Chapter 2The 99th Faded Love Letter

If I actually sat down and counted, this was roughly the nineteenth time Declan initiated a breakup over academics.

My French accent wasn't authentic enough. I got an A instead of an A plus. I dropped one spot in the class rankings. Any of these were valid grounds for him to dump me.

He measured the entire worth of our relationship against his own freezing, mechanical rubrics.

He never cared when my menstrual cramps left me bedridden. He didn't notice my new dresses. He never cared about the cute restaurants I wanted to try.

Only a flawless transcript could earn me a kiss or a rare moment of affection.

Half the time, I wondered if I was dating a cyborg.

But the second I looked at his handsome, aloof face, my brain would turn to mush.

In the end, I was always the one begging to get back together.

Declan was fully aware of this dynamic. That was exactly why he threw the word 'breakup' around without a second thought.

After all, I was the one who chased him relentlessly.

The person who loves more always ends up losing their dignity.

But this time, my fingers hovered over the keyboard. I stared at the screen for an eternity, completely unable to type out an apology.

While I was still in a daze, I got a frantic phone call. My dad had suffered a sudden heart attack.

I panicked and tried to book the first flight back to the States, only to discover every single route was canceled.

That was when I finally looked out the massive glass windows. A heavy, blinding snowstorm had swallowed the city.

The entire airport infrastructure was paralyzed.

I felt like someone had ripped my spine out. I stumbled around the terminal, frantically trying to find someone who could help.

I didn't speak German. My French vocabulary completely scrambled in my panic. Halfway through trying to explain my situation to a staff member in English, my throat closed up, choked by violent sobs.

Strangers shot me looks of deep pity, but they could only shake their heads.

The more anxious I got, the worse my hands shook. I wiped the tears off my screen. The only person I could think of was Declan.

He knew people in Zurich. He definitely had the connections to get me on an emergency flight home.

I sent him over a dozen messages. I got absolute silence in return.

I was trapped in that terminal all night. I cried until my eyes were completely dry. It wasn't until dawn that I got the text saying my dad was out of surgery and stabilizing.

Not long after that, the algorithm pushed that viral video onto my feed.

A little green dot glowed next to Declan's profile picture. He was online.

I opened our chat and scrolled up. My heart plummeted straight into the abyss.

The entire right side of the screen was just blocks of green text. It was my own pathetic monologue.

He always claimed he was too busy studying to text back.

I respected his focus. I accommodated his habits. I literally forced myself to stop being talkative just to please him.

But today, the illusion shattered.

He wasn't too busy for his phone. He didn't hate social media.

He just didn't give a damn about me.

I wasn't asking him to move mountains. A single text asking if I was okay would have been enough.

He gave me nothing.

While I was having a mental breakdown begging for his help, was he just rewatching his own victory speech? Or was he busy reading all the comments saying he and Nancy were soulmates?

At this point, the answer didn't even matter.

Loving someone this much was utterly exhausting.

I didn't want to spend the rest of my life chasing a ghost.

It was better to just end it here and cut my losses.

I didn't try to contact him again. The moment I finally landed in the States, I went straight to the hospital to see my dad.

The freezing night in the airport caught up to me. I developed a low grade fever and slept in a haze until the next morning.

A phone call woke me up.

It was one of the guys from my cohort. "Serena, are you not coming to Declan's welcome back dinner? He's drinking pretty heavy, and we are not babysitting him!"

I opened my mouth to decline, but the guy quickly added more pressure. "Professor Bennett is here too. Are you absolutely sure you want to skip?"

Professor Bennett had mentored me through the early stages of the competition. He had always looked out for me. Out of sheer respect for him, I couldn't just brush it off.

But when I pushed the private dining room door open, the room was entirely filled with students. There wasn't a professor in sight.

Nancy was pressed right up against Declan's side. She looked at me and giggled. "Sorry, Serena. We were just playing Truth or Dare."

"Declan's dare was to trick you into coming here. We really didn't think you would actually show up!"