When Love Forgets

Chapter 13

         

                        Mina POV

I waited for him at the café. The air was thick with the scent of brewing coffee, and the familiar clink of ceramic cups against saucers filled the silence between breaths. My fingers traced the rim of my cup, but I couldn’t bring myself to take a sip.

He arrived late, as usual.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said, his voice light, as if we were discussing something insignificant. He sat down across from me, his suit impeccable, the tie perfectly knotted. The perfect businessman. The perfect facade.

I gave him a tight smile. “It’s fine. I’m used to it.”

He didn’t notice the bitterness in my words. Or maybe he did, but chose not to acknowledge it. He started talking right away, as though there was no need for small talk. Maybe there wasn’t anymore.

“I wanted to tell you that your stepmother and I are moving to the United States. We’ve decided it’s best for us. I’ve set up a company there, and with everything stable here, we don’t need to stay in Korea any longer.”

Stable. The word felt like a knife in my chest.

“So that’s it?” I asked, my voice steady but hollow. “You’re leaving because everything’s ‘stable’ now?”

He nodded, oblivious to the ache building inside me. “Yes. The marriage... it helped fix a lot of the financial strain. We’re in a much better position now. Thanks to you, I can move forward.”

I felt a lump form in my throat, but I swallowed it down. It wasn’t the first time he had seen me as a solution, as a means to an end. He had always been like this. Distant. Detached. Looking at me through eyes that only saw numbers and solutions, never the pain behind my smile, the tears I hid for years.

"That’s it, then?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from breaking. “You’re just leaving? What about me?”

His eyes met mine for the first time, but there was no warmth in them.

“You’ll be fine, Mina. You’re married now. You have a life. I’ve done my part.”

His part.

I wanted to laugh, scream, cry—anything to release the weight crushing my chest. I had cried and screamed for him before, for just the bare minimum of his love, of his protection. But he had always turned away, always left me to fend for myself.

“You think this is enough?” I asked, my voice trembling with anger. “That fixing your business problems somehow fixes what you’ve done? You think you can just leave me here with... with this mess?”

He frowned. “What do you mean? Your marriage—”

“I didn’t want this marriage,” I snapped, my control slipping.

“I was forced into it because of you. And now you think you can walk away, guilt-free, because your problems are solved?”

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, but I didn’t care. He needed to hear this. He needed to know the damage he had done.

“All my life, I begged for the bare minimum from you. To feel seen. To feel loved. And every time, you turned away. Just like you’re doing now.”

“Mina—” he started, but I cut him off.

“No,” I said firmly. “You don’t get to leave like this, acting as if everything is fine. You don’t get to walk away from the mess you created without acknowledging the pain you’ve caused. Do you even know what it’s like? To be left behind? To feel like nothing more than a transaction?”