The Ex-Fiancé's Regret，Falling for the One That Got Away

On the day he promised to meet my parents, Chase kept his phone turned off for nine straight hours. When I finally got through on my thirty-third call, his childhood crush answered: "Chase didn't mean to ignore your calls, Chloe. I had too much to drink and accidentally dropped his phone. Did you have something really important going on? You called more than thirty times..." I looked at the table full of food my mom had spent all afternoon preparing. My voice was dead cold. "Tell him this: if he really doesn't want to meet my parents, we are done." The girl sounded terrified, bursting into tears and sobbing that she would never bother us again. Then Chase snatched the phone away. "It's not like your parents are on their deathbeds! What's the big deal if we see them a little late?" I hung up. Then, I dialed a number I hadn't touched in years. "You once begged me to marry you. Does that offer still stand?" "Young people are always busy with work. I get it. Eat up, please, don't be shy." Seeing Julian, the tight frown on my mom's face finally melted into a smile. Laddling a bowl of soup for him, she chuckled. "Back then, you claimed you were a hospital orderly. I knew you looked too sharp for that. Looking back, it had to be Chloe's idea." My mom had no idea I had changed boyfriends. Her memory was stuck on my college days. Back then, Mom had been critically ill, but she forbade me from skipping classes to stay at the hospital. So, Julian had pretended to be an orderly just to take care of her for me. I carefully picked at my food. Seeing that rare, genuine smile on my mom's face made my throat tighten with an ache. Ever since she was diagnosed with cancer, she had developed severe anxiety. She constantly feared a relapse, and the thought of leaving me all alone in the world kept her awake at night. I knew this, which was why, after I started dating Chase, I had repeatedly tried to bring him home to meet her. He never believed me. Right after I hung up on him earlier, he had blasted me with furious voice memos: "Guilty, aren't you? I knew it! You always use your parents' health to guilt-trip me." "Do you have any idea how hurt Rachel is right now?" "She thinks she's a homewrecker! She's threatening to quit her job and move out of the city! Why would you say that to her? Do you know how degrading that word is to a girl?" He ranted on and on. Over twenty voice notes, demanding I apologize to her. What did I do wrong? She knew he had a girlfriend, yet she constantly threw herself into his life. What else was she if not a homewrecker? "Try the soup. Chloe told me it's your favorite. I even asked the restaurant for their recipe. Does it taste right?" Mom and Julian were laughing and talking, and I suddenly felt sick at the thought of wasting another second on Chase's texts. I set my phone down. Just as I reached for the ladle, Julian placed a fresh bowl of soup right in front of me. "Fish soup is good for you. Have you been staying up late again?" In his eyes, I had always come first. He was the one who had stayed up for two weeks straight in the hospital for my mom. He was the one who absorbed all my breakdowns and held me together. It was precisely because Julian was so good, so endlessly gentle, that when he broke up with me back then, I blamed myself for everything. In my next relationship, I had become completely submissive, doing everything I could to please Chase. When Chase didn't want to work, I coaxed him. When he refused to meet my parents, I accommodated him. Even when he stood me up over and over again because of Rachel, I always wondered what I had done wrong—wondered why he was so reluctant to take that final step with me. Rachel wasn't short on friends. She didn't need him to carry her to the ER for a twisted ankle. She didn't need him specifically to search the streets for her lost dog. He could have easily asked someone else to help her. Yet every single time, he bailed on me at the last minute, leaving my parents staring blankly at a cold dinner table. "My mom's anxiety is getting worse." After dinner, I insisted that my parents stay inside, finally finding a moment alone with Julian to apologize. "I couldn't bear to let them down a seventh time. That's why I called you out of nowhere." "Name your price. I want to hire you as my boyfriend for a while." He was the one who had initiated our breakup years ago. Dragging him to meet my parents under these circumstances had to make him uncomfortable. Julian looked down at my hands, which were clenched tightly in nervous anticipation. He let out a soft chuckle. "There's a jewelry boutique nearby that carries that ring you've always loved. Let's go look at it tomorrow." That night, I didn't go back to the apartment I shared with Chase. The next day, after running some errands, I found myself walking past the