Three days into the trip, my mom called.

“Julian came by the house. Your dad wouldn’t let him in.”

“He was carrying a pile of shopping bags. Said he wanted to apologize.”

“Looking at him, you’d never think he was capable of everything you told us.”

“If you hadn’t told us everything before you left, we never would’ve known. We probably would’ve let him right in.”

She was right.

Most people in my position would’ve kept it quiet. Blamed it on “irreconcilable differences.” Swallowed the humiliation just to keep up appearances.

But that wasn’t me.

None of this was my fault. Why should I be the one hiding it? Why should I be embarrassed when I wasn’t the one who did anything wrong?

“He’s only showing up because I’ve been ignoring his calls and texts,” I told her.

“I’ve already sent him new papers. If he doesn’t sign, I’ll file through the court.”

“This is happening, Mom. I just need you and Dad in my corner.”

“Of course we are. You’re our daughter. Julian’s nothing to us. If he hadn’t married you, we’d never have known his name.”

“We weren’t born yesterday, Claire. We know whose side we’re on.”

I laughed, a real laugh, for the first time in a while.

And then the ache came back, just for a second.

My parents had always been like this. Steady. Unwavering.

If I’d told them about Chloe sooner, they would’ve had my back years ago.

I was the one who kept myself trapped. Three years I’d never get back.

But three years wasn’t a lifetime. It wasn’t too late.

Knowing they had my back made everything easier.

For the rest of the trip, nearly a month, I didn’t reply to a single one of Julian’s messages. I didn’t answer a single call.

I was wandering through a museum one afternoon when Chloe’s name lit up my phone.

[Claire, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have accepted all those things from Julian. It was wrong. I should’ve turned the packages away or told him to delete my address.]

[Then maybe things wouldn’t have gotten this bad between you two.]

[But what was I supposed to do? Julian was my first love. We liked each other all through high school and started dating right after graduation. That’s almost ten years.]

[Ten years is a long time to throw away.]

[I can’t stand the thought of him changing the ringtone he set for me or deleting my address. I just can’t.]

[If you really love him, you should understand how I feel, right?]

The first line was an apology. Everything after that was a flex.

I’d never asked about their history. I didn’t need to. The past was the past.

If they’d really loved each other, they wouldn’t have broken up. And Julian never would’ve chased after me.

He chose me. He dated me. He married me. That was supposed to mean Chloe was his past and I was his future.

I didn’t expect someone could move on, build a whole new life with someone else, and still never let go.

Julian had kept Chloe planted right in the middle of our marriage. And that splinter had worked its way deeper every day until I couldn’t take it anymore.

I was drifting through a farmer’s market when I typed back.

[If you’ve already won, why are you apologizing?]

If she had him, she should own it. Drop the act.

She didn’t write back.

I blocked her and deleted the conversation.

I’d only added her in the first place to ask for my packages back.

But she’d shut that down with one line.

[I didn’t buy these. Julian did. I asked him, and he said they were for me.]

She wasn’t wrong. Julian placed every order. Whether I’d picked the item out or he’d bought it for me, his name was on the account. He could send it wherever he wanted.

I had no claim to any of it except through him.

After that, I stopped going to Chloe. Every time a package ended up at her place, I went to Julian.

He never once took my side.

Three years. Dozens of packages, maybe closer to a hundred. He didn’t bring back a single one.

Thanksgiving was the one exception. And the only reason he brought those clothes back was because they didn’t fit anyone at Chloe’s.

I never had any ground to stand on with Chloe anyway.

Because maybe, when Julian hit “order,” he had always been sending it to her.

I was the one trying to take what wasn’t mine.

Looking back, one wrong delivery was a mistake. Two was careless. But seventy or eighty?

He could’ve deleted her address. Changed the default. Even called the store after placing the order to fix it. There were a hundred ways to solve this.

He never tried a single one.

And I was the fool who kept asking for them back.

But it was over now.

Chloe was out of my life for good. Once the divorce went through, Julian could buy her whatever he wanted. It wouldn’t be my problem anymore.