His Other Priority

I looked at him as he rushed to defend himself, a bitter feeling welling up inside me.

"Alex, I never mentioned Savannah."

Alex's expression froze. After a brief silence, embarrassment turned into anger.

"Autumn, you'd better not come crawling back and beg me to return."

...

Over the next few days, Alex stopped coming home at night. He had taken over Savannah's divorce case and spent all his time running around for her.

Whenever her emotions spiraled, he'd jump into his car in the middle of the night and drive for hours to bring her best friend over to keep her company.

When she wanted pastries from her favorite bakery, he'd speed through red lights all the way there just to make her happy.

He said he owed Savannah a favor. What he didn't know was that the night she returned, the name he drunkenly called out over and over again had been hers.

Men are experts at saying one thing and meaning another.

The day Savannah's divorce was finalized, Alex drank himself into a stupor.

When I got home, he was already passed out on the couch, holding a worn, tattered stuffed doll.

I recognized it immediately. Savannah had given it to him.

I'd always assumed he'd thrown it away years ago. Instead, it had been carefully preserved all this time.

He stared at it in silence, murmuring Savannah's name again and again.

I struggled to help him up. The moment I touched him, he pulled me into his arms.

"Savvy, you came back. I knew you wouldn't leave me."

He mistook me for Savannah and refused to let go.

As I stared at him, a memory suddenly surfaced. He'd looked exactly the same that night in the private karaoke room.

Drunk beyond reason, he had poured out every secret he'd kept buried inside.

He'd said to his friend, Garrett Richardson, "Garrett, I didn't get to marry the woman I loved most. Autumn reminds me of her, but she'll never be Savannah. Autumn's pregnant. I'm going to be a father. But somehow... I'm not as happy as I thought I'd be."

I don't remember how I managed to walk out of that room. I only remember how my legs felt like they were filled with lead. Tears blurred my vision.

That was the day I got into a car accident. When Alex arrived at the scene, he still had an unfinished phone call in his hand.

Savannah's voice came through the speaker, along with the sound of breaking glass and a string of loud crashes.

"Autumn, are you stupid? How do you manage to crash into another car on a road that wide? I'm a lawyer, not a doctor. I'm busy. I don't have time to deal with your ridiculous little problems."

Then he turned and left without a trace of hesitation. The moment he resumed the call, though, his voice softened into the warmth and tenderness he once showed me.

Back when he would wait downstairs in the pouring rain just to see me.

I was an orphan. My grandmother had found me abandoned beside a dumpster and raised me herself.

Alex had promised her he would take care of me and that I would be the only woman in his life.

Somewhere along the way, he broke that promise.

Drunk, Alex lost the cold indifference he usually wore like armor. For a moment, I saw that reckless young man again.

The boy who had appeared when my life was at its darkest and shone into my world like a beam of light.

The boy who promised he loved me and wanted to give me a home.

Now I finally understood that it was only because I reminded him of Savannah. He had been looking at her through me all along.

He agreed to marry me because he couldn't have the woman he truly wanted. Since he'd lost her, it no longer mattered who he married instead.

My nose stung, and tears streamed down my face.

Finally, I thought, 'Forget it, Alex. I'm letting you go.'

...

The lawyer, Zachariah Levine, finished drafting the divorce papers, but an entire week passed without me seeing Alex.

He and Savannah went everywhere together, just like a perfect, loving couple.

Then, during a party, Savannah stopped me outside the entrance. After making sure no one else was around, she pulled off her necklace and tossed it into the pool, smirking maliciously.

"Who do you think Alex will believe? You or me?"

The second before Alex arrived, she deliberately threw herself to the ground.

When he rushed over, she looked utterly pitiful. "Alex, don't blame Autumn. I'm sure she didn't mean to throw my necklace into the pool."