Chapter 5
592words
Then, I went scorched earth. I drained my bank accounts, canceled every card I shared with Julian, and bought a one-way ticket to Harbor City.
Julian and I had been inseparable since college. We were put in the same study group because we had similar majors, but that was where the similarities ended. Julian was great at execution: the grunt work, but he had zero imagination. His software designs were clunky, outdated, and boring.
I was the innovator. My designs won championships.
Naturally, he latched onto me. We started a company together. It was brutal in the beginning, but we worked well as a team. He trusted my vision, and the company took off. Then came the confession, the wedding, the pregnancy. It felt like a fairytale.
It was not until the day I found out I was pregnant that I learned the truth: Julian had a 'childhood sweetheart' he had never quite gotten over. Lily.
They had been playing this 'more than friends, less than lovers' game for years. I even found out that one night, drunk out of his mind, Julian had ranted to his friends about me.
"You think I'd marry Elena if it wasn't for her talent?" he sneered. "She's just a code monkey. A total nerd. Zero sex appeal."
His friend had actually tried to defend me. "Dude, that's low. Your company is only successful because of her designs. Without her, you'd be working a cubicle job somewhere."
"So what if she's talented?" Julian had shot back. "She's still at home doing my laundry and cooking my meals. Once she pops this kid out, I'm pushing her out of the company. She can be a full-time housewife."
I remember hearing about that conversation and feeling like I was going to explode. I had confronted him, demanding an explanation. However, he gaslighted me, claiming it was just 'drunk talk' and stress. Even his friends covered for him.
That was the first time I felt the pain in my stomach. The doctors said it was a threatened miscarriage caused by emotional stress.
Looking back, I realized the baby knew before I did. My unborn child was trying to warn me that my marriage was a sham. I did not listen then, and in my past life, it led to my death.
However, I have been given a second chance. I would choose differently.
…
It had been a week since I touched down in Harbor City. I had rented a place ahead of time, a little safe house to lick my wounds. Literally. My body was still a wreck, so I was not exactly rushing to get back to the daily grind.
I had spent the last few years joining at the hip with Julian, professionally speaking, but I had done enough freelance design work back in college to stash away some serious savings. I was not going to starve.
I used the downtime to get organized. I compiled a list of every single profitable project at Julian's company, along with every design I had ever created.
If he was not going to show me a shred of basic human decency, I did not see why I should pull my punches. I was leaving, sure. However, I was taking everything that was mine with me.
