Leaving Without a Trace

Ever since that day, Isabel never came back home.

Meanwhile, Cameron updated his social media extremely frequently. His Instagram stories all highlighted how happy he and Isabel were spending time together. I blocked all of his social media accounts, including WhatsApp.

I got myself an electronic countdown timer and watched as the time ticked away. When there were 20 days left, I got ready to leave my job. I was already wrapping up all of the work I had on hand, but I wanted to make sure I did a good job.

When the general manager, Leon Oswald, saw that I had written my upcoming wedding as my reason for resigning, he teased me by saying it was best to conduct the wedding ceremony sooner rather than later. That way, Isabel wouldn't start getting the wrong idea.

For a moment, I looked down in silence. But right after that, I smiled widely at Leon and said, "I'm not marrying her."

Leon was taken aback at first, but then he let out a pitying sigh.

I was so busy dealing with the final handover before my resignation that I only had some free time after I officially resigned from the company.

Checking the countdown timer, I was a little dazed when I realized there were only five days left. I tapped my face a few times to clear my head a little. Then, I started packing my things.

Isabel and I dated for years, and since I was fond of photography, I took many photos of the two of us. The house was filled with them. I even had some on my camera and computer.

Apart from the photos, I also kept all of the gift boxes I gave her on her birthday each year. Not only were they keepsakes to me, but they also served as reminders of what I gave her.

I didn't want to accidentally give her the same thing sometime later. It would seem like I didn't put any thought into her gift.

I also kept the love letters she wrote for me.

After seeing all of these things, I felt as if my heart was being weighed down by a ton of bricks. I was deeply upset.

We were happy once. Back then, I couldn't bear to spend even a minute apart from her. She would shower all of her attention on me too.

Once, she looked through the photos and asked coyly, "You've taken so many photos. Won't you ever get tired of seeing them someday?"

I poked her in the forehead and said affectionately, "Who knows? If I do get tired someday, I'll act like a bad guy and leave without a word."

She huffed and punched me, and I fell onto the couch as I laughed, saying, "Hey, look what you just broke… Let's see what's inside this heart of mine. Goodness me! It's filled with nothing but you!"

We laughed our heads off together.

Many years passed since then. I didn't grow tired of her, but she did.

After going through my things for a while, I took them to the bathroom and burned them all. I flushed the ashes down the toilet bowl, removing every trace of our past.