My Fiancé Chose Her So I Chose Myself Chapter 19
Travis took a velvet box out of his pocket.
When he opened it, the engagement ring I had left on the coffee table three years ago was nestled inside.
The band had been resized, and an even more expensive halo of diamonds now surrounded the center stone.
“Natalie, I know how badly I messed up.”
Tears hit the carpet by his shoes.
“I can give up the company. I can give you everything and reapply for partner registration. Can you please just give me one more chance? Just one.”
His knees began to bend.
“Stand up,” I said, my voice cold. “I don’t need this performance.”
He froze.
I looked at him, then at the ring that was three years too late.
I felt no satisfaction, no sense of revenge. I no longer cared enough for hatred to even matter.
“Travis, that night three years ago, I was in the airport, too. I waited there all night, and you came back with four blankets.”
His body went rigid, every trace of color draining from his face.
“The Natalie who pushed five suitcases through freezing rain, the Natalie who sat through IV treatment alone while you accused her of stalking you—you left that Natalie behind three years ago.”
I looked at him, my voice calm and even.
“The woman standing in front of you now is Natalie Whitman, Executive Vice President at Northstar and a member of the Thames Riverside pack. She has no partner bond with you, and she doesn’t owe anyone in Lakecrest a second glance.”
I didn’t take the box. I walked straight past him.
The overhead announcement was calling the London flight.
Sunlight streamed through the terminal glass, spilling across the walkway ahead.
Travis sank back down into the chair. The velvet box slipped from his hand, and the ring rolled to the edge of the carpet.
I didn’t look back.
My life was already a much wider world.
“Goodbye, Travis.”
I walked toward the gate.
My phone vibrated once in my hand.
Marissa had forwarded me an email from TerraGrid’s new board and the Lakecrest council inspectors. The subject line was a single sentence.
*Special review regarding disclosure gaps in former management’s financial reporting.*
I stopped for a second and glanced back at Travis in the distance.
He was still sitting there, thinking all he had lost was a ring.