.

Liam: Why is the kitchen cold? You couldn't even make breakfast before you left? Wendy has a weak stomach, don't you know that?

I stared at the accusatory messages on the screen right as the nurse's cotton swab swiped across my raw, festering wound.

The pain was searing.

I typed a reply with one hand.

Me: Got it.

Then I put my phone on silent and sat through the lancing of seven blisters.

The doctor prescribed frostbite ointment and warned me strictly not to expose my feet to cold or get them wet for the next few days. I nodded, handled all the necessary paperwork, then clutched the paper bag of medicine and hailed a cab home.

*****

The next day, I went to the office.

Liam was in the conference room for the morning team meeting.

I headed straight to HR and requested a resignation form.

When I got back to my desk, someone was sitting in my chair. Wendy was wearing my spare slippers, flipping through the architectural drawings saved on my computer.

"Hey, Cindy! You're here!" She stood up, looking at me with a wide, innocent doe-eyed expression. "Liam said I'll be in charge of this project from now on, so he told me to get familiar with the model first. You don't mind, right?"

I didn't say a word. I just set my resignation form down on the desk.

Just then, Liam walked over, just wrapping up his meeting. When he saw me, his face relaxed a little.

"Since you wanted to storm off in a huff and leave the house, you don't get to work on this project anymore. Wendy just joined the design department. She needs the performance points to get her permanent position." He stepped over to stand next to Wendy and looked at me like what he was saying was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I spent six months building that model," I stated, matter-of-fact.

"We're getting married soon, you're gonna be a stay-at-home wife. Why do you even care about this trivial stuff?" Liam reached over to straighten the blueprints spread out on the table in front of Wendy. "Wendy's my childhood and longest friend. She's all alone in Texas, it's not easy for her. You need to cut her some slack."

I just stared at him. I stared at this man—my partner of five years, the person I was supposed to walk down the aisle with—saying the most inconsiderate words to me.

"Fine." I yanked the USB drive out of my computer.

Liam thought I was agreeing to sign over the project files, so he nodded in satisfaction. "That's my girl. Let's go out for dinner tonight, and we'll put the whole aurora situation behind us."

He always did this—hit you with a slap first, then hold out a peace offering like you ought to be falling over yourself to thank him for it. He was so damn sure I'd scramble to catch it, and thank him for the privilege.

I picked up my pen and scrawled my signature across the bottom of the resignation form. Then I opened my computer, clicked through a few times, and wiped every last core blueprint from the drive, leaving nothing but a useless, hollow concept sketch behind.

"I'm heading out." I set my work ID badge down on the desk.

Liam frowned. "Where are you going? You're skipping dinner?"

"Yeah, I'm not going." I hoisted my cardboard box of personal items against my chest and limped toward the exit.

Liam called after me. He'd finally caught sight of my injured foot. "What's wrong with your foot?" he asked.

"Sprained it."

I didn't turn back. I just stepped straight into the elevator.

Right as the elevator doors slid shut with a soft ding, I caught a glimpse of Wendy leaning in Liam's arms, pointing at the empty folder on the screen with a frustrated pout. Liam was leaning down to murmur reassurance to her, not even glancing in the direction of the elevator for half a second.