Love Ends at Daybreak

The ninth time the bike my boyfriend gave me got ridden off by accident, I didn't scramble to pull the security footage again.

I just smiled at the girl. All right. Guess I really did mistake it for mine.

It was my last day as an honorary lecturer at Carrington University, and my bike had been taken nine times. If I still couldn't figure out what was going on, I'd have to be an idiot.

The girl's cheeks went a little pink, and she said timidly, "Professor Lawson, the bike belongs to my boyfriend. I heard those bike people all have group chats. Let me have him help you look for it."

"No need." I shook my head and took one last look at that bike, gone for only half an hour and already hung all over with plush charms.

It was the first gift Reuben ever bought me. Even the paint job was hand-drawn by him, with both our names printed on it.

One of a kind.

On my last day as honorary lecturer, I realized I'd just uncovered my boyfriend's secret.

"Professor Lawson," Penelope said with a shy little smile, "you don't need to worry. My boyfriend and I will help you look for it."

Looking at that bike covered in plush charms, I pressed my lips together, then asked anyway. "Your boyfriend is Reuben Greer?"

"Yeah, why?" Penelope caught the edge in my voice at once, and her expression changed in a flash. She looked me up and down without bothering to hide it, then gave a sweet little laugh. "We've known each other since we were kids. We're very close. He's coming to pick me up soon. Want to come along, Professor?"

I registered the hostility from the girl and paused. I had no interest in arguing with a young girl. "No, thank you."

On the walk back, I gripped my phone but couldn't bring myself to dial Reuben's number.

There are five years between Reuben and me. When my company was first making a name for itself, he was still a college student.

That year, my company had just seen a little success and was lucky enough to be invited to give a talk at Carrington. He said it was love at first sight and started pursuing me.

Everyone around us doubted the relationship, but he chased me for a full year without missing a beat.

This year makes five years together. A few days ago, on our anniversary, we'd just announced our engagement.

Today I was invited back to his alma mater to give another talk. I received congratulations from his advisor and the students in the years below him, and I discovered the other girl he'd been hiding.

By the time I made it back to the temporary lounge, the raw sting in my heels made me realize just how far that walk had been.

The truth is, I don't even like riding bikes. It's just that when he was still a student, he saved up for months to pick out that one for me.

A light bike, one made for a woman.

And because he was afraid I'd think it looked plain, he kept coming over whenever he had time to buy the materials with me, design the pattern, and paint it himself.

At the end, he took my hand in his, and together we added our initials to the design.

Y&L

Reuben Greer & Sabrina Lawson.

I'd just finished putting on a bandage when a Carrington local feed notification popped up on my phone.

Three photos. The first was that bike covered in cute stuffed toys. The second was a strawberry-pink 718 fresh off getting its plates. The last was that girl nestled in a tall pair of arms, smiling with a face full of happiness.

The caption read: Just said I couldn't be bothered to ride, and somebody insisted on giving me a little toy. Love you~

I zoomed in on the last photo. The shirt clip was the Valentine's gift I gave last year. The tie was the custom piece P's just sent over this year...

The boyfriend the girl kept talking about really was Reuben.

For some reason, a strange, absurd sense of things finally settling came over me.

The next second, the ringtone I'd set just for Reuben went off.

The moment I picked up, out came his sticky, doting voice. "Babe, I miss you. Come pick me up, okay? I booked that French place you said you wanted to try yesterday. Let's go for lunch."

He was always like this, never stingy about telling the person he loved how he felt.

He always caught it the moment I felt anxious and unsure, and answered it with the plainest possible declaration of how much he missed me, how much he loved me.

That was exactly why, that year, his eager pursuit had made my heart give way despite myself.

He gave me an address, and it happened to be right near that dealership.

The smile froze on my face.

"Reuben," I said. I wanted to ask him calmly, but my voice shook no matter how hard I tried. "Do you know Penelope Fox?"

The instant the question left my mouth, my heart was pounding. Maybe a second passed, maybe ten minutes, and then Reuben's cold voice came through. "No. Who's been running their mouth in front of you? Babe, I only love you."

I dug my nails into my palm, knowing some things had to be settled face to face. "I'm coming to pick you up right now"

Before I could finish, the flat beep of the line going dead reached my ear, and I froze.