boutique Julian and I had agreed to visit. Without thinking, I stepped inside. "Chloe? Are you here to pick out a ring too?" I had barely taken two steps when Rachel's gloating voice echoed across the showroom. She was standing by the glass display counter, her arms draped with designer shopping bags. Chase was carefully sliding a ring onto her finger. "Rachel came with me to buy a new phone today, and this jewelry shop was right next door. I figured I'd get her a little gift." Chase noticed me. His voice dropped to a cold, flat rumble. "I assume you saw my Ins story and tracked me down here because you finally realized your mistake and came to apologize to Rachel?" That ring was not cheap. I had mentioned it to Chase multiple times, telling him it was the exact ring I wanted for our wedding. I thought he had actually listened. Now I realized, just like my hints about my mom's health, he had never cared enough to remember. "Why don't you get down on one knee right now?" I said, letting the sheer mockery drip from every word. "Propose to her, then pick a good day to go meet her parents." Chase's face shifted, his mask of indifference cracking. "Are you seriously throwing a tantrum right now? Just because I bought Rachel a ring?"He sighed in annoyance, his face practically screaming: "Are you really starting drama over something this petty?" Yet, he forced himself to tone it down. "Fine. I'll take tomorrow off and go visit your parents with you, okay?" He shoved a bag of expensive health supplements into my hands and turned to walk out. "I'll go book a table at the restaurant down the street. The three of us can have dinner." I immediately told him not to bother, but he ignored me. "You say you don't want it, but if I don't cater to you, you'll throw another fit. I can't deal with your mood swings." Before Rachel showed up, Chase had been impulsive, but he had never snapped at me like this. Now, every 'compromise' was laced with resentment, constantly forcing me to yield. I stared at his retreating back, a bitter hollow settling in my chest. To him, I would never measure up to Rachel. "This ring is honestly hideous," Rachel purred, leaning in the moment Chase was out of earshot. "If you hadn't droned on and on about wanting it as your wedding ring, I wouldn't have even bothered asking Chase to buy it for me." She smirked, leaning closer just to disgust me. As I turned to walk away, she suddenly lunged forward and grabbed the bag Chase had just handed me. The glass bottles of supplements shattered across the polished floor. She gasped, putting on a dramatic show of shock. But as she bent down to 'help,' she raised her voice loud enough for the whole store to hear: "I saw you taking your mom for an oncology follow-up the other day. It's terminal cancer, right? Honestly, taking all these supplements won't do a thing." "Why don't you just tell Chase to bring these gifts to my parents' house instead? If you do, I might even be nice enough to stop by a florist and pick out some pretty flowers for her funeral wreath." Something snapped inside my head. A blinding rush of rage roared in my ears. I grabbed Rachel by the hair and slammed her against the counter, determined to rip that vicious mouth apart. "Chloe!" Chase ran back, holding two iced coffees. The second he saw us, he shoved me back and shielded Rachel behind him. "What the hell are you doing?! Are you insane?!" He had never screamed at me with such raw fury. When he pushed me, he didn't even notice the high heels I was wearing. My heel snapped. I crashed violently against the glass railing, the pain shooting up my spine so hard I couldn't move. Meanwhile, Chase was frantically checking Rachel over, asking if she was hurt. He didn't give me a single glance. "Chase... Buster's... his keepsake is ruined," Rachel whimpered, slowly opening her palm. The tiny white knitted dog charm that used to hang from her purse had been crushed into a torn ball of yarn and stray beads. She sobbed hysterically, tears streaming down her pale cheeks. Chase's eyes turned bloodshot with rage. Without giving me a single second to explain, he flung the piping hot coffee straight into my face. The scalding liquid burned my skin. Through the agonizing sting, Chase's cold, disgusted voice cut down at me. "You were out of line the day Buster died, screaming at Rachel like a lunatic!" "This little charm was the only thing she had left to remember him by, and you couldn't even leave that alone! You attacked her! Are you even human?!" I couldn't open my eyes. I scrambled blindly against the glass, desperate to defend myself. "I didn't know that was her dog's charm! I didn't touch her damn things!" "She came at me first! Chase, if you don't believe me, check the security cameras!" Silence. I furiously scrubbed the sticky, burning coffee from my eyes with my sleeve. When my vision finally cleared, a circle of