Chapter 7
Chapter 7
In the middle of the night, the sound of the front door stirred Liz from her sleep.
She glanced at the clock on her nightstand. It was 2:16 a.m.
Zac moved quietly, as if trying not to wake her.
What he didn’t know was that ever since she found out about the affair, Liz hadn’t been sleeping well. Even the smallest sound was enough to wake her.
But his heart wasn’t with her anymore. It would take someone who cared to notice things like that.
She didn’t feel like talking to him, so she shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep.
He opened the closet, grabbed some pajamas, and headed to the shower.
Water ran for a while, soft and steady, then stopped.
The bathroom door opened. Footsteps moved closer and then paused beside the bed.
Although her back was turned to Zac, Liz could feel him lift the covers on his side and slip into bed.
The mattress dipped under his weight. The room fell completely silent again. In the dark, she could hear each other’s soft breathing.
Sleep wouldn’t come. She lay there, counting sheep.
Back when she had trouble falling asleep, Zac would tell her stories or talk about their future.
He used to say that once his business took off, he would buy her a place with huge floor-to-ceiling windows. He wanted their wedding on a beach in the Maldives. He said they would have two kids-hopefully a boy and a girl.
They were broke back then, squeezed onto a tiny bed in a basement apartment. But they had endless things to talk about.
Now, they lay next to each other in silence. Same bed, separate worlds.
It was a sad realization.
Liz didn’t remember when she finally fell asleep. When she opened her eyes again, it was almost 8 a.m.
Her car was in the shop for maintenance, so she had to take the subway to work that week.
The commute to the firm took forty-five minutes. She usually got up by 7:20, but somehow, her alarm hadn’t gone off.
After showering and getting dressed, she stepped out of the bedroom and froze.
Zac was sitting at the dining table, fully dressed in a suit, eating breakfast.
She couldn’t even remember the last time he had eaten at home.
Noticing her surprise, Zac did something she didn’t expect.
He spoke first.
“Come eat. I made breakfast.”
On the table were heart-shaped pancakes and a cup of coffee-her favorite combo back in the day.
Whenever they had a fight, Zac would get up early the next morning to make this exact breakfast. Then he’d gently wake her up
and ask her to eat.
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The pancakes were never round like most people made. He always shaped them into hearts.
And every time she saw those silly heart-shaped pancakes, her anger would melt away.
But after the affair, he stopped trying. After arguments, he would just storm out and leave her stewing, waiting for her to make
the first move.
She thought he had forgotten.
But he hadn’t. He just didn’t care enough to keep trying.
Falling out of love really was the easiest thing in the world.
“I’ll skip it. I’m running late,” she said flatly.
“I’ll drive you.”
She paused mid-step. After a brief hesitation, she turned and walked over to the table.
As soon as she sat down, Zac picked up a pancake and set it gently on her plate.
“It’s been a while since I made these. Try one. See if I’m rusty.”
Liz lowered her gaze and stared at the pancake for a moment before picking up her fork and taking a bite.
It was fluffy and warm, just like she remembered.
But her habits had changed. Years of skipped meals had worn down her stomach. Heavy food like this didn’t sit well with her
anymore.
She set her fork down after just one bite.
Zac frowned. “Does it taste off?”
She shook her head. “No. It’s really good. I just can’t handle heavy food in the morning anymore.”
Zac’s knuckles went white around his fork. The room fell quiet again.
After a long pause, he finally set his utensils down.
“If it’s too much, don’t force it. I’ll drive you to work. We’ll pick something up on the way.”
“Okay.”
Just as they stepped into the underground parking garage, Zac’s phone started ringing.
He ignored several calls, but the caller was persistent. One after another, the calls kept coming.
Liz didn’t even need to check. She already knew it was Xena.
“You should answer it,” she said quietly. “It might be important.”
Zac turned to glance at her, his brow creasing slightly.
But Liz didn’t meet his eyes. She was staring down at the tips of her shoes.
The phone rang again. Finally, Zac gave in and picked up.
On the other end, a woman’s soft sobs filtered through, her voice broken and shaky. Liz couldn’t make out the words.
When he hung up, his expression had clearly darkened.
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“Something happened with Xena,” he said. “You should call a cab. I’m not driving you.”
He didn’t wait for her to respond. Without another word, he turned and walked off toward his car.
In his mind, Liz eating the pancakes he had made that morning meant she had forgiven him for the things he said last night. That was good enough for him. He didn’t feel the need to waste any more time on her.
Liz stood there and watched as he disappeared from view. Oddly, she felt calm.
Maybe once you stopped expecting anything from someone, it stopped hurting so much.
By the time she got out of the cab and arrived at the law firm, it was already 9:16 a.m.
The moment she walked inside, she could feel the shift in the atmosphere. Her coworkers were glancing over with sympathetic
eyes.
They must have heard what happened at the restaurant the night before.
She lowered her gaze, kept her expression neutral, and quietly sat down at her desk to start work.
She had just finished reviewing a document when her phone buzzed.
It was a message from Jane, with a photo attached.
In the picture, Zac was sitting on the edge of a hospital bed, feeding Xena soup with a spoon.
Only the side of his face was visible, but his expression said it all. A soft smile played on his lips, and the way he looked at her was filled with tenderness. Xena gazed back at him, her eyes brimming with affection.
Sunlight streamed through the window, casting a soft, golden glow over them. The whole scene looked warm, intimate, and perfectly staged.
He didn’t have time to drive Liz to work, yet somehow, he had time to sit at a hospital and feed another woman soup.
It was obvious who mattered to him and who didn’t. His love—or the absence of it—had always been plain as day. She was just the one who kept pretending not to see it, covering the truth with denial and wishful thinking.
Liz’s fingers tightened around her phone until her knuckles turned white. It took her a long time to type a reply.
“Nice shot.”
Jane’s typing bubble lingered for a while, but in the end, all she sent back was a single ellipsis.
Liz didn’t reply. She flipped her phone face-down on her desk and returned to work.
Just as she was about to start drafting a case brief, the colleague at the next desk suddenly gasped.
“Liz, check your social media. Right now.”
Liz froze mid-keystroke and looked up. “What happened?”
Her colleague gave her a strange look. “Just check. You’ll see.”
Liz picked up her phone and opened a social media app. The top trending topic was #VoyagerTechCEOInLove.
She tapped on it, and there it was. It was the exact same photo Jane had just sent her. Zac was sitting at the edge of a hospital bed, gently feeding soup to Xena.
The comment section was filled with praise and excitement.
“Such a gorgeous couple. Total goals!”
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“Wait, isn’t she his secretary? This is literally a real-life office romance!”
“This is the kind of love I want. Where’s my CEO to bring me soup when I’m sick?”
To everyone else, it was clear that Xena was Zac’s girlfriend.
He had never gone public with Liz. Over the years, only a few of his close friends even knew they were together.
As far as the rest of the world was concerned, Zac was still the charming, unattached bachelor.
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