I looked down and saw the message he'd sent: Sorry, babe, my advisor sprang a lab experiment on us out of nowhere. I've got to put my phone away for a while. I'll come home tonight and cook you a big dinner!

He'd attached a screenshot, the muster message from that old professor.

Too bad he didn't know the phone I gave him was a new model our company hadn't even released yet. Every screenshot floats our logo across the top.

And this image had nothing there at all.

I sat frozen on the couch until the glare off the glass hit my eyes and stung tears down my whole face.

For three full hours, Reuben hadn't sent a single message.

But through that girl's feed, I could see exactly what he was doing.

The Skytower, the hardest table to book in all of Carrington City, and the two of them sitting across from each other in a couples' room full of roses, on the table the gift he'd bought her, a limited-edition handbag.

I raised my eyes and saw my own reflection in the window in front of me.

For today's lecture I'd hired someone to do my styling. I'd looked beautiful.

Now the carefully done hair stuck in messy strands against my cheeks, my makeup smeared into a blur somewhere along the way, the whole picture a wreck.

I shifted my numb body and knocked the bag beside me to the floor.

He'd given me that bag a few days ago, for our anniversary. He said I needed something to carry documents, so he'd bought a big, practical one just for that.

Now it looked like maybe it had only come free with that handbag of hers.

I picked up my things and forced myself to think.

I wanted to think carefully about what to do next. But my mind wouldn't stop running off.

What was he doing with that girl right now? Would he be showing off the dimples on that pretty face when they were together?

Reuben had a handsome face, and he loved to smile.

What I loved most were the faint dimples in his cheeks when he laughed, and I'd kiss them every time we were caught up in the moment.

He always said those dimples were born just to be kissed by his Sabrina.

Too bad the dimples were still as sweet, while the man they belonged to had rotted.

"Hello?" A delicate, girlish voice cut into my thoughts. I looked down and found that somehow I'd dialed Reuben's number.

The number saved under a little heart had just been answered by another girl.

"Who is it?" Reuben's voice came closer.

My heart slammed into a fast rhythm. I gripped the phone and didn't hang up.

"No idea. It says Sabrina. Here."

Sabrina...

I gave a bitter laugh.

I don't know how long the silence on his end lasted before I finally heard his voice. "Sabrina, wait till I get home and I'll explain."

The call cut off. I stared at that blood-red heart, a little dazed.

An adult's kind of courtesy is knowing when to make your exit.

Before I even had the chance to cry over the relationship I'd just lost, someone knocked at the lounge door.

Betty Swanson, the secretary who'd come to the school with me, hurried in with a stack of documents in her arms. "Ms. Lawson, there you are. The tower project over in Ashford City is officially underway. This is the plan they just sent, and they need your signature."

Betty pushed me straight into the bathroom.

I splashed water on my face and started going through the documents. The very first page was the partnership project Reuben and I had once discussed.

Last year, after he got into his master's program, he started his own company. It pained me to watch him drinking and schmoozing every day, so I'd steered plenty of partners his way, openly and quietly, the kind Reuben could actually land, helping him find his footing in this city.

And this partnership was the one he'd sent me, saying he wanted to repay everything I'd once done for him.

Honestly, if you set aside the filter I saw him through, Reuben really did count as a young talent, worth close to a hundred million at his age.

But this partnership was only worth ten million or so in profit. To my huge parent company, it was still charity.

My fingers tightened on the paper, but I set the partnership contract aside and kept it.

Sensing the shift in me, Betty quietly handed me another document. "Ms. Lawson, Mr. Greer's Greer Tech has a fifty-million investment project going right now."

Fifty million. Every bit of liquid capital Greer Tech could put up.

I frowned hard and flipped through the file in my hand. He'd invested it in an amusement park?

"Has he gone..." I murmured. Crazy?

To push through the partnership with Greer Tech, I'd given up plenty of my own gains to appease the shareholders who weren't happy about it. And he'd sunk every bit of liquid capital into an amusement park. So what was he going to fund the partnership between our companies with?

My eyes moved down and I saw the project name: The Reuben & Penny Water Parkproposal.

Ha.

Penelope Fox. Reuben Greer.

I crushed the paper in my fist and threw it hard into the trash.

Betrayal in love I could chalk up to rotten character. But if he could betray his own interests too, then all I could say was there was something wrong with his head.

