My Fiancé Took His Ex to Tahoe Every Year for 5 Years—So I Canceled Our Wedding and Disappeared
Chapter 2
The recruiter remembered me.
“We’re actually expanding another team,” she said. “Since you already completed the full interview process, we can move quickly.”
“I’m interested.”
“How interested?”
I looked at Emma’s shoes by the door.
“Very.”
By noon, I had a Monday interview. By afternoon, I was sitting in the realtor’s office signing away the townhouse.
I wasn’t punishing Lucas. I wasn’t trying to hurt him financially. I was simply refusing to pour more money into a future that suddenly felt built on missing information.
Lucas came home Sunday evening looking rested.
He kissed my cheek and handed me a paper bag.
“Got you something.”
Inside was a wooden magnet shaped like a snowy mountain.
“Thanks.”
“Emma picked it. She said the other one looked cheap.”
He said it without hesitation.
For five years, Lucas had brought me Tahoe souvenirs—a coaster, a key chain, a coffee mug. I used to place them on the refrigerator and think he had remembered me while he was away.
Now I pictured Emma standing beside him while he bought them.
As Lucas removed his coat, a small jewelry-store bag fell from the pocket.
I picked it up.
“What’s this?”
He reached for it. “Emma’s birthday gift.”
“What did you get her?”
“A necklace.”
“You bought it today?”
“No. It was custom. I ordered it a couple months ago.”
Something inside me became very quiet.
The previous year, Lucas had forgotten my birthday.
I had cooked dinner and bought myself a small cake. He arrived after ten, saw the candles, and froze.
“Oh, God. Nora.”
I laughed because I didn’t want to cry.
He promised to make it up that weekend.
A friend invited him golfing.
My birthday disappeared.
For twelve months, I had comforted myself with the same explanation.
Lucas wasn’t a birthday person.
Except Lucas could order a custom necklace two months ahead.
That night, while he answered email in bed, I asked, “Do you put more effort into Emma than you put into me?”
He sighed.
“What happened now?”
“Nothing happened. I’m asking you.”
“She’s an old friend.”
“You plan Tahoe with her.”
“I don’t plan it. She comes up.”
“You photograph her.”
He went still.
“You ordered her birthday gift months ahead.”
“She gave me an expensive pen last year.”
“You forgot my birthday.”
“One birthday.”
“She leaves shoes in our home.”
That stopped him.
“How do you know about those?”
“I found them.”
“She left them when she came over with everybody a few months ago.”
“I wasn’t here.”
“You were visiting your parents.”
I stared at him.
“So while I was gone, your ex was in our apartment leaving shoes for your next vacation together?”
“Nora, listen to yourself.”
“Why does she call you Luki?”
His jaw tightened.
“It’s something from when we were kids.”
“And she still calls you that.”
“We’ve known each other twenty years.”
History.
That was always the answer.
History gave Emma access.
History excused the nickname, the private weekends, the jewelry, the photographs, the secrets.
I asked the question that had been building inside me since I turned on that camera.
“Why is everything I want from you too much, but with her it’s effortless?”
“That’s not true.”
“You say you hate planning trips.”
“I do.”
“You say you don’t care about pictures.”
“I don’t.”
“You say birthdays aren’t important.”
“They’re not.”
“Then why do all those things for her?”
His voice rose.
“This is ridiculous.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. I’m marrying you, Nora. Isn’t that enough?”
I looked at him.
He meant it.
That was when something ended.
In Lucas’s mind, marriage was the grand prize that should excuse everything else. I got the mortgage, the vows, the shared bills, the responsible future.
Emma got Tahoe.
Emma got the beautiful photographs.
Emma got the thoughtful birthday gift.
Emma got private jokes, old nicknames, and traditions I wasn’t allowed to question because Lucas intended to marry me.
“You’re right,” I said.
His shoulders relaxed.
“It’s enough.”
He had no idea what I meant.
