After Fetching My Ex in the Storm, I Left Him

Stuck in a downpour, waiting for my boyfriend to come get me, I scrolled past an emotional-content influencer's fifty-first video about winning back an ex.

It's pouring today. Until you come, I'm not leaving.

The photo showed a girl in a white dress, soaked through.

I tapped into her profile. The bio read:

My handle is your birthday. Every time you need me, I'll post a video. If I post fifty-two and we still haven't made up, then I'll agree to the matchmaking and forget you for good.

The numbers in that handle matched my boyfriend's birthday, and I thought it was just some strange coincidence.

I opened the comments, about to type that no woman should trade her health for a man's pity, hoping to guilt him into staying.

Then a message came in from him.

Got called in to work last minute, can't pick you up. Head home on your own.

I typed back a dejected okay, and when I went back to the account, it had already updated.

Number fifty-two. I always believed you'd never forgotten me, and thank god I waited. Everyone, he's come to get me. We're back together. This account will never update again.

And in the photo, the rag the man was using to wipe her shoes was the good-luck charm I'd embroidered for my boyfriend with my own hands.

The comments were full of two hearts finally becoming one, blinking up at me like needles.

The photo of them with their fingers laced together made my chest clench.

The scar on that broad hand was from last night, when Melvin Henson burned himself making me porridge and picked out the blister himself so I wouldn't worry.

The sheer absurdity of it closed over me, and before I'd even processed anything, my body had already dialed his number.

Melvin's voice was as gentle and attentive as ever.

"Did you get a car? Send me your route so I can track it."

I forced down the lump in my throat.

"Not yet. What are you doing?"

He hesitated.

"Working overtime, obviously."

As he said it, a woman's voice rustled through in the background.

"Do you want to rinse off? You're all wet."

In that instant, it felt like a hand had closed around my heart.

"What are you doing?"

He rushed to explain.

"A pipe burst at the office. Don't read into it, sweetheart."

The call ended in a hurry.

I waited an hour for a car before I finally got home.

Melvin didn't come back until one in the morning.

"Why aren't you asleep? Didn't I tell you not to wait up? Or did you forget you said you wanted to be the most beautiful bride, no late nights?"

He carried the faint scent of gardenia, a perfume I never wore.

Watching how genuine his concern seemed, I couldn't believe that man was him.

I didn't answer, just looked at him with trembling eyes.

"Where's the good-luck charm I gave you?"

He froze for a second.

"The rain was too heavy. The herbs inside got soaked and ruined, so I took it apart to dry it out and asked someone to help restore it."

Then he even showed me a screenshot of his chat with the tailor shop owner.

I'd gotten that charm for him the year before last, after his car accident left him scraped up, bowing every three steps to pray for it. Even when it was damaged, he'd never once let anyone else touch it. He always fixed it himself.

I took a deep breath and told myself it might just be a coincidence.

After all, he'd said the way things ended with his ex was ugly, that they'd never speak again as long as they lived.

"Tomorrow's the wedding-dress fitting. You still remember, right?"

He patted my head.

"Of course."

But the next day, halfway there, he suddenly got a call.

Whatever the other end said, his expression went tense.

After he hung up, he looked at me, serious.

"A coworker has an emergency and needs my help. You go ahead and look. I'll come find you later."

The words slipped out of me before I could stop them.

"But it's hard to catch a car out here. What's so urgent it has to be right now?"

His brows knit together.

"I really do have something to deal with. Stop making a scene."

He pulled me out of the car. It was the first time he'd ever pushed me off like that.

Before, no matter how urgent things got at his company, he always got me settled before he left.

Watching the car speed off, some impulse I couldn't name made me open my phone.

That account had updated at almost the same moment.

My family kept pushing the matchmaking, thank god he came.

And the last digits on the call log in the attached photo were exactly the same as his.

My chest throbbed, over and over, aching hard.

A while later, the bridal shop manager called.

"Ms. Dotson, your appointment time has come and gone. Are you two still coming in for the fitting today?"

