Boris smiled and said：“Tania Finch's here. She's shy, so don't scare her.”
I'd assumed he at least wouldn't dare open the door for her in front of me.
But he turned around and did exactly that.
Tania saw me and shrank behind Boris, all wide-eyed timidity.
“Boris, if I'm staying here, will Kate be upset?”
“If she is, I could just… go stay at a hotel for a while.”
She looked so pitiful when she spoke, so delicate, the kind of helpless that made people want to protect her.
Boris reached for a pair of slippers and crouched down to put them on her feet.
Those slippers were our matching couple's pair.
Apparently not mine anymore.
Boris's phone sat on the living room coffee table.
In his messages, there was one my father had just sent him.
My father had been diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer last month. He didn't have much time left.
Before he died, his greatest wish was to see me married, to know I was happy with Boris.
He'd entrusted me to Boris, asked him to take good care of me.
Boris hadn't seen the message yet. But when Tania walked over, she picked up his phone and glanced at the screen.
I rushed forward to stop her.
Boris grabbed me first.
“Kate, what are you doing! I told you not to scare Tania!”
Tania's eyes turned red, and she let out a soft, wounded little sob.
“I'm sorry, Kate—I didn't know that was from your father to Boris. I really wasn't trying to look.”
“I just wanted to use the phone to order some food. I was hungry.”
Boris didn't even glance at the message. He just deleted the entire conversation with my father.
It felt like a knife dragged straight through my chest.
I held my hand out to him. “Boris, when we first got together, we put both our salaries into a joint account every month. You remember that, right?”
“My father has late-stage lung cancer now. His treatment costs a fortune. Transfer me half of what's in that account, and then pay me back the down payment and mortgage I put into this apartment. We break up right now. After that, neither of us owes the other a thing.”
Boris's face darkened.
“Neither of us owes the other a thing? Seven years, Kate. You poured seven years into me—seven years of your life—and you're going to stand there and say we're even?”
“Oh, I see. You're using your dad being sick as an excuse to get the money back so you can leave me for good. That's what this is, isn't it?”
“Kate Henson, let me make this clear. I am not letting you go. I love you. I will never let you go.”
I'd never met a single person this shameless in my entire life.
If he wouldn't leave, then I would.
I packed my things and realized how little in this apartment actually belonged to me.
Most of what was left were toys and gifts Boris had given me over the years. I didn't want any of them.
On the living room wall hung photos of us traveling together all over the country.
We were so young in those pictures, grinning like we owned the world, promising each other we'd travel the globe when we were old.
As if any of that ever meant what we thought it did.
Tania walked over and touched the face of the girl smiling brightly in the photos. She sighed.
“Kate really is beautiful. No wonder you love her so much, Boris. It's all my fault you two are fighting.”
I grabbed my suitcase and walked toward the door. Boris didn't come after me. He just stood there, fists clenched.
“Kate, I already told you. There's room for both you and Tania in my life. Why won't you just listen?”
“Do you really want to break your parents' hearts before you're satisfied?”
He was the one who'd done everything wrong—so why did he make it sound like I was the one who should feel guilty?
