My Love Has Run Off

My silly brother was still unaware that he had been made into a fool in these text messages.

My phone suddenly rang. It was Shane.

"Honey, did I accidentally leave my phone at home?" he asked while panting heavily.

"Did you? I haven't noticed."

It sounded like he exhaled in relief.

"Why're you still awake? Be a good babe and go to sleep. Don't wait up for me."

I was standing on the balcony as I continued to ask, "Where did you go for your jog?"

"The park close to us."

My voice lowered while I tried to restrain myself. "I saw on the news this morning that they've cordoned the area off to fix the paths."

He paused for a bit, before continuing in a chipper tone. "I went around it. You don't have to worry about me."

He soon hung up the phone, but not before I caught a soft chuckle in the background.

My heart wrenched in pain. I had to grip the railing with both my hands to support myself, and it was a long while before I finally calmed down.

Leonard was extremely pleased with Robyn, and it was clear from how he spoke that he wanted nothing more than to marry her as soon as possible.

However, that was not the case for Robyn. We had met each other a few times at company dinners. His colleagues would usually refer to me as Mrs. Sanderson, but Robyn was different. She called me Miley.

That time, while in the bathroom, I got a cramp in my leg. As I was waiting for it to pass, I coincidentally overheard a conversation she had with another lady.

Robyn had nothing but praise for Shane.

"Shane is such a considerate gentleman. Why are all the good men someone else's husband?"

She then shifted gears and chuckled. "No wonder Miley was so anxious to get pregnant. She's probably worried she can't hold on to him."

The other lady hurriedly shushed her. "Watch what you say. I heard it was an accidental pregnancy."

Robyn snorted. "That's just a ruse married women pull."

That was probably what Shane thought too. To be honest, if she had not purposely been obvious about it, I would not have caught on so quickly.

Two weeks ago, Robyn posted a photo on her social media. Their company had gone on a hiking trip, and it was a photo of them then, at the summit watching the sunrise.

In the photo, there was another person in between her and Shane, but she was leaning in his direction while beaming widely. Everything about her screamed youthful energy.

The oversized men's T-shirt she was wearing was one I recognized immediately. I had personally packed it for Shane.

Underneath her shorts were two long, shapely legs. The two red patches on her knees were particularly eye-catching in comparison with the rest of her porcelain skin.

I stared at the photo for a whole afternoon, a sense of unexplainable apprehension coursing through me.

Once the seeds of doubt start to sprout, they shoot up at an alarming rate.

I started to notice how Shane would unconsciously smile when replying to text messages. Then, the time he spent in the bathroom grew longer and longer.

Multiple times, when his phone was buzzing incessantly, it was always messages from the same profile picture—a baby chick wearing sunglasses.

I witnessed the ugly side of humanity while reading their conversations. Robyn would describe everything that happened between her and my brother in detail to Shane.

She would even tease, saying, "If I marry him in the future, then it'll be fun to have the four of us go on double dates."

Shane responded with a few smiley faces, seemingly not repulsed by the possibility of such an outcome.

Robyn continued to make her plans. "How about I have your child in my belly when getting married to him? Miley swindles you, I swindle her brother."

"Silly goose."

Those two words were dripping with affection.

I did not know up from down anymore. Shane believed that I had gotten pregnant on purpose, thus ruining his dream of living life as a DINK.

We had slept next to each other for so many years, yet he did not even bother to verify this with me and just made his own assumptions.

I shook my head and gave a self-deprecating chuckle. Once love had run its course, nothing seemed to be worth lingering on.

Thinking back to two months ago—when his mother held my hands and begged me tearfully—I could only shake my head in incredulity.

"His father has end-stage cancer, and the only wish he has is to have a grandchild. Miley, please forgive me. I only came up with this admittedly ill-conceived plan because I had no other choice."