It felt like a stone was pressing down on my throat.

My voice came out hoarse.

"We're not coming."

She paused.

"We'll need you to come in and sign for this."

I took a cab to the bridal shop, but before I even reached the door, I caught sight of a familiar figure in the glass front of the mall not far off.

Melvin was sitting next to a girl, the two of them side by side, a few middle-aged people across from them.

They were laughing, talking, leaning close.

I'd seen that girl before, in the photo albums on his page. His ex.

The unease that had knotted in me all night finally settled. So it was all true.

I opened our chat and typed line after line with shaking hands, and none of it said what I felt.

So I took a photo and sent that instead.

Melvin glanced at his phone, and in the same instant his head came up and his eyes locked onto mine.

I don't know what he said to them. He got up in a hurry and came running over, his face all urgency and panic.

"Don't get the wrong idea. Her family's been pushing her hard about marriage, I was just doing her a favor, you"

He never finished. A middle-aged woman came out of nowhere and seized a fistful of my hair.

"So you're the one seducing my daughter's boyfriend? I knew there was something off about you!"

I twisted against the pain.

"I'm not! I'm his girlfriend!"

I looked at Melvin. He was frowning, trying to pull us apart.

The next second Madeline Sullivan ran over, eyes red, and clutched his sleeve for dear life.

"I know you're his ex. Sure, you two only broke up a few days ago, but that still makes you the ex, and coming here to wreck what we have makes you the homewrecker!"

One sentence from her, and every gaze around me turned to contempt.

I looked at Melvin, my eyes stinging, my voice shaking.

"Melvin. Did we break up?"

He stared at me, thrown.

Before he could speak, Scarlett Sullivan slapped me across the face.

"Shameless thing! Throwing yourself at him right in front of us. I'll beat you to death!"

My cheek burned, and not one person stepped in, every attempt to explain cut off by another slap.

Melvin finally couldn't watch anymore.

"Ma'am, please, stop. Madeline's the only one in my heart, you know that. Don't get worked up over someone who doesn't matter. Come on, let's go eat."

For a second my heart stopped dead.

Scarlett was pulled away. On her way out she shot me a vicious glare and spat at me.

"Shameless thing! Let me catch you going after Melvin one more time and I'll hit you again!"

I lay on the ground and watched their backs recede.

Then I met Melvin's eyes as he glanced back.

He sighed, and something like pity flickered through his gaze and was gone.

No one came to help me. I braced against the wall and got to my feet.

At the door, a message from Melvin popped up on my phone.

Go to the hospital and get that patched up first. I'll explain when I'm home. Madeline has depression, she can't handle being provoked, and her mom just gets protective of her daughter. Don't hold it against them.

The man who once couldn't bear to see me hurt at all, the man who used to either call the police or hit back when anyone bullied me, was telling me to let it go.

In that moment I finally understood exactly how much his ex weighed against me.

My lips trembled.

We're done.

After I sent it, I went to the hospital. The doctor said mild concussion.

I came back with the diagnosis in hand and found a heap of my things dumped outside the door.

The fingerprint lock wouldn't take my print, and the code had been changed.

I was about to knock when the door opened.

Melvin looked at me, frowning, keeping his voice low.

"Her parents insisted on seeing where we live, so I had to bring them over. Just make do somewhere else for a few days."

"I've already packed your stuff. I transferred money to your card."

As he said it, a middle-aged woman's shrill voice carried out from inside.

"Who is it? This late?"

Melvin quickly pushed me back out, his face perfectly calm.

"Nobody. Just the recycling guy asking for bottles."

Then he slammed the door shut.

The crash rattled the box teetering on top of the luggage, and the framed photo lying face-down slid loose.

A crisp snap, and the picture of us that Melvin had once kept like a treasure on the very top of the bookshelf shattered to pieces.

A shard cut across that cheek of mine.

Sliced right through the smile.

I crouched to gather the pieces, and the door opened.

Before I could turn, a bag of plastic bottles was tossed out.

Madeline's voice was gentle.

