She Never Belonged to Me

I was out delivering food in the blistering heat when I scrolled past a viral couple's vlog on Snapreel. The woman in the video steered with one hand, and the line of her profile looked exactly like my girlfriend, Jenna Wilder. I took a screenshot and sent it to her. [Look, this woman could be your twin.] Jenna replied almost right away, sounding fond and a little exasperated. [Babe, don't be silly. I'm hauling boxes at the warehouse right now and I'm covered in dust.] She followed it with a photo of herself in the warehouse and told me to stay cool out there. I looked at the photo, shook my head, and smiled. Jenna would not even buy an ice cream without splitting it with me. There was no way she was the trust fund girl in that video who threw money around like it was nothing. A moment later, the vlogger posted an update. In the new video, Jenna wore a couture gown in a room filled with red roses, wrapped in the arms of a young man with a dazzling smile. The caption read, [Happy sixth anniversary to the man who's always by my side.] Jenna and I had only been together for three years. Chapter 1 I crouched in the shade by the side of the road in my sweat‑soaked delivery uniform and gulped down a ten-cent bottle of water. In the vlog, the young man grinned from ear to ear. "I'm about to marry the heiress to Wilder Group! I'm officially going to be a Wilder son‑in‑law!" Everyone knew Wilder Group belonged to the richest man in Kingsport. Three years ago, Jenna Wilder had collapsed outside the door of my rental apartment. She had been pale and shaking all over, and she told me her family had lost everything and she did not have a cent to her name. I spent all the money I had on a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup for her. After that, I worked three jobs. I delivered food during the day, washed dishes at a restaurant at night, and handed out flyers on weekends. I could not bring myself to buy a single piece of clothing over 10 dollars, all so I could save up for a better life with her. Jenna felt so bad for me that she started hauling boxes at a warehouse too. For three years, I believed we were building a future together, holding on to each other for warmth in a city as cold as Kingsport. In the end, my girlfriend was the daughter of the richest man in the city. In the video, Cody Whitlock had his arm around Jenna's shoulders and smugly showed off the limited‑edition luxury watch on his wrist. The sight stung my eyes. If they had been together for six years, then what were my three years? "Jen and I are childhood sweethearts. We've been together for six years. "These last three years, our relationship went through some tests for reasons I won't get into, but we're stronger than ever now. "Jen says I'm the love of her life." He kept talking, and Jenna gazed at him fondly the whole time, never once taking her eyes off his face. In a daze, I felt bitterness rise in my throat. My three years had only been a "test" in their relationship. The tears finally spilled over and splashed onto my phone screen. I stared at Cody's profile, and a dull ache spread through my chest. Through the blur of tears, I remembered who he was. His was the face in the cover photo on Jenna's social media page. I had asked her about it once. She had laughed and explained, "Ian, you never like taking pictures, so I found a photo online of a guy who looks a bit like you. When I look at him, it's like I'm looking at you." I touched my own skin, rough and tanned from years of sun and wind, then looked at Cody's smooth, pampered complexion in the video. For three years, I had made a joke out of my own life. Jenna had not even hidden it that well. I had just been too naive and loved her too much to notice anything in all that time. Love had made me forget that princesses in distress only existed in fairy tales. Chapter 2 Just then, my phone buzzed with a notification for a new errand request. The address was the Pinnacle Club, the most exclusive private club in Kingsport. I switched back to the vlog and saw that the location tagged in the video was the Pinnacle Club. My heart sank. Was this fate? After a moment of thought, I wiped the tears from my face and accepted the request. I had to get to the bottom of this. Some truths had to be torn open face‑to‑face, no matter how much they bled. When I reached the private room at the club, the door was slightly ajar, and bursts of laughter and teasing drifted out. "Jen, you're something else. Three years of playing the broke girl, eating street food every day and living in a basement. That must've been rough. "But your plan totally worked. The second your parents found out you were going to marry a delivery guy, they panicked and agreed to let you marry Cody overnight." The speaker was Jenna's best friend, Tori Hastings. Jenna gave a