He Married Her While I Waited at the Altar, I Called My Mother While She Called Me Back Chapter 05
“Do you think he’ll come looking for you?”
Riley handed me a mug of hot milk. I curled up on her couch, took the mug, and took a sip.
The milk had just been heated, and the mug was still hot to the touch.
“He will. But not because he cares about me.”
“Then why?”
“Because he’s used to me.”
I stared at the film forming on top of the milk, speaking slowly.
“No one is cleaning his apartment, no one is ironing his clothes, and no one is paying his bills anymore. The vegetables in the fridge are probably expiring, and the trash can is getting full. He
doesn’t miss me; he misses the person doing all the chores.”
Riley leaned against the armrest of the couch looking at me. She opened her mouth, but ultimately
said nothing.
She was the type of person who rarely stayed quiet.
In these three days, she had been silent more times than in the past three years combined.
At noon the next day, her boyfriend texted her.
Riley’s boyfriend was Mason, who was in that group chat with Julian’s friends.
She had kept it from me the whole time, only confessing when she couldn’t hide it anymore.
Mason said Julian had sent over thirty messages asking everyone if they knew where I was.
He went to the bridal boutique. The owner told him Stella came to return the dress and left without
leaving contact info.
He went to the alley where I usually ate noodles. The owner said she hadn’t seen that girl in a long
time
He even went to the cafe where I used to do freelance translation. The receptionist checked the schedule and said that person hadn’t worked there in ages.
He asked everyone.
Not a single person knew where I had gone.
Because in his social circle, nobody truly knew me.
When he introduced me to everyone, he always said I was “just a temp”.
He didn’t bring me to friends’ gatherings or company annual parties, and he even went back to his hometown alone for the holidays.
For three years, I was like a nameless shadow, stuck behind him doing dishes, cooking, paying off loans, and staying up late to revise his proposals.
Now that the shadow was gone, he finally realized the house was empty.
On the evening of the third day, he used his office landline to call Riley.
I was sitting right next to her.
Riley picked up and put it on speaker.
“Riley, is Stella with you?”
His voice was a bit hoarse, like he hadn’t slept well.
“No.”
“Where did she go? Do you know?”
“How would I know? Why don’t you ask yourself?”
“What do you mean?”
Riley took a deep breath.
“Julian, when you were calling her a clown, why didn’t you ask where she was? When you ghosted her in front of two hundred people, why didn’t you wonder where she’d go? Now you’re suddenly panicking?”
The other end of the line was silent for a long time.
So silent I thought he had hung up.
Riley hung up first.
She turned to look at me, her expression a mix of vindication and pity.
“Felt good to chew him out. You okay?”
“I feel good for you.”
She smiled a little, then sighed.
On the fourth night, after I came out of the shower, Riley was sitting on the couch staring at her
phone screen, a strange expression on her face.
“Take a look at this.”
She turned her screen toward me.
Julian had posted an Instagram Story.
It was the first post related to me since he got married.
He dug up an old screenshot of our chat.
I remembered that day. He was working late until 2 a.m., and I sent him a text: [Are you hungry? I’ll
go downstairs and grab you a late-night snack.]
He hadn’t replied then.
Now he posted that screenshot, with just one line of text:
[Stelia, come back.]
The first comment underneath was from Hailey.
[Julian, what is the meaning of this?]
He didn’t reply to her.
I stared at the screen for three seconds and was about to push the phone back.
Riley stopped me.
“No, no, that’s not the point. Keep scrolling down. Look at Hailey’s second comment.”
She scrolled the screen down.
Hailey had added another sentence: [Didn’t you say she was nothing compared to me?]
Nothing compared to me.
Four words.
So that was how he described me.
I saved up the seed money for his startup, stayed up late writing his business plans, paid off his mortgage and car loan, and even bought health supplements for his mother.
But in front of Hailey, all of that was boiled down to four words.
Nothing compared to me.
Riley watched my face slowly change color and asked softly.
“Are you okay?”
I picked up my own phone and opened Instagram.
It was an account I registered three years ago, and my profile picture was a photo of Julian and me
taken at Cobblestone Lane.
I long-pressed and hit delete account.
The system popped up a confirmation box: Deleting your account will permanently erase all data. Do you wish to continue?
I tapped confirm.
“I’m going to an interview tomorrow.”
Riley looked surprised.
“What interview?”
“The Management Trainee offer in Bayview City that I turned down three years ago.”
“It’s been three years. They still want you?”
“The director messaged me on LinkedIn last month. He said they’ve hired people on and off for this role, but never found the perfect fit. He asked if I’d be interested in chatting again.”
“Why didn’t you reply to him back then?”
“Because back then, I hadn’t thought about leaving.”
Riley opened her mouth, eventually swallowing whatever she was going to say, and just said one,
sentence.
“Then you should go.
I locked my phone and placed it face down on the coffee table.
Screen facing down, so I wouldn’t see any notifications.
Three years was enough.