He leaned down to kiss me, but I turned my face away, my hands clenched tightly by my sides.
"So, are you going to see her now?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
He paused for a moment, then replied,
"It’s something that both Ella and I are responsible for. It wouldn’t be right for her to handle it alone."
I silently pulled away from his arms, my voice cold and steady.
"Go."
Without another word, James didn’t hesitate, leaving the cinema in a hurry.
Once he was gone, I returned to the theater and finished the movie. But during that hour, my mind was overwhelmed with thoughts—when did he become so repulsive to me?
One month? Two months? Or had it been even longer?
I realized I didn’t believe a single word he had said. Before I’d come to see him today, I had already known that he’d betrayed me.
It started on a lazy day in the dormitory when my roommate was laughing uncontrollably while watching short videos. I was bored out of my mind, so I downloaded the app myself, just to pass the time.
Then, big data led me straight to Ella’s account.
Her homepage was tagged with "Food Partner: XXX." Curiosity gnawed at me, so I clicked through. There, I saw video after video of James—his back, his hands, all captured in moments that were too familiar. They went to the movies together, trained together, even stayed in the same room. Though none of the footage showed his face directly, I knew it was him.
Ella’s latest post was a picture of a hot spring bath, with the caption:
After a while, you’ll be famous.
The implications of those words hit me like a punch to the gut. I knew exactly what she meant.
The timing couldn’t have been more telling. It overlapped perfectly with the time when James had told me he couldn’t come to see me because of work last week.
He hadn’t been busy with work when he said he couldn’t come to see me. No, he had been at the hot springs with the new couple.
The truth hit me with such force that I ended up in the hospital that night. I never imagined that the boyfriend who had always treated me like a queen had betrayed me long ago. Our seven-year relationship became a cruel joke at that moment.
Alone in the hospital bed, watching the IV drip, my mind replayed the images from Ella’s Instagram account. Every time I saw them together, it felt like a knife twisting in my chest. The pain was so intense that I could hardly breathe.
They must have been sure I didn't use short video apps, that I wouldn't find out. That’s why they were so bold, so shameless in flaunting their relationship. In the story they were creating, I was nothing more than the mistress, the one who didn’t belong.
How could I let them get away with it?
I had kept all the evidence. I came to James today to give him a chance to confess, to say it himself. But now, it seems unnecessary.
After James left, I received a message.
Ella: Are you so comfortable without a job? If I were you, I would have broken up with Mr. Carter a long time ago.
Her words stung, but they were wrong. It wasn’t that I didn’t have a job; I had passed the selected students’ interview months ago.
I stayed in the cinema, lost in my thoughts, until the afternoon. When I finally stood up to leave, I bumped into David Moore, my childhood sweetheart.
"Are you back?" he asked, his tone casual.
"Yeah," I replied, my voice flat.
"For James?"
I hesitated. There was a hint of something unspoken in his words, a quiet disapproval of James.
I’ve always been close to David, so I didn’t hide anything from him.
"James cheated."
David didn’t seem surprised at all. He just nodded, as though he had known for a long time.
"Oh, you finally know."
I stared at him, shocked.
"You knew too?"
David shrugged, his expression not one of sympathy but quiet understanding.
"Anyone with eyes could see it. He and Ella have a complicated relationship. We’re in the same city, remember? We see each other every day. It’s easy to pick up on the little things when you're always around."
