Nine Years of Love Ended

I returned to the wedding apartment.

My parents had used half of their life savings to buy this place for me. It was a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment, yet hardly any of it felt like it belonged to me.

One bedroom had been turned into a walk-in closet by Patty; she had a lot of clothes and shoes.

The second bedroom had become a karaoke room because she wanted to enjoy singing at home.

She never once considered whether my parents might stay here someday.

“Meow!”

Chamo, the cat I had bought, let out a sound. I turned to look at him, feeling a bit conflicted.

I could change the rooms back, but I wasn’t sure what to do with Chamo.

I’m allergic to cat hair, so Patty had always taken care of him. She loved cats—sometimes she would even cuddle Chamo to sleep.

I would wrap myself up tightly and use nose plugs to avoid any contact with the cat hair.

All my friends knew about my allergy; none of them were cat lovers, so I couldn’t ask them to take care of Chamo.

And I didn’t want to sell him either—after all, we had lived together for years and I had developed some feelings for him.

The best option was still to call Patty and have her continue looking after him.

After hesitating for a long time, I made the call.

“Hello, honey!”

Patty’s voice was filled with excitement.

Before I could say anything, she continued, "Honey, I just realized how fun weddings can be! Let’s have ours like that in a few days."

She had seen Ivan’s sister’s wedding and dismissed all my carefully planned arrangements.

I felt neither anger nor disappointment.

I just felt exhausted.

“Honey, I can’t talk right now. I’m going to take some photos. Let Ivan chat with you,” she said and the phone was handed over to Ivan.

His voice was filled with smug satisfaction.

“Ms. Patty seems very happy. Do you need something?” he asked.

“I want to change the bedroom back to how it was. I need to ask her if she still wants to take care of Chamo. If she…”

Before I could finish my sentence, Ivan interrupted me.

“Alright, I get it. Do you have anything else?”

His tone was impatient.

I replied calmly, “No, that’s all.”

A week later, I ran into Patty downstairs at the office.

She was standing with Ivan and two men and two women.

She didn’t greet me but smiled at the group, saying, “Thank you all for making the special trip. You can go ahead; I need to take care of a few things back at the office.”

Ivan quickly chimed in, “Ms. Patty, you go ahead. I’ll take Mom and Dad along with my sister and brother-in-law.”

As he passed by me, he shot me a challenging glance.

I didn’t even look at him.

Patty came over and linked her arm with mine, explaining, “Ivan’s parents, Cleo and Arnold—Ivan’s sister and brother-in-law insisted on coming over to thank me and treat me to a meal. I didn’t want to turn them down.”

I let out a quiet "oh" and gently pulled my arm away.

Patty didn’t notice anything was off; she asked, “What are you doing at the office today?”

“Nothing much,” I replied flatly.

The truth was, I was here to apply for a spot in the overseas training program with Chief Drew.

But I didn’t feel the need to share that with her.

“Then wait for me a bit. We’ll go out for dinner together later and I’ll introduce you to them.”

Before I could refuse, Patty had already grabbed my hand and was pulling me upstairs.

“It’s settled then! Cleo and Arnold just got married and we can learn a thing or two from them tonight.”