“Trina Burton, are you really willing to marry me?”
Nathan Foster’s text messages had been relentless ever since I’d said yes. He sent a dozen pictures of diamond rings, each more stunning than the last. As I sent him a voice message back—“The pink diamond from Graff is beautiful. Let’s choose that one for our wedding ring”—my boyfriend of ten years, Ray Hall, appeared behind me.
He’d heard the words “wedding ring.” For the first time, his calm face showed a flash of panic. “Wedding ring? What wedding ring?”
Before I could answer, my phone rang. It was my best friend, Elena Turner. “Trina, is Ray with you?” she sobbed. “I just had another nosebleed. I’m really scared.”
Without a second thought, Ray snatched the phone. “Elena, don’t worry, I’m coming now.” He shot out the door, forgetting he’d just asked me to a nighttime cruise to make up for missing our tenth anniversary. To see him run after another woman left my heart calm, unmoved, as if nothing could shake it anymore.
My phone rang again. It was Nathan. “Trina, are you ready? I’ll pick you up in Boston tomorrow.”
“Give me a week,” I answered softly. “I need to sort everything out, then I’ll return to Seattle, and we’ll get married.”
That night, Ray didn’t come home. Instead, a message from Elena popped up on my phone. It was a photo of Ray, a playful smear of cake on his cheek, leaning in close to her. She deleted it moments later. “Sorry Trina, sent it to the wrong person! Ry thought it was cute and asked me to send it. You’re not upset, are you?”
No, I wasn’t upset. I was done. I went to my room and began to pack.
———————
The reason for my calm was a memory from our tenth anniversary. Ray had claimed a business trip. That night, a video call request came from Elena. When I answered, I was met with the joyful sounds of a wedding. Her wedding. To Ray.
Three months earlier, Elena had announced her terminal cancer diagnosis on social media. Her last wish, she’d posted, was to marry the person she loved most. I had no idea that person was my boyfriend. Ray had blocked all news, forbidding anyone from telling me, but Elena made sure to live-stream the entire ceremony. That night, I cried until I passed out while he spent his wedding night with her.
When Ray finally came home the next day, he carried an apology gift—an elegant Van Cleef & Arpels watch. “Elena’s condition got worse last night,” he said, watching me closely. I remembered he’d given Elena a similar gift. Mine was simply the more expensive version.
“Are you upset?” he asked.
“No,” I said calmly. “Elena isn’t well. You should be with her.”
He grabbed my wrist. “Be good and wait for me at home,” he whispered, before leaving again. The gesture made me nauseous. His absence, however, made it easier to say my goodbyes.
I went to the Hall family home to see Ray’s parents, who had cared for me since my own heart condition was diagnosed at age eight. They were distressed to hear I was returning to Seattle for good. Just as I was leaving, the front door opened. There stood Ray, with Elena at his side, looking calm and confident as if she were already part of the family.
“I only brought Elena here so my parents could help her find a good doctor,” he explained urgently as he followed me out. “After all, she’s your best friend. You’re not mad, right?”
His words faded as I remembered his promises under the cherry trees, that marrying me was his lifelong dream. Now, he was introducing another woman to his family while telling me he was on a business trip.
“Why would I care?” I answered coldly. “People who aren’t worth it don’t deserve my energy.”
That evening, I discovered the true depth of Elena’s betrayal. She had stolen a design project I’d created as a birthday gift for Ray and submitted it to a design contest under her own name. My hands trembled with rage. I filed a plagiarism report online, my heart pounding.
When I told my friend and business partner, Selena, she was furious. “That Elena is unbelievable! Using her illness to steal your boyfriend, and now your work? She’s probably faking it!”
Her words echoed in my mind as I packed up my studio. Suddenly, Ray was there, standing in the doorway, his face a mask of confusion and anger. “Wedding? Trina, what are you doing?”
He stared at the stacked boxes, the wrapped canvases. “You’re leaving,” he stated.
“Yes,” I said simply. “For good. With Nathan.”
“You’re running away to marry him? Just like that?”
“I’m not running away. I’m leaving. There’s a difference.” I handed him an envelope containing the proof of Elena’s plagiarism. His hands trembled as he read it.
“She… she said it was a tribute,” he stammered. “That you had approved it.”
“Like she approved her own cancer, too?” I shot back.
For the first time, he was silent. He had no answer. “You broke me, Ray,” I whispered, my voice thick with unshed tears. “I really thought you would choose me one day.”
“This can’t be happening,” he repeated, running his hands through his hair. “I didn’t know, Trina, I swear!”
“Well, now you do.”
I bent to grab another box, but his hand shot out, grabbing my wrist. “You can’t just leave like this,” he said, his voice cracking for the first time. “We need to talk.”
I gently pulled my hand free. “Ray, I’m no longer the woman who waited. I’m the woman who’s leaving.”
———————–
He followed me down the hall. “You want more truth, Ray?” I asked, turning back to the studio. I opened my laptop to the contest website, showing Elena’s name next to my project. “This is mine. I showed it to you the night I finished it. It was supposed to be your birthday gift.”
“She told me you abandoned the project!” he exploded. “If I had known, do you think I would have gone through with that ridiculous wedding?”
“You kissed her on the live stream. I saw it,” I replied, my voice devoid of emotion. “You blocked me. You asked everyone not to tell me anything. And she let me watch every damn minute.”
“It’s not fair!” he murmured, his eyes red with wounded pride. “You’re treating me like I was complicit!”