careless laugh with a hint of disgust. "Every second in that place was torture. But it was all worth it. If I hadn't played hardball, the old man never would've agreed to take in Cody after his family went bankrupt." Cody's fawning voice followed. "What about that boyfriend you were living with? Ian something? I heard he did your laundry and cooked for you every day." The room went quiet for a beat. Jenna scoffed. "Ian Colby? I'll just get rid of him. Poor guys like him are easy to fool." Cody looked pleased with himself. He took her hand and said sweetly, "Jen, you're the best. You put up with so much for me." I stood outside the door, cold all over. It was a scorching day, yet I felt as if I had fallen into ice water. I looked down at the calluses on my fingertips that had not yet faded, and my mind drifted back to last winter. We had not turned on the heat so we could save money. My hands were covered in red, swollen chilblains from washing clothes in cold water for so long, and the pain was excruciating. When Jenna came home from work, she pressed my hands against her chest, her eyes red, and kissed every sore. Her voice was choked with tears. "Ian, no one in the world has ever treated me better than you. When I have money, I'm going to buy you a big house and hire ten housekeepers. You'll never have to touch cold water again." I secretly picked up another late‑night shift the very next day because of those words. When she said she wanted an expensive set of business reference books, I spent an entire month making extra deliveries in the freezing wind without telling her. Now that same woman, whose eyes had once been so full of tenderness for me, openly mocked how cheap I was. I pulled myself out of the memory, swallowed the bitterness, and pushed the door open. The laughter stopped at once. The moment Jenna saw me, shock and panic flashed in her eyes. She shot to her feet on instinct, with Cody's hand still resting on her waist. "Ian, what are you doing here?" Cody stayed on the sofa and raised an eyebrow, a clear challenge in his eyes. I realized at once that he was the one who had placed the request. I did not let my gaze linger on him and looked straight at Jenna. She seemed flustered and shot me a warning look, silently telling me not to say anything. In three years together, this was the first time I had ever seen Jenna lose her composure. Even when we first met, at her lowest point, she had always carried herself with a cool reserve. Just as I was about to speak, Cody cut in impatiently. "You're the delivery guy, right? Why are you just standing there? "Drop the stuff off and go." Chapter 3 I stayed where I was, waiting to see how Jenna would react. "Are you deaf? I told you to put it down." Cody snapped impatiently and snatched the coffee out of my hand. The moment our fingers touched, his wrist jerked. More than half the cup of scalding coffee splashed across his expensive white couture shirt. He leaped back and cursed. "Watch what you're doing! My shirt! Do you have any idea how much this shirt is worth? "You can't even deliver a coffee right. You did that on purpose! "Jen, look at him! He's obviously jealous of me, so he threw coffee on me on purpose!" Tori walked over at once, eyeing me with contempt as she sneered. "Delivery guys really have no class. You can't afford to pay for it, so you play dirty? "That shirt's worth tens of thousands of dollars. You couldn't pay for it if you sold yourself! "If you can't afford it, don't do the job. You look so pathetic." One cruel remark after another came at me, crushing what was left of my dignity. Jenna frowned for a moment, yet she still did not move from the sofa. Cody did not seem ready to let it go. Saying he was going to report me on the delivery app, he grabbed a glass of red wine from the table and threw it at me. The cold wine ran down my hair and left me completely humiliated. I looked at Jenna on instinct. Her frown had deepened, and something complicated flickered in her eyes. A second later, she spoke to Cody. "Okay, Cody, don't waste your time on him. I'll buy you another one." "No way! He has to apologize!" Cody refused to back down. "Jen, look at him! A delivery guy trying to seduce someone else's fiancée, and you're actually defending him!" Jenna scolded him with a quick "Stop it," yet she ruffled his hair with a fond, helpless look. Then she turned and looked at me coldly. "Ian, apologize to Cody." My eyes stung, yet I stared back at her stubbornly and said nothing. When I did not move, she seemed irritated. The last trace of guilt in her eyes vanished, and her tone turned impatient. "I told you to apologize. Didn't you hear me?" Jenna walked over and lowered her voice to a harsh reprimand. "If you can't even handle something this small, then don't come out here and embarrass yourself. "Apologize to Cody