"Betty," I said through gritted teeth, "from now on there's no need to keep track of little things like this."

The last of the documents were the headquarters relocation plan and the draft of my voluntary retention agreement.

Carrington City was fine, but the size the company had grown to needed a bigger market. After several rounds of trial rollouts, we'd decided to move headquarters to Ashford City, which had far more room to grow.

As for the retention agreement, I tore it to pieces and dropped it in the trash.

Now that I knew about Reuben's betrayal, there was no way I'd give up my own business just to stay here.

Betty hurried out with the signed papers. The moment the door clicked shut, the lounge door swung open again.

Reuben's face was drenched in sweat. He'd clearly run the whole way here.

"Baby!" He threw his arms around me and held on tight, his heartbeat pounding against my ear like a drum.

I pushed at him and brought my heel down hard on the top of his foot.

"Ah!" He grunted, but his arms only tightened.

"Let go." My face went cold.

He lifted his eyes to mine, a thin film of tears making him look pitiful. "Baby, I can explain."

Looking at the flushed red at the corners of his eyes, I couldn't help but soften.

That look of his was the one I'd always liked best.

"...Go ahead."

"I really do know her" His voice was strained, guilt threading through it. "She's a girl from my neighbor's family, just got into this school this year. My mom asked me to take her out for a meal, that's all."

"Just a girl from next door?" I asked softly, listening to my own steady heartbeat.

But he answered firmly. "Just the neighbor's girl. That's it."

He even made a joke of it. "We've known each other over twenty years. If anything were going to happen, it would've happened long ago."

Ha.

The childhood-sweetheart script, right on cue.

I couldn't stop the corner of my mouth from lifting, even as my heart throbbed in tight, stabbing pulses.

He still wasn't telling the truth.

He and I had met too late, gotten together too fast.

I'd never known his past, never known that for twenty years there had always been another girl at his side.

Seeing that I said nothing, Reuben spoke carefully. "Baby, if you don't like her, I'll tell my mom I'm done looking after her. Just don't be angry, okay? I'll cook dinner for you tonight, how's that?"

"Fine." I dropped my gaze, knowing some things had to be said plainly. "I'm going to stop by the company. I'll be back tonight."

"Okay! Baby, I'll make your favorite!" He pulled me in tighter. "I love you most."

Caught off guard, I felt him lower his head to kiss me.

Then a gentle female voice rang out beside my ear. It was his ringtone. "Reuben, Reuben, your little Penny's calling~"

The sound hit me like a bucket of cold water. Every bit of the moment vanished in an instant.

He hurriedly hung up and rushed to explain. "It's not me, it's her, she set that, I don't even know when."

The words were barely out before the ringtone started up again.

I pressed his hand down and answered the call labeled with a little fish emoji.

"Reuben! Why are you so slow!" A sweet, chirping voice burst out of the speaker. "I've already bought all our stuff. When are we moving into our new place?"

"Hello? Reuben, why aren't you saying anything?"

Reuben went numb, mouth opening and closing, wanting to explain but not knowing where to begin.

"That's enough." He snatched the phone away and hung up. "Sabrina, listen to me"

"New place?" I cut him off. "The one at Newgarden?"

A row of villas had just been finished at Newgarden a few months back. Lakeside, with open grassland. I'd wanted to buy one.

When Reuben found out, he'd wrapped me up in his arms, smiling, and said we'd move in on our anniversary this year. It was his gift to me, and part of the bride price.

His throat worked. "She doesn't get along with her roommate, she's got nowhere to stay"

"That's our wedding house." My nails dug into my palm, but the catch in my voice broke through anyway. "She is not moving in there!"

"...She's out here all on her own. My mom worries." He hesitated. The words had barely left his mouth when his phone chimed. He glanced at it, then shot to his feet. "Isomething urgent came up at the company. Baby, wait for me to come back and explain."

Watching him rush out, I gave a bitter little laugh.

His mom worries, or he worries.

Maybe even he didn't realize it, but every time he lied, he'd bite his lip without meaning to.

I used to think it was cute. Now it only made me sick.

Once I'd steadied myself, I said my goodbyes to the university and walked straight out the gate.

I didn't go digging into the girl's history with Reuben. The betrayal had already happened. Knowing more would only add to the grief.

