Chapter 4I Won’t Stay in a Home for Three

I checked into a cheap hotel for the night. The next morning, a call from the apartment building's management woke me.

"Miss Seraphina, the large shipping crates you sent ahead are piled up right outside the main lobby entrance. Tenants are complaining about the blockage. Could you please clear them out immediately?"

When I set out for this city, I had planned on never leaving. I had packed up seven years of my life and shipped it all ahead of me. The boxes had arrived, but just like me, they had nowhere to go.

I rushed back to Johnny's apartment complex through the pouring rain. But when I arrived at the entrance, the pavement was bare.

Gigi was just about to head inside, wearing a pair of plush slippers. "Sera, what took you so long? Those boxes were completely blocking the doorway."

She pointed toward the communal dumpster area at the back of the building. "Johnny said the two of you broke up, and that your stuff was just junk. So, I did you a favor and tossed it."

My ears rang with a deafening buzz. I spun on my heel and sprinted toward the dumpsters.

The cardboard boxes had turned to mush in the rain. My belongings were scattered across the wet asphalt, soaking in filthy puddles.

I dropped to my knees, frantically digging through the wet trash until my fingers brushed against a sodden, stuffed puppy. It was bloated with rainwater, one of its button eyes missing.

It was the very first gift Johnny had ever given me. Over the last seven years, whenever the distance grew too hard to bear, this toy was my only comfort.

Last year, when I was hospitalized with a fractured leg after a minor car accident, Johnny had booked a flight to see me. But then Gigi sprained her ankle.

Over the phone, his voice had been rushed. "I'll come after her ankle heals, okay?" I had spent that agonizing night unable to sleep, clutching this little stuffed dog until dawn.

I squeezed the wet toy to my chest. Nearby, a pair of black heels caught my eye, one of the heels snapped clean off. I bought those six months ago.

That day, a colleague had maliciously deleted my project files. I had hidden in the office courtyard, sobbing until I couldn't breathe.

I had called Johnny repeatedly, but he hadn't answered until after midnight.

"What's wrong now?" he had sighed. "Gigi had a fight with her roommates, and I just finished moving her into the apartment."

The next morning, I went to the mall and bought those expensive heels. I told myself: Sera, stand tall. If no one is coming to bring you home, you walk back on your own two feet.

For seven years, I survived the constant traveling and the crushing loneliness. These objects had been my anchors. And now, they were rotting in a pile of garbage.

"Gigi, what gave you the right to throw my things away?" I screamed, my voice cracking.

"Sera, why are you screaming at her?" Johnny's voice boomed from behind me. He stepped forward, holding a large umbrella over Gigi's head. "It's just a few boxes of useless junk. What's the big deal?"

Gigi looked at my tear-stained face and burst into soft, dramatic tears. "I thought you didn't want any of this anymore, Sera."

Surveying the ruined keepsakes littering the wet ground, Johnny's expression darkened. His inner thoughts began crashing into my mind.

[Why are there so many boxes?]

[I thought she was only visiting for a few days.]

[The stuffed puppy... she kept it all this time?]

His eyes drifted to the wet toy in my arms, but the words that slipped past his lips were cold and biting.

"You dumped your things at my place after we broke up. If that's not trash, I don't know what is."

I clutched the wet puppy tighter, looking him dead in the eye. "Johnny, my things aren't garbage. You are."

The downpour blurred my vision as a crowd began to gather around the trash area. Several neighbors whispered among themselves.

"Isn't that the young couple from upstairs? They've been living together for at least six months. I always see them grocery shopping together."

Another neighbor glared at me, her voice dripping with disgust. "Then who is she? Some crazy ex-girlfriend making a scene? Maybe she's a side chick trying to cause trouble? Digging through the trash like that... how pathetic."

A sharp pain pierced through my already numb heart. Six months. They had been living together for half a year, sharing groceries, walking home under the same umbrella, playing the part of a devoted couple in the eyes of everyone else.

Meanwhile, I had spent seven years in a legitimate relationship, only to end up branded as a desperate homewrecker digging through garbage.

Johnny's face turned incredibly pale, yet he didn't offer a single word of explanation. Gigi reached out and gently tugged on his sleeve.

"Johnny, let's just go inside," she murmured. He hesitated for a fraction of a second, then held the umbrella over her as he guided her through the glass doors of the lobby.

I stood alone in the freezing rain, watching their retreating figures. His inner voice grew fainter with every step they took.

[Sera isn't a side chick.]

[She's the only one I've ever loved.]

I tuned the noise out.

The rain came down in sheets. I knelt back down on the wet pavement, ripping open the soggy cardboard to search for the antique pocket watch my grandmother had left me. But even after digging through every single box, it was nowhere to be found.

The cold had seeped deep into my bones, and my vision began to tilt and fade to black.