When I Walked Away

When she saw me, Lucy instinctively pulled her hand back. Beside her, Zack’s expression flickered with annoyance, but it passed quickly, and he recovered his usual calm, smiling as he stepped forward.

“No wonder I heard from HR the other day that you were looking for Lucy. You could’ve just given her a call. Why come all the way here in person?”

Hearing that, Lucy frowned, as if she suddenly realized something.

“Were you following me?” she asked.

“What do you mean? Don’t you trust me?” I countered, finding it funny, but didn’t bother explaining much. “I wasn’t following you. My friends and I are here for dinner.”

She clearly didn’t believe me.

“Cut the cr*p. Do you think I don’t know whether you have friends? If you were following me, just admit it. Why lie?”

I couldn’t help but smirk.

She knew me better than anyone. She knew I had left my hometown and had almost no friends, yet she had chosen to leave me alone in that city to cool off. I remembered last year, she lied about going home for the holidays, when in fact, she went to accompany Zack. Her excuse back then was that he was upset and alone, and she was worried he might do something drastic. Now, with me, she had another set of justifications.

“Lucy, since Graham is here, why don’t you two talk first? Oh, and hand me the keycard to the room.” Zack smiled at her and held out his hand.

Lucy naturally pulled a card from her pocket and handed it to him. “Wait for me upstairs.”

“Got it.”

Before leaving, Zack shot me a smug glance. The meaning was obvious—they had booked a room together.

Lucy seemed to realize that only a moment later, her eyes flickering in panic.

“The front desk said there’s only one room left,” she said. “Don’t overthink it. It’s a suite. He’ll sleep on the sofa.”

However, if she looked in the mirror, she’d notice the hickey on her neck. Even a fool could see that whatever she and Zack were doing wasn’t entirely innocent.

I didn’t bother exposing her. We were about to divorce anyway. I pulled out my phone and brought up the divorce papers I had prepared in advance. I had originally planned to handle it after my new job started, but since we ran into each other here, it was the perfect moment.

“What’s this?” Lucy asked, puzzled, as she reached for it.

Just then, Zack’s scream echoed from upstairs.

“Zack? What’s wrong?” Lucy sounded panicked, but without looking, she hastily signed the papers and prepared to leave.

“Don’t you want to see what you’re signing for?” I asked.

She replied nonchalantly, “Besides taking my money, what else would you do?”

She took a couple of steps, then paused as if she suddenly remembered something. “Oh, wait. Wait for me here. I’ll give you your gift later.”

Before I could respond, she hurried off in her heels.

I chuckled bitterly. I knew I wouldn’t get it.

Her rushed figure reminded me of years ago. That year, I had fallen seriously ill and didn’t have money for surgery. Lucy had told me not to worry, promising she could help. That night, I woke to find her exhausted, making call after call to borrow money on my behalf. From that moment on, I silently promised myself that I would never let her down.

Later, our company grew, and money was never a problem again. However, she and I could never go back to the way things were.

As Lucy’s figure disappeared around the corner, I silently sent the signed divorce papers to my lawyer. In one month, after the divorce cooling-off period ended, Lucy and I would have nothing to do with each other ever again.