"Don't come around asking anymore. Stop bothering other people's homes."

I froze where I stood.

But this was my home. This was the apartment we were supposed to be married in.

I was the one being intruded on.

And yet I didn't have the courage to say a word.

The man who had promised to always hold up a home for me, to always leave a light on, to give me a place in this city that would forever be mine.

Had thrown me out with his own hands.

Dragging my luggage out of the complex, my phone lit up with a message from my mother.

If you really love him that much, if it has to be him, this year's date is a good oneI had your father get someone to check the calendar. Just go register your marriage that day.

My eyes blurred with tears.

All these years, Mom and Dad had never agreed to us being together. They didn't want me marrying so far from home.

I'd spent all that time waiting for them to relent, and I never imagined they'd relent at the very moment I'd decided to let go.

I turned and looked back up at that window.

Their whole happy family was reflected in the glass.

I typed out a few words.

No need. We broke up.

Mom called almost right away.

I didn't want her to worry, so I made up some excuse and cut the conversation short.

Monday morning, when I got to the office, everyone looked at me strangely.

I couldn't figure out why, until my boss called me into his office.

On his desk was a letter and a phone with the screen still lit.

It was playing yesterday's sceneme being beaten and screamed at as a homewrecker.

The video, titled "Tearing Into a Homewrecker," had been shared hundreds of thousands of times.

"I'm not what they say. This is a misunderstanding!"

He didn't speak. He lifted his chin and tapped the envelope.

When I opened it, Melvin's familiar handwriting cut into my heart, stroke by stroke, like a knife.

I had never imagined that the man who once wrote me hundreds of love letters would sit down and write a report letter accusing me of loose morals, of seducing someone and wrecking another couple's relationship.

My boss sighed.

"I'd heard you stayed on here to get married to your boyfriend, and honestly it moved me. I was even about to make you permanent and give you a raise. But look at the mess now. Pack up and go. I'll have accounting transfer your wages to you."

My fingertips burned as if scalded, and the envelope drifted to the floor.

With shaking hands I called him.

Each call was hung up, one after another.

In the end there was only a text.

They forced me to write that report letter. Just wait a little longeronce I've finished playing along with her, I'll explain everything to you. Go home and lie low for now.

I turned off my phone and blocked him.

But the moment I got back to the hotel, I saw Mom and Dad. They'd heard I'd broken up, thought I'd been bullied, and had rushed over in a panic.

I didn't want them to worry, so I only said it was all a misunderstanding.

Right now I just wanted to leave here as fast as I could.

Just as we were about to check out and go, Madeline and her mother came running up, phones held high.

"See her? That's the homewreckerspending my future son-in-law's money and hiding out in a hotel! I'm telling you, the two of them are getting married any day now. You give that money back, right now, or I'll make you regret it!"

Dad pushed me behind him.

"What are you talking about? Who's your son-in-law? What does any of this have to do with my daughter?"

Madeline's eyes went red.

"Sir, you protect her so fiercely, so you clearly treat your daughter well. How did you raise one who'd seduce another woman's fianc and become his mistress?"

Father's face changed.

"Impossible! My daughter dated her boyfriend for five years, and they've already broken up. Don't stand here spouting nonsense. Turn all those phones offyou're violating our privacy!"

With that, he shoved Madeline's phone away.

She lost her footing and fell to the ground.

Scarlett's eyes went wide.

"He hit someone, he laid hands on her! Look at these people, how arrogant they arelike father, like daughter, a crooked beam over a warped one. Covering for a homewrecker, no less. There's no justice left in this world!"

As the words fell, a figure burst through the crowd of onlookers and rushed over.

When I made out Melvin's face, I thought he'd come to set things straightbut instead he charged in and shoved my father aside.

"What do you think you're doing! Laying hands on someone in broad daylight is against the law!"

My father staggered and went straight down, his head striking the wheel of the suitcase.

"Dad! Dad, are you okay!"

The chatter in the crowd stopped at once.

Only then did Melvin see that I was there too.

