I opened the dating app and pulled up Sid's location.
Sure enough, the two of them were still together.
My mind went back six months, to the night my appendix flared up. The pain was unbearable, and I begged Sid to take me to the hospital.
But every message I sent vanished into nothing, and he wouldn't pick up the phone.
I called Lena too. She was just as unreachable.
It wasn't until a neighbor heard me crying for help that I got hauled into an ambulance.
Only after I came out of the operating room did I see the post Lena had put up five hours earlier.
“One mention of wanting to see the aurora, and he flew me to the Arctic overnight.”
The next day, Sid finally strolled in, fruit basket in hand.
“I'm so sorry, Penelope. There was an emergency project last night, a sudden business trip, and I had to hand in my phone. I never saw your messages……”
Over and over he apologized, eyes red, and for a moment my heart softened. But later I saw the photo of the two of them in the Arctic in his album, and once again I understood.
It was just another lie.
I walked almost a mile and a half near the wedding apartment before I finally caught a cab back to my rental to pack.
I showered and went to bed alone.
Sid never came back the whole night. He didn't message me until the next morning.
“After I dropped Lena off last night, I was going to come get you at the apartment, but the company called me in for overtime out of nowhere.”
“That damn client insisted on changing the proposal again. Over and over, never-ending.”
On the video call, Sid raked a hand through his hair, agitated.
He looked like a man genuinely worn down by his work.
But I just watched, calm.
Marveling, inside, at how flawless his acting was.
“It's fine. You're busy with work. I understand.”
Sid seemed to breathe easier, and coaxed me with a soft little laugh.
“I'm not doing overtime tonight, no matter what. The second I'm off, I'm coming back to be with you. Oh, right, isn't there a movie you've been wanting to see? Let me take you……”
That movie.
I'd brought it up to Sid five times.
And every single time he'd brushed me off, saying he was too busy with work.
Until I saw in his album that he'd watched it three times with Lena.
And I wasn't waiting on him anymore.
“No need. I've already seen it.”
Sid sounded a little let down. He fussed over me with a few more reminders before he finally hung up.
Not long after, my father called again, a sob in his voice.
“Sweetheart, your dad really doesn't have much time left. Could I beg you……to come abroad and see me, just once?”
“Back then, I failed to protect your mother.”
“It was my fault……”
Listening to that aging voice on the other end, I couldn't keep the ache from rising in my chest.
My father had an affair when he was young. It blew up into a divorce, and my mother, distraught, ran out and died in a car accident. He'd regretted it ever since.
He'd fled abroad, to the place where they first met, chasing the past in vain, again and again.
For years I'd hated him for getting my mother killed.
I held firm, refusing to forgive him.
But now, with him dying, with everything we'd been as father and daughter, I couldn't bring myself to be that cruel.
“All right. I've booked a flight three days out. I'll come see you.”
Since I was done with this wedding anyway.
Taking the chance to travel abroad for a while wasn't a bad thing.
I quit my job. The day I handed in my resignation, my boss tried again and again to keep me.
“Penelope, I think very highly of your work. I didn't expect you to be so set on leaving. All I can do is wish you the best.”
“If you ever regret it and want to come back, our door is always open to you.”
My coworkers came one after another with farewell gifts, telling me how sorry they were to see me go.
Someone asked,
“Penelope, aren't you getting married next week? Why are you suddenly going abroad?”
