Chapter 2Missing from His Picture

The next day, I went to the animal rescue center.

Officially, I was there to return some equipment the wedding studio had borrowed for a shoot.

The volunteers all knew Eugene. They also knew Charlotte as the woman everyone online thought was his girlfriend.

I had barely set the equipment case down when a young volunteer hurried over. "You're Eugene's friend, right? Is he coming today, too?"

I shook my head. "No. I'm just here to return some equipment."

"Oh." She looked disappointed for a second, then smiled again. "That's okay. His girlfriend's here, anyway. Those two are always together."

Another volunteer, who was feeding the cats, laughed. "Seriously, Eugene and his girlfriend are basically our resident couple. They're so cute together."

His girlfriend.

The words rang in my ears.

I looked across the room and saw the woman they were talking about.

Charlotte.

A few volunteers stood around her, teasing her as she laughed.

"Stop calling me that. We're just work partners."

She said it easily, without the slightest hint of embarrassment at being mistaken for his girlfriend.

Then Eugene walked in.

He carried several cases of canned food for the rescue and headed straight for Charlotte, as if going to her was the most natural thing in the world.

The volunteers immediately started teasing him.

"Eugene, back to volunteer with your girlfriend again?"

Eugene just smiled.

He didn't correct them. Not even once.

His eyes moved around the room before stopping on me.

Just then, a representative from one of the rescue's sponsors walked over and glanced between us. "Eugene, who's this?"

For one stupid second, I still hoped.

I hoped he would tell them I was his fiancée.

Instead, Eugene answered casually, "A friend. She's editing the video for our wedding."

A friend.

Just days before our wedding, surrounded by people who already thought he and Charlotte were a couple, Eugene introduced me as nothing more than a friend.

I still remembered what happened three years ago, when Eugene won a major industry award, and reporters crowded around him at the reception afterward.

I instinctively stepped up beside him, but he quickly pulled me aside.

"There are too many people here and too many cameras. Stay out of sight for now."

Back then, I thought he was trying to protect me.

Now I understood that keeping me hidden had always been the rule, and it was a rule that only applied to me.

Across the room, the crew started setting up for a livestream.

Charlotte's lav mic sat slightly crooked on her collar. Eugene walked over without hesitation, leaned in, and adjusted it for her.

The way he did it looked effortless and familiar, like he had done it a hundred times before.

Charlotte looked up at him and complained, "That light almost blinded me just now."

Eugene immediately turned to the lighting technician. "Use a softer light. Her eyes are sensitive."

Then Eugene adjusted the camera for Charlotte and had her lean against his shoulder so she would sit comfortably in the frame.

The focus in his eyes, the quiet tenderness, was exactly what I had seen in those videos again and again.

Once the livestream started, Charlotte pulled something shiny from her pocket and held it up to the camera.

"Ta-da! Look at our custom pet tag for the collab!"

It was a silver bone-shaped tag engraved with their account initials: EC&CE.

Eugene took it from her with a smile and fastened it around her neck himself.

The comments immediately went wild.

[OMG, is this their official relationship announcement?]

[They're endgame. I'm calling it now!]

I couldn't watch anymore. I turned around and left.

When I got home, I opened the cloud drive Eugene and I shared.

We had been together for five years, taken countless trips, and made more memories than I could count.

I sorted the folders by date and went back to the day their account first went live three years ago. Then, I started scrolling.

There were thousands of photos and video clips, and almost every one of them was Charlotte.

Charlotte laughing. Charlotte goofing around. Charlotte holding the cat. Charlotte asleep with her head on Eugene's shoulder.

He had saved all of it, carefully organized by date.

Then I searched my own name.

Nothing.

The only trace of me anywhere in the archive was one rejected photo from three years ago.

Eugene's back was barely visible as he walked out of frame because he told me not to include him in the shot.

I had spent five years by his side, but in the memories he chose to keep, I barely existed.

I closed the laptop and pulled a dusty storage box from the closet.

I had bought it for the move into our new home. Now, I used it to pack up the life I was leaving behind.

My film reels, my restoration tools, the old camera my grandmother left me. One by one, I packed away everything that was mine.

I didn't explain what I was doing to Eugene.

I didn't need his camera turned on me anymore. I didn't need him to acknowledge me, either.

When I chose to leave the shared cloud library, a warning appeared on the screen.

[Leaving this shared library will remove your access to all photos and videos shared with you.]

I didn't save a single file.

I clicked [Leave Library].