Blog

Chapter 4: The Severed Tie

Inside the club, expensive whiskey overflowed the crystal glasses. Loud, obnoxious laughter and the smell of heavy cigar smoke filled the air.

I blended seamlessly into the people sitting at the banquet table, raising my glass. I forced a polite, flawless corporate smile, toasting each aggressive guest.

Under the table, my phone vibrated constantly in my pocket. It was a barrage of calls from Nathaniel.

I knew he didn’t like this. I had to bow my head and smile at men who viewed me as prey. Nathaniel always thought it was unnecessary, that it wasn’t worth sacrificing my self-respect for money. He had once said to me, gently, “What’s so special about that job? If you really need money, just tell me.”

But for me, my financial independence was essential. I needed money. I needed money to pay for my father’s physical therapy, to support my mother’s psychiatric care, and I needed money to live decently. But I absolutely refused to beg for it from Nathaniel under the guise of “friendship.” I wanted him to look at me as an equal. I wanted to stand beside him with dignity, not clinging to his charity like a parasite.

After several rounds of drinks, a senior business partner, taking advantage of his tipsiness, deliberately placed his heavy hand on my thigh.

I maintained a calm, skillful expression, smoothly standing up and withdrawing myself from his reach. They hinted heavily that if I wanted a bright future and a signed contract tonight, I should show some “sincerity” upstairs.

I smiled, picked up my briefcase, and walked away. I had worked day and night. I had endured enough humiliation to climb out of poverty, but I was not going to sell my soul to end up like that. I left the unsigned contract on the table.

After escaping the smoke-filled room, I made an excuse to go to the restroom. Standing in front of the marble sink, I splashed cold water on my face, trying to fight the nausea of the alcohol.

I checked my phone. In just one hour, there were six missed calls from Nathaniel.

At the bottom of the screen, there was a single, new text message from Victoria.

“I forgot to officially introduce myself earlier. Nate and I have set a wedding date. Next May. Our happiness still needs a ‘good friend’ like you to witness it.”

It turned out she wasn’t just his girlfriend. She was his fiancée.

Time flies so fast. We’re getting married soon.

Nathaniel clearly knew what I was dreaming of by staying by his side, yet he had never once mentioned his engagement to me.

I splashed more cold water on my face and looked straight into the mirror. My eyes were tired, slightly red from lack of sleep, but there was still a glimmer of fierce light in them. Like a glowing ember in a dying fire, ready to burst into a raging flame with just a gentle breeze.

In that moment, standing in the restroom, the spell broke. I realized I was no longer the naive little girl who had blindly gazed up at the moon.

Nathaniel never chose me. He only used his ambiguity to bind me, to nurture a desperate feeling I couldn’t refuse because it fed his ego. We did not belong to the same world. Even if I waited another five years, the result would be no different from today. We stood on two entirely different stages, holding completely opposing scripts. From the beginning, there should have been no interaction whatsoever.

Therefore, I was going to walk my own path.

At 10:00 PM, the networking party ended. I saw the last guest leave the headquarters.

As soon as I reached the heavy iron gates of the club, I noticed that Nathaniel’s Porsche was still parked in the exact same spot across the street. On the wet pavement next to his driver’s side door, dozens of long, crushed cigarette butts lay scattered. He had been waiting for hours.

Seeing me step out safely, he immediately stepped out of the car, his eyes red. “Audrey, I didn’t really mean what I said…”

“Nathaniel, I have something I want to tell you,” I interrupted him. The clouds had completely dissipated from my eyes, leaving only a bright, clear, absolute light.

I walked over to his car. The interior ceiling was designed like a sparkling, artificial starry sky. Nathaniel leaned against the open door. He reached out gently, wanting to caress my hand as he used to.

“Audrey, I was just angry when I said that,” he whispered.

But as soon as his fingertips brushed the back of my hand, I pulled my hand back sharply.

