I couldn’t forget the photos I had seen. Kath’s arms draped around his neck, her body pressed close to his, a shy smile on her face. And the way he looked at her... The kind of look that should’ve been reserved for me.
Mark’s expression was cold, distant. He didn’t even deny it.
Instead, he turned back to Kath, who was still rubbing her cheek, her eyes wide with fake tears. He gently cupped her face, his voice softening. “Does it hurt?”
Kath sniffled, leaning into his touch. “It... it’ll be fine if you kiss it better,” she whispered, a pathetic attempt to appear helpless.
And just like that, Mark leaned in, pressing his lips to her cheek, right in front of me. As if I wasn’t even there. As if I didn’t exist.
My chest tightened painfully and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe. The betrayal, the blatant disregard for our ten years together, was suffocating.
“Mark,” Kath whispered, “Jane’s leaving... should you go after her?”
Without even looking at me, Mark sighed. “No. Let her go. She’ll calm down eventually. She’s not serious about the divorce.”
His voice was laced with arrogance, as though I were just throwing a tantrum. Like I would come crawling back, begging for his love again.
But he was wrong.
I quickened my pace, my heart breaking with every step I took. This was it. The end of us.
People always said I was Mark’s "white moonlight," the woman he cherished. But no one ever saw the other side of the story, how I had loved him—truly loved him—for a decade. Yet now, my love was nothing more than a joke.
We had met in college. He was charming, passionate and relentless in his pursuit of me. I had fallen for him hard and fast, cutting off ties with my family just to be with him. We married soon after graduation and for years, I believed in our love. I believed in him.
But ten years later, here we were. And he had chosen someone else.
Mark had become a paragliding instructor and Kath, the younger woman, was his student. Today was our tenth wedding anniversary. And instead of being with me, he was with her.
"Thanks for practicing with me today, Mark! I don’t know what I’d do without you," Kath giggled, throwing herself into his arms like she had done it a thousand times before.
Shyly, she kissed the side of his face and he didn’t push her away. Instead, he ran his fingers through her hair, smiling down at her.