Countdown to Goodbye

My husband, Lawrence Schwartz, and I were both liars.

He lied to me, saying he would forget his first love, yet his phone is filled with photos of her.

I lied to him, saying I would never leave, while secretly planning a future without him.

A month ago, I tricked Lawrence into signing the divorce papers.

Today was the final day to complete the entire divorce process..

Three hours left. I packed all my luggage and bought a plane ticket for the next day.

Two hours left. I cut up every photo of us together, leaving only myself in the album.

Last hour. I thought about leaving a message, then decided against it.

Today marked the tenth year I had loved him and the first day I left him.

I went to deliver the wedding planning contract to Lawrence Schwartz at the agreed time and heard him chatting casually with a friend in his office.

"Kayla's coming back soon. Are you still going to have a makeup wedding with Rebecca?"

Lawrence only gave an absent-minded "Yeah" while checking his watch over and over. "Why isn't she here yet?"

But I knew he wasn't checking the time for me.

He was anxious to go pick up his first love, Kayla Walton. Today was the day she returned to the country.

Back then, when she got engaged, Lawrence married me out of spite.

Three days ago, Kayla got divorced.

He got drunk that night, and when he sobered up, he suggested having a delayed wedding ceremony with me.

It was nothing more than a way to provoke Kayla once she came back. My marriage was just a prop in their emotional drama.

When I pushed the door open, Lawrence impatiently held out his hand.

"The wedding contract."

I handed him the contract I had prepared long ago.

The second-to-last page contained a divorce agreement I had secretly slipped inside.

"There seems to be an additional clause. If you have time, you can take a closer look."

But I chose this timing on purpose because I knew one thing.

He wouldn't have time.

Sure enough, he flipped straight to the last page.

"I'm heading out to pick someone up. I don't have time to read this."

A trace of tenderness flashed through his eyes.

His impatience was for me, while his softness was reserved only for Kayla.

He signed hastily and left, showing me nothing but his back.

I had been married to him for five years. He wasn't completely cold to me, just sparing with affection.

I tried to make him get used to me with love.

Yet even in news articles, he was always introduced as a bachelor.

Any gossip headlines only talked about his tragic love story with Kayla.

As his wife in a hidden marriage, I didn't even deserve to have my name mentioned.

After all, Lawrence had a first love, a woman he loved to the point of madness.

The day Kayla divorced, the man who never smiled at home drank himself senseless, but his face was lit up with a grin the entire time.

Even when he looked at me, there was a faint smile on his lips.

It was a smile I had begged for, for years, without ever getting.

I took care of him until late at night and used Kayla's birthdate to unlock his phone.

I opened the photo album. It was nearly out of storage.

Every single photo was of Kayla.

There wasn't a single one of me.

The cover photo of the album was our wedding portrait, but my face had been photoshopped into Kayla's.

I remembered how Lawrence had refused to hold a wedding ceremony when we registered our marriage, yet insisted on taking wedding photos.

Now I understood why.

In that moment, I knew.

This five-year marriage had reached its end.

All that remained was the mandatory cooling-off period before divorce.

I started the one-month countdown.

Coincidentally, the wedding ceremony Lawrence promised to make up to me was a month away.