strangers was staring and whispering around me. Chase was already gone. He had abandoned me there, leaving me on the floor looking like a raving psycho. The last shred of affection I had for him was ripped away like a violent slap across my face. Limping heavily on my broken heel, I dragged myself toward the escalator. Just as I reached the ground floor to leave, someone stepped off the ascending escalator beside me. Julian was holding two large bouquets of fresh flowers. The moment his eyes landed on me, his brows knitted tight. His gaze burned with an intensity that made me want to hide. But as I turned to run, his hand caught my wrist."What happened to you?" He immediately shrugged off his tailored suit jacket, wrapping it around my coffee-soaked shirt before scooping me into his arms bridal-style. "Let's clean you up in the restroom. I'll get some ointment." He had dressed up in an expensive bespoke suit today—probably to make buying the ring feel like a special occasion. Now, draped over my stained, drenched clothes, the crisp fabric was ruined, soaked with dirty coffee. I rinsed my face and hair in the sink. Smelling the sharp scent of coffee clinging to his expensive wool, I took out my phone to search for a tailor to replace it. "I bought the burn cream. Come outside first. Don't worry about the jacket." It was like he could read my mind. He cut off my search before I could even contact a shop. Flushed with embarrassment, I walked out to the waiting area. Julian was sitting upright on the bench, holding shopping bags with a clean change of clothes and a pair of white sneakers. "You're spending too much on me again." After changing, I couldn't dodge his insistence on treating my burns. I had to sit down and let him tend to me. The warmth of his palms helped the cooling gel absorb into my skin. His touch was firm yet incredibly gentle. "If you really feel bad about it, stop running back to that boy," he said softly. After making sure my ankle wasn't severely sprained, he knelt down and tied my laces. "I looked into him. No savings, no car, no real estate, mediocre degree. The only reason he's surviving at his firm is because of your connections." His tone was quiet, laced with genuine bewilderment that someone like Chase could even be considered competition. I couldn't even defend myself. Being with Chase in the first place had just been a desperate rebound to survive the agony of losing Julian. By the time I realized how wrong we were for each other, guilt had paralyzed me. I felt dirty for using him, which made it impossible for me to pull the plug. But now, every single drop of patience and decency between us was dead. There was nothing left to save. I pulled out my phone, typed a breakup text, and hit send. A second later, Chase called. "I canceled the restaurant. I'm back at our apartment with Rachel." I froze. When I realized he hadn't even read my message, a bitter laugh escaped my lips. Oblivious to my tone, he continued: "Ever since Buster passed, Rachel has been an emotional wreck. Yesterday she drank all afternoon and broke my phone, and today his keepsake was ruined. She's been crying all day." "I saw that she really liked your cat, so I told her she could take May home as a comfort animal. Make sure you text her the feeding schedule." May was my cat. I had raised her for six years. And he had just given her away like a cheap piece of junk. The reason we had started dating in the first place was because he had run through a thunderstorm visiting every vet clinic in the city when May was sick. He had solemnly sworn that seeing her would always remind him of me. That first winter, terrified she would catch a cold, he had spent weeks learning how to knit a sweater for her. Had a few fake tears from Rachel erased all of that? Remembering the vicious look in Rachel's eyes when she deliberately crushed that yarn charm, I took a screenshot of my emergency police report screen and sent it to him. "Did you forget who pays every single cent of the rent for that apartment?" "If you don't want you and your precious Rachel spending the night in a jail cell, that cat better not cross the threshold of my front door!" I slammed the end-call button. I didn't want to hear his voice for another second, so I blocked his number immediately. Realizing his calls weren't going through, Chase blew up my SnapChat, completely unhinged: "You dare block my number? Chloe, do you even want to get married anymore?!" I picked up the ring box Julian had chosen, slid the ring onto my finger, and snapped a photo of our intertwined hands. I sent it to him: "No need." "I already found someone who's actually willing to come home with me." Without waiting for a response, I blocked his account, then immediately emailed HR requesting a transfer to our coastal branch as a regional manager. From this moment on, Chase and I were complete strangers.