Dear Ex, WATCH ME WIN

Chapter Two: Broken

Eliana’s POV

The cab ride to Diana’s was a blur. I didn’t have enough money, but I gave the driver everything I had in my bag and ran the last block.

I collapsed on the steps outside her apartment, my body shaking, my palms raw from where I’d caught myself after tripping. I didn’t even ring the bell properly, I just slammed my palm against it and pressed my forehead to the cold door.

The pain hit me all at once.

Not just from what I saw, but from everything that led to it. The five years of compromise. The sacrifices. The patience. The belief that love was enough.

It wasn’t.

The door opened, and Diana’s face appeared, startled at first, then horrified.

Her hair was wrapped in a towel, still damp from her shower.

“Eliana?” she whispered. “What happened, oh my God, what—”

I fell into her arms.

“He cheated,” I sobbed. “He—he was with someone else. In our bed. Dee… I walked in, and he was—he was…”

She held me tighter. “Oh, baby…”

I don’t remember much after that. Just the smell of Dee’s lavender shampoo, the feel of her arms around me, and the sound of my own broken heart echoing in my ears.

Dee made tea. I didn’t drink it. I tried to, but I couldn’t stop shaking.

She brought out old pajamas from when I used to crash there after girls’ nights. I changed slowly. My body trembling.

“How long has it been going on?” she asked gently as she handed me a warm compress.

“I don’t know,” I whispered, staring into nothing. “I never thought he would… I mean, he said we were forever.”

Dee snorted softly. “Forever, my ass. You gave him everything, Eliana. You’ve been paying the rent for eight months since he lost his job. You practically built his photography business and he never took it serious, saying he was made for the corporate world.”

“I know,” I murmured.

“And you’ve been job-hunting for how long? Three months?”

“Four,” I said quietly.

“And he never once offered to help, to pay any of the bills.

And he could have helped, his brother has money, yet he insisted that he didn’t need his help and lived off you, pretending he was looking for a job”

My chest ached.

I let out a weak laugh that turned into a sob.

“I kept thinking things would get better. That we’d find our rhythm again. That he just needed time… I was so stupid.”

“No, you weren’t,” Dee said firmly. “You were in love.”

I wiped at my face.

“Dee, I don’t even know where to go from here.

I don’t have a job. I don’t have savings, I spent the small I had on rent and making sure we survive. I don’t have anything.”

“You have me,” she said simply.

And in that moment, that was enough.

Dee offered me the bed, but I declined and curled up on the couch in the living room, covering myself with a blanket.

I closed my eyes as tight as I could and forced myself to sleep.

*****

The morning light came through the curtains like it was mocking me.

I rolled over on Dee’s couch, the thin blanket twisted around my legs. My body ached. My head throbbed. My heart… didn’t even feel like it was mine anymore.

Jeremy.

The name alone made my stomach twist.

It wasn’t a nightmare. I had actually seen it, him, her, both of them tangled in my bed. The sound, the sight, everything kept replaying in my mind like a movie that refused to end.

I sat up slowly. Dee’s small apartment smelled like coffee. The hum of her machine filled the silence.

When I walked past the mirror, I almost laughed. Puffy eyes. Cracked lips. Hair like a bird’s nest. I looked exactly how heartbreak should look.

Perfect.

Dee appeared at the doorway holding two mugs. “You’re awake,” she said softly.

I just nodded.

She handed me one. “Coffee with cream and honey. You need something warm.”

“Thanks,” I whispered, even though it felt like nothing could warm the hollow in my chest, the ache in my heart.

She leaned against the counter, looking at me like she was trying to fix me with her eyes. “You look like you fought a garbage truck and lost.”

I tried to smile. “I feel worse.”

“Good,” she said with a small grin. “Means you’re still human.”

I stared into my mug, my eyes starting to tear up again. “I gave him everything, Dee. Every single thing. And for what?”

Her voice softened. “For the wrong person. But that’s not your fault.”

“It still hurts.”

“I know.”

For a moment, the room was quiet, the kind of quiet where everything still screamed inside your head.

Then I said it before I could stop myself. “I need to make him pay.”

Dee looked at me carefully. “I know that too.”

*****

By evening, I should’ve been in bed crying again. But I couldn’t. The idea of Jeremy living his best life while I hid under a blanket made me sick to my bones. I wasn’t having that at all.

Jeremy’s brother, Adrien, was hosting one of his fancy gallery parties that night, and I still had my invite with me.

And I knew Jeremy would be there.

If he was going to act like I never mattered,

Like five years meant nothing, then fine. I’d show him exactly what he lost.

Dee tried to talk me out of it, but she still helped me dress. “Don’t do anything stupid please,” she muttered as she zipped up my dress.

“I’m already stupid,” I said, staring at myself in the mirror. “So I might as well look good doing it.”