“Because you were. Even if you didn’t know she lied, you looked the other way while she stole what was mine. And that, Ray, is also a choice.”
He finally took a breath, his anger deflating into desperation. “It was a mistake. A terrible mistake. Elena told me she was at the end… I thought I could give her a moment of happiness. I thought you’d understand.”
“You left me alone while my heart condition was getting worse,” I said, my voice low. “I almost died.”
“I didn’t know you were unwell!” he pleaded. “Elena begged me to stay on the island with her!”
“I married her out of pity!” he finally confessed. “It wasn’t real! There was no love!”
A humorless laugh escaped my lips. “So you were forced? Someone had a gun to your head when you said ‘I do’?”
“I wanted to believe I was doing the right thing,” he whispered.
“Yes,” I said. “And you succeeded in hurting me.”
The silence that followed was heavy. Finally, I spoke. “I’m going with Nathan. He chose me with his eyes wide open. He saw me at my lowest and still wanted to stay.”
“Do you still love me?” Ray asked, his voice small.
I closed my eyes. The old pain, the familiar ache. “It doesn’t matter.”
And then it happened. Dizziness, a high-pitched ringing, and the world began to blur. The box in my hands crashed to the floor as my legs gave out.
“Trina!” I heard Ray’s panicked voice as darkness consumed me. “Trina, what’s happening? Stay with me!”
————————
I awoke to the thick, sterile silence of a hospital room. Ray was asleep in a chair beside me, his hand gripping mine as if it were the last thing keeping him anchored to this world. When his eyes fluttered open and saw I was awake, he jolted upright.
“Trina, thank God,” he whispered, his voice broken. “I thought… I thought I lost you.”
I wanted to say he already had.
“The doctor said your heart went into arrhythmia,” he explained hurriedly. “They’ve been monitoring you.”
“Why are you here?” I asked, my voice weak.
“Because you’re the only thing I haven’t completely destroyed yet,” he murmured. “And I’m not leaving until I tell you everything.” He confessed it all—Elena’s late-night calls, her talk of dying wishes, his fear of being cruel. He admitted he was a coward, that he hid from me because he knew the truth would destroy me.
“And the project?” I asked. “Did you know she stole it?”
“No,” he shook his head frantically. “I swear.”
A deep sigh escaped me. “Ray, tell me what I can do,” he pleaded, his eyes desperate. “Anything.”
“Bring me the truth,” I whispered. “With proof. You said Elena was sick. Show me. I want the medical reports. Everything.”
He hesitated, and in that moment, I knew. He left, promising to return only with the truth. But I found it first. A young nurse, changing my IV, commented on my case. “You’ve had a cardiac history since childhood… just like patient Turner.”
I froze. “Elena Turner?”
“Yes,” the nurse said, flipping through a chart. “I just found her case odd. A few appointments here two months ago, but no oncological referrals. Just psychological support sessions and routine check-ups. Nothing to confirm a terminal cancer diagnosis.”
The words stuck to my skin like ice. Elena wasn’t sick. And Ray… maybe he hadn’t been fooled. Maybe he just chose not to look.
When Ray returned with an envelope, I was holding the papers the nurse had left. He saw them, and the fight went out of his eyes.
“The nurse told me,” I said plainly. “Elena never underwent any treatment.”
He sank into the chair, the envelope falling from his lap. “I was tricked,” he whispered. “She told me she was dying, and I believed her because I couldn’t accept someone could lie about something so vile.”
“You left me,” I said, my voice steady. “And that wasn’t anyone’s fault but mine.”
The silence in the room was final. This time, when the door closed behind him, it wasn’t destruction I felt. It was freedom.
The next day, I walked into the Hall family home. Elena was there, sitting in an armchair like she owned the place. Ray stood by the fireplace, a statue of regret.
“Trina,” Elena began, her voice dripping with fake concern. “I’m relieved you’re okay.”
“I’m alive,” I replied, my voice cutting through the tension. “Which is more than you probably hoped for.”
I handed Mr. Hall the envelope containing Elena’s medical records—or rather, the lack thereof. His eyes widened as he read. Mrs. Hall looked over his shoulder, her face hardening.
“Elena, is this true?” she demanded.
“And what about the project you stole?” I added, spreading the copyright certificates and plagiarism report on the coffee table.
Selena stepped forward, holding up her phone. “And here’s the conversation where she asked me to lie for her, saying Trina wouldn’t mind.”
The silence in the room was a soundless earthquake.
“You always had everything!” Elena finally shrieked, tears of panic streaming down her face. “I was always the shadow! I just wanted something that was mine!”
“You wanted what was mine,” I corrected her. “My life, my love, my work. But you didn’t have the courage to create your own story.”
Mr. Hall stood slowly. “Elena Turner,” he said, his voice quiet but firm. “Out of respect for the home that welcomed you, and the dignity you failed to preserve, I ask that you leave now. And don’t come back.”
She left without another word.
As I turned to go, Ray called my name, his voice low. “Trina… do you still believe in us?”
I looked at him, the man I had loved for a decade. “I believe in what we had,” I said, my voice holding no pain, only truth. “But I don’t believe in what’s left.”
I walked out into the bright afternoon sun. As I got into Selena’s car, my phone vibrated. It was Nathan.
“I’m waiting at the airport. Should I bring champagne or coffee?”
I paused, then typed my reply.
“Champagne. Today, my new life starts.”
I closed the door, and the car drove away. And I went with it, with no regrets at all.