Chapter 5: Letting Go of Forever

For a moment, he looked almost amused, but the suspicion in his eyes never faded.

He looked at me, wary. “Miss Cole, this isn’t a game. I already have a girlfriend.”

His tone was clipped, almost defensive.

I could tell I’d rattled him, but he hid it well.

I kept up the act: “She’s just a girlfriend, not a wife. I still have a chance, don’t I?”

I must have seemed shameless, like the scheming villainess in every novel.

Ethan must have thought so too. He ignored me and went into his office.

I watched his retreating back, swallowing my pride.

I’d never been so forward in my life, but desperation makes fools of us all.

On the 38th day, during a company retreat, I witnessed the intimacy between Ethan and Lily. He cared for her meticulously, picking out fish bones for her, watching the door every time she left the table.

This was not the Ethan I remembered—he was never so restless.

The retreat was held at a lakeside lodge, the kind of place where the air smells of pine and old money. I watched them from across the dining hall, the way Ethan’s hand hovered near Lily’s, the way his eyes followed her every move.

It was both comforting and excruciating.

I began to question: did he really only love that face? Or was Lily more than just a substitute?

The doubt gnawed at me, eating away the certainty I’d clung to.

Maybe Ethan had changed more than I realized.

That night, maybe drunk and overwhelmed, I confronted Lily in the hallway. “Do you know you look exactly like Ethan’s ex-girlfriend? Do you love him? How can you bear to be someone else’s stand-in?”

She looked at me with sad, gentle eyes, then smiled.

Before I could say more, Ethan appeared, furious, shielding Lily: “What are you doing?”

His anger was a shock—protective, fierce.

It was the kind of anger I used to inspire, but now it was turned against me.

Lily’s silent smile haunted me as I stumbled away.

He had once protected me like that. Now, I was the one he glared at.

Five years had changed everything.

I turned and left before my tears fell. Behind me, I heard him assure Lily, “You’ve never been anyone’s substitute.”

His words echoed in my mind long after I left.

I wondered if he believed them, or if he was just trying to convince himself.

That night, alone on my balcony, I drank under the stars and remembered the angel’s pitying gaze.