After Eighteen Years, I Walked Away

4: 4

A bad feeling rose in me all at once.

"Patsy! Come home, quick! Your mother saw the news online and her blood pressure shot up. She got so worked up she just collapsed!"

My hand shook as I opened my phone screen.

The trending topic sat right at the top of the page, my photo blurred out beside it, every word in the headline cutting straight through me.

"Renowned Psychologist's Moral Failure: Spurned Woman Cyberbullies Pregnant Rival Amid Chaotic Private Life."

The next second, a message from the hospital director popped up.

He said, with some reluctance, that the pressure from public opinion was too great and the hospital had no choice but to let me go.

I had no room left for grief. I just packed my bags, fast.

Right on its heels came Stanley's call.

"Patsy, all you have to do is kneel and apologize to Shirley, record a video admitting your mistake in public, and I'll have every trending post pulled immediately."

My throat was dry, my voice trembling.

"Those photos those thugs took back then, you deleted them yourself, one by one, until they were all gone. In the whole world, only you and I ever saw them."

There was a brief silence on the other end.

Then came his voice, light as air and utterly cruel.

"I kept backups."

I felt like a complete joke, from beginning to end.

The man beside my pillow, the one I'd loved with everything I had, had schemed all along just to land the killing blow.

"I'm only teaching you a lesson. You were the one who kept pushing, going after Shirley. She's pregnant now, she can't take the slightest upset, and this is the only way she'll feel better."

"Since your heart and eyes are full of her, there's no point in my explaining anything."

"I've already signed the divorce papers. My lawyer will send them to your email shortly."

I didn't wait for another word. I hung up.

Alone, I picked up my few bags and got into a cab bound for the airport.

I watched the streets slide backward past the window, saying goodbye for good to this city where I'd fought and put down roots all these years.

And the phone I'd hung up on was buzzing wildly now, in a house with no one left in it.