right now, or I'll file complaints until you lose your job and can't survive in Kingsport." I looked at the face that was both familiar and strange to me. Just that morning, she had hugged me, told me how hard I worked, and promised that once she had money, she would make me the happiest groom in the world. Now she was ready to destroy the job I depended on to survive, all for another man. "Jenna, for three years, I paid for your food and your rent. I even bought your underwear." My voice was hoarse, and I spoke each word slowly. "And you want me to apologize?" A burst of laughter broke out around us. "He paid for your food and rent? Ha! Jen, you really went all in on being a kept woman, huh?" Jenna's face flushed a deep red. She felt humiliated in front of everyone and believed I was deliberately embarrassing her. She raised her hand as if to slap me, yet in the end, she only waved it at me in disgust. "Get out. Now." Chapter 4 I did not know how I had made it back to my apartment. Drained, I sat numbly on the sofa and did not move. Jenna came home that evening. She had changed back into her cheap T‑shirt and carried a takeout order of the spicy wings I always loved, as if nothing had happened. If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would have believed everything that afternoon had been a nightmare. "Ian, you're still up?" She walked over to hug me like she always did. I turned aside to avoid her and stared at her blankly. Jenna stiffened for a moment, then sighed and put on a helpless look. "You misunderstood what happened at the club today. That was one of my big clients, and I was trying to land an investment deal. "That guy is the investor's younger brother. He has a bit of a temper, and I only took his side for the sake of our future. "Ian, if I can close this deal, I'll make a lot of money all at once, and you won't have to wear yourself out delivering food anymore." With that, she went to get hot water so she could give me a foot soak. I looked at her coldly. "Didn't you say you were at the warehouse? Why did you lie to me?" She paused for a split second, then went back to acting natural. "I wanted to wait until the deal was completely finalized before telling you. I wanted it to be a surprise. "Ian, I know you feel wronged. I was too harsh with you today, but I was just putting on a show for them. "No one means more to me than you do." Watching her play the devoted girlfriend, I suddenly felt my stomach churn. "Jenna, if you found out one day that you could live a good life without struggling this hard, would you leave me?" She looked up at me and made a solemn promise. "Never. Ian, you're my whole world." I smiled and did not call her out. While she went to fill the basin, I took a worn‑out notebook from the drawer. It was my ledger. I quietly began to add up every cent I had spent on her over the last three years. Just then, my phone rang. It was Cody. Somehow, he had gotten my number, and he deliberately sent me a photo of him and Jenna at a wedding dress fitting. In the photo, Jenna wore a pure white wedding gown while Cody, dressed in a white tuxedo, wrapped his arms around her from behind. They both smiled sweetly, and the backdrop was the most expensive bridal shop in Kingsport. His message was full of provocation. [Thanks for looking after her for three years. But a stand‑in is still just a stand‑in. Time for the placeholder to exit the stage.] I stared at the fitting photo for a long time, until my eyes ached and burned. In our second year together, I had talked to Jenna about getting married. I held her in my arms and said, full of hope, "Jen, once we've saved up enough, let's get married. "I don't need anything fancy. I'll just rent a regular suit, but you have to wear the most beautiful white wedding dress. Okay?" She leaned against my chest and answered softly, "Okay, Ian. You'll be the most handsome groom ever." Now she had put on the wedding dress I had dreamed of seeing her in, only it was for someone else. As the memories came flooding back, my eyes began to burn. Jenna came back with the water just then, still mapping out a fake future for us. "Ian, once I have money, we'll get married. How about a destination wedding? You love the ocean, right? We could go to..." The more she talked, the less I could hold back my tears. They dropped onto the screen and blurred the glaring smiles on their faces. When Jenna saw me crying, she panicked at once. She hurried to sit beside me, fumbling to wipe away my tears as she tried to comfort me incoherently. "Ian, what's wrong? You don't like the idea of a destination wedding? Okay, then we won't go. We'll have the biggest, liveliest wedding in Kingsport. Please don't cry." I pushed her hand away, turned my phone screen toward her, and slid it across to her along with the ledger. Her face instantly went pale.