I glared at him, my eyes gone bloodshot.

"Have you lost your mind! Can't you see they were the ones who started it?"

"If anything happens to my dad, I will not let this go!"

He looked at the blood pooling and running across the ground, then panicked and moved to help me lift my father.

"I I didn't see you here, I didn't know that was your dad, I"

But the moment he took a step, Madeline cried out.

"My arm hurts."

Melvin let go instantly and swept her up into his arms.

"I'll get her to a doctor first. Whatever this is, we can deal with it later!"

Scarlett followed close behind.

"Shameless, the whole lot of them. They all deserve to die!"

I looked at my father's ghost-white face, and the tears came before I could stop them.

"Dad, hold on. I'm taking you to the hospital right now!"

Officers from a nearby patrol heard the commotion and drove the three of us to the hospital in their squad car.

Outside the emergency room.

I pushed my father's gurney forward.

"Save my dad, please, save him now!"

Melvin's voice came from behind me, that familiar voice.

"Wait, see her first. She's covered in blood."

Then he shoved his way in front of us with Madeline in his arms, blocking every doctor's line of sight.

I stared at him, unable to believe it.

"That's my father's blood on her!"

His eyes were red.

"He only hit his head. At worst it's a brain hemorrhage. Madeline is already unconscious, she's in danger, there's no time to lose! Don't stand here throwing a jealous fit and holding up her treatment!"

He pushed forward with everything he had, trying to shove my father off the gurney.

Thank god the doctors and nurses stopped him.

"This is the ER. A doctor will assess every patient. Stop shouting and disrupting the other patients!"

Then they wheeled my father into the exam room.

Another doctor took Madeline off to be examined.

The officers hurried in to ask what had happened, and stayed with us through the surgery until deep into the night.

My father already had high blood pressure. Madeline and Scarlett had worked him into a rage, and he was already showing the warning signs of a brain hemorrhage. Melvin's shove set the whole thing off.

He'd been brought in just in time. Any later and the outcome didn't bear thinking about.

When my mother saw him wheeled out, her legs gave and she sank to the floor.

"He's okay, he's okay. God, that frightened me."

They moved my father into the ICU for observation.

The officers, seeing there was nothing more to do, left.

My mother and I sat on the bench outside, staring at nothing, until dawn broke and my father was wheeled out of the ICU.

The harassing calls and texts on my phone hadn't stopped, one after another.

I opened my phone. Madeline had just posted a new video.

Harassed by his ex, thank god he was there, otherwise I honestly don't know if I'd have lived to see the sun again.

One photo of Melvin at the hospital, keeping her company.

One a screenshot she'd taken from another influencer's clip of us fighting at the hotel.

We'd been made into the shameless homewrecker and her brazen, savage parents.

The shot of my father knocking her phone away was blurry, twisted into a picture of a man losing his temper and hitting someone.

The comments called our faces ugly with malice, said we'd hurt her on purpose. Someone dug up my account, and people started urging every righteous soul to message him for my contact details.

Amid the flood of harassing calls from IP addresses all over the place, a message from Melvin popped up.

Madeline's fine, she was just badly shaken, I was too worked up yesterday. How's her father, is he all right.

I glanced at it.

Thanks to you going easy, he's not dead. Brain hemorrhage. Still unconscious.

He typed and deleted for a long while, then finally just called.

"I didn't handle this well. Once Scarlett goes back home, I'll come apologize to your father in person, I promise."

"Cut me some slack too. Explain it to your father for me. I only wanted to help her get her family off her back about marriage. Once this is over, we'll get married."

Listening to him, so high-minded and shameless, not even bothered by any of it.

I let out a cold snort.

"No need. The law will get us our justice."

His breath caught. Before he could say anything, a knock came from the other end of the line.

"Is this Mr. Melvin Henson, Ms. Madeline Sullivan, and Ms. Scarlett Sullivan?"

"We're officers from the police station. We received a report. The three of you are suspected of assault and of fabricating false information to maliciously incite online abuse against a citizen. Please come with us."