“Nathaniel, I’ve thought about this very seriously,” I said, my voice unwavering. “We are done.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Nathaniel’s jaw clenched tightly. His pupils suddenly dilated, and the veins on his temples stood out clearly. “Audrey, what are you saying? Done?”

I repeated each word clearly, without a single ounce of hesitation. “Breaking up means we shouldn’t continue being ‘friends’ like this anymore. You go your sunny, golden path, and I’ll cross my solitary bridge. We’ll never meet again.”

Nathaniel looked at me for a long time with a strange, panicked, incomprehensible gaze. Finally, he let out a harsh, incredulous laugh. “Audrey, you’re still angry about Victoria, aren’t you?”

Perhaps only now did he truly realize I wasn’t joking. His lips began to tremble. “Okay. Fine. From now on, I’ll never complain about your work again. You can do whatever you want. I won’t object. I’ll support you.”

I looked straight into his panicked eyes, slowly shaking my head.

“The person I started liking when I was nineteen… The person I spent six years pursuing… Until this exact moment, you are still a handsome, radiant man. I can still objectively appreciate your appearance. But I am no longer infatuated with you.”

“Audrey, don’t do this,” he breathed.

“Nathaniel, in the past six years, I’ve confessed my feelings no less than three times,” I continued relentlessly. “But you never gave me a clear answer. You always made excuses to silence me. So let me ask you one last, final time. Be a man. Have you ever, truly, thought of me as your equal? As your partner?”

Nathaniel was utterly speechless. He parted his lips, but he couldn’t utter a single word. The truth was written all over his terrified face.

I looked at his hesitation, his confusion, and I laughed. A genuine, freeing laugh.

He had never thought of me that way. Then why did he stubbornly, selfishly keep me by his side?

“Nathaniel, are you really that desperate for an audience?” I asked quietly. “Even now, I have to accept the truth. You never truly loved me. You only used my adoration to validate yourself. You used an ambiguity that I couldn’t refuse to keep me imprisoned as your emotional fluffer. You don’t love me. You only want to control me.”

“Audrey, stop. I don’t want to lose you,” Nathaniel sighed heavily, covering his face with his hands, his eyes tired and sad as he looked at me. Even his usually arrogant, smooth voice was now hoarse and broken.

I gently took his words and completely dismantled them. “But in this world, how many things are permanent? No one can be with someone forever. You don’t need to keep me hanging in purgatory anymore. Nathaniel, we are ending this. After all, I refuse to trade my entire youth just to receive a ‘maybe’ from a coward.”

Nathaniel stared at me for a long time, his eyes filled with countless emotions that he couldn’t name—regret, panic, sorrow.

Finally, the heavy silence was broken by the ringing of his car’s Bluetooth console. The dashboard lit up. It was a call from Victoria.

“Do you want to answer that?” I asked, gesturing to the screen.

I understood the time had come. I stepped away from his car, pulling my coat tighter around my shoulders.

Just as I turned to walk away, Nathaniel asked one last, desperate question. “Why? Why so sudden, Audrey?” He looked at me, his eyes filled with weariness and profound disappointment.

I stood in the cold wind, smiling faintly. “Happy wedding, Nathaniel.”

Actually, only recently did I truly understand everything. From the beginning, Nathaniel never thought there would be an ending between us. What he liked was merely the vague, comforting feeling of having my unconditional devotion. What he wanted was just a comfortable, ego-boosting relationship for himself. The good things he did for me—the expensive coffees, the rides home, the late-night texts—were just a tiny, microscopic part of his vast, billionaire world. So incredibly small that a gust of wind could blow them away without affecting his life.

Like feeding pigeons in a town square, all I had ever received was just a few crumbs of bread falling lazily from his hand.

Thinking this through, the heavy, suffocating weight on my chest vanished. I suddenly felt lighter, and more at peace than I had in six years.

(Click ‘Next’ to continue)