I drove alone to the Newgarden Villa. Inside it were the furniture and little pieces I'd bought only days ago, giddy with happiness, and I'd sooner throw every bit of it in the trash than let someone else profit from it.

But my car was stopped at the entrance. "I'm sorry, miss. Your vehicle isn't registered in our system. We'll need to verify your identity."

I pulled out my ID. "I'm the owner of Building 3."

Reuben had bought it, and I'd gone with him. He'd signed on the spot, and I'd seen my own name printed on the deed with my own eyes.

"One moment, please."

A short while later the manager handed my ID back. "I'm sorry, Miss Lawson, but none of the units already sold are in your name."

Something dropped in my chest. I pulled up a photo of Reuben's ID. "What about this person?"

The manager looked down and checked. "I'm sorry, Miss Lawson. There's no record of this gentleman either."

I stood there frozen. After a long moment, I fished out my phone and called a friend. "That Newgarden development your company just finished, do me a favor and check if there's an owner listed named Penelope Fox."

Something in me already knew. Reuben had given the girl our house.

I'd barely hung up when the manager stepped forward, holding out a tablet respectfully.

The information on the screen was almost too glaring to look at.

Building 3, owner changed from Reuben Greer to Penelope Fox.

Time of change: thirty minutes ago.

Thirty minutes ago was right after Reuben took that call and slipped away.

So it was to comfort the girl? An apology gift for answering her call late?

I bit down hard, and thought of the first year we were together, when he'd missed my call because of a lab experiment.

Back then he'd cried until his eyes were red, then pulled out money he'd been saving for ages and bought me a necklace as an apology.

Now that he had money, the apology gift had gone from a fifteen-hundred-dollar silver necklace to a villa worth millions.

Ding!

A text jumped onto my screen.

Sis, I really can't live without him. Please, please give my dear Reuben back to me.

The words were meek, but every photo that followed had my face plastered with one insulting label after another.

The last few were intimate shots of Penelope and Reuben in bed.

I'm not a child. Those photos were more than enough to show exactly what had happened between them.

I didn't reply. I just screenshotted them and sent them to Reuben.

Then I called Betty. "Move my flight to the earliest one you can get. We're going to the company now to finish the last of the handover."

After I hung up, Reuben went more than ten minutes without a reply for the first time. Was the girl keeping him tied up? Or did he think that as long as he explained, all of this would blow over?

I laughed at myself, and my nose stung, and I couldn't stop the tears from wanting to fall.

I liked to think I could pick things up and set them down. But who can ever get a grip on matters of the heart.

Five years together, and I'd always believed my love for him was something I could hold up without shame.

I taught him how to carry himself with people, how to handle company affairs, how to work his way out of a corner.

But now there was one last lesson left to teach him: once you make a choice, you accept what comes with it.

I used my friend's access to have the manager cancel all the furniture I'd bought, then turned and headed to the company.

I buried myself in the paperwork, racing the clock through company business.

Since I'd decided on Ashford City, everything here had to be wrapped up and handed over as fast as possible.

By eleven that night I finally lifted my aching, stiff neck and picked up my phone to order myself some delivery.

The moment I opened it I saw the 99+ notification, all of it from Reuben.

I called him back. He picked up in an instant. "...Sabrina."

"Did you see the messages?" My voice was flat. "I went to Newgarden today. The manager told me I'm not the owner. Reuben, tell me, who stole my house?"

"Sabrina, let me explain! Penny grew up passed from home to home, she's got no sense of security, I only wanted to comfort her, that's why"

"Don't fool yourself too. There's no shortage of houses out there. A whole CEO can't scrape together a million? You had to give away our wedding home?"

"OhI forgot. Mr. Greer sank all his cash into a water park, so of course his pockets are empty. Then you should've asked to borrow from me. I'm not the stingy type, am I?"

I couldn't hold back the malice churning in me. "Mr. Greer, the upper class isn't a cake just anyone gets a slice of."

I hung up and drove straight to a hotel to rest.

Early the next morning I went back to the house. Reuben wasn't there.

I gathered up my documents and got ready to leave in a hurry.

At the door I turned and looked back at the little home I'd lived in for years.

The succulents on the balcony we'd picked out together. The tablecloth on the dining table we'd sewn together. The faint gardenia scent in the air came from the little gardenia tree we'd bought the year we fell in love.

Now the things were still here, but the person was gone.

I shut the door and drove to the airport.