When I Walked Away

“Graham, everything that happened before is in the past now. We should focus on living in the moment. How about this? Take a month off and get some rest. I’ll be away on a business trip, and we can talk when I get back.”

She didn’t even wait for my reaction before she picked up her suitcase and walked out, humming a tune.

I stood frozen where I was, ears ringing, unable to process anything for a long time. I never expected that the thorn in my heart for years would be met with such a response. However, the old Lucy wasn’t like that.

Back then, when she was pulled out of that fire, my dad suffered third-degree burns over eighty percent of his body. She cried as she apologized to him, and to distract him from the pain, she told him sweet, gentle stories for hours. Later, when my dad passed away, she promised she would remember that day forever—that she would never forget her life was saved by him.

Yet now, barely a decade later, she had changed. If she could treat something as serious as a life-saving ordeal like this, then what about all the promises she once made to me? Had those been “in the past” for her, too?

I sat on the couch and lit a cigarette. She used to complain about the smell on me, so I quit years ago. Now, smelling that familiar smoke again, I actually felt nauseous. After a few seconds, I stubbed out the barely lit cigarette and tossed it into the trash.

Habits really would change a person. I used to enjoy smoking, but it disgusted me now. Lucy used to love me, too, but she didn’t anymore.

I let out a small, relieved laugh. Maybe I really should start living in the moment.

By then, dawn had broken. I grabbed my phone and called my lawyer, asking him to draft a divorce agreement. I emphasized that I was willing to leave the marriage with nothing. The reason Lucy never wanted a divorce before was that she feared I’d take half her assets. Now that I was willing to walk away empty-handed, she wouldn’t have any reason to refuse.

My lawyer had known us since the beginning. He was the one who handled our legal work back when the company was just a tiny startup, so he understood our situation better than anyone. After listening quietly, he stayed silent for a long moment.

“Graham… technically, I shouldn’t interfere. But you’re my friend, so I’ll say this anyway. Two months ago, Lucy had already notarized all her assets. Even without giving everything up, you still wouldn’t get a single cent.

“I don’t know what happened between the two of you, and I know you love her. I know you’re willing to give everything up for her. But after how she’s treated you, I’m telling you as a friend, you need to wake up. Don’t act on impulse. At the very least, take back what’s yours.”

He sounded angry on my behalf.

For a moment, I didn’t know how to respond. This was the first time I heard about her quietly notarizing her assets. It seemed she had been guarding herself against me long ago.

I found it funny. She used to tell Zack everything—what she ate, what she bought, down to the company’s core secrets. I warned her a few times to be careful, but she just brushed it off, saying she trusted him. She trusted Zack with blind faith, yet she assumed the worst of me.

The irony wasn’t lost on me. However, what confused me was that if she had notarized everything, she could’ve just agreed to divorce. Why avoid it twice?

I couldn’t figure it out, but it didn’t matter anymore. I didn’t want to waste any more time on her. Sure, the money was a lot, but wasting time on her would cost me even more. Cutting losses early was always the smarter choice.

We built that company together from nothing. To save money, we started in a tiny rented cubicle with just the two of us and grew to a near-IPO corporation with its own entire building.

She, however, dumped all the hard work on me and enjoyed the profits I brought in. I stayed up countless nights revising proposals to win contracts; I even downed two full bottles of liquor at client dinners until I got alcohol poisoning. The company’s success was practically built with my own hands. Yet, she used her title as my wife to justify paying me the same as a regular employee.

I loved her then, so I accepted it willingly, until recently, when I finally woke up. After all these years, I had been working myself to the bone only to make someone else shine. However, it was fine. I had built one successful company, so wherever I went next, I wouldn’t end up worse off.

“Give her everything. I don’t want a cent. Just draft the agreement quickly,” I said calmly.

Seeing my determination, the lawyer didn’t push further.

After that, I messaged HR to submit my resignation. HR didn’t know about my relationship with Lucy, so the head of department replied by the book.

“Ms. Leavitt and Mr. Graff are on their honeymoon. I can’t bother them right now. Please bring it up again next month.”

I wasn’t surprised. I had figured out that the ‘business trip’ she mentioned was a lie. News about her wedding had spread everywhere. No one would expect her to handle work during her honeymoon.

“I can’t wait. Just take the resignation. Give it to her after the honeymoon if you need to. If anything goes wrong, I’ll bear the responsibility.”

HR hesitated, but after I reassured her several times, she finally agreed to submit it.

In fact, our eight-year contract had expired two years ago, but Lucy never renewed it. I wasn’t sure if she forgot or simply didn’t care. After all, her attention these days was always on Zack, which was fine—it meant I didn’t need her approval to resign.

Right after that, I called a friend out of town. He had recently started a new company but desperately needed a strong technical lead. He had approached me several times, eager to partner up. However, because of Lucy, I turned him down at the time. Thinking back, I really had been pathetic.

When he heard I wanted to join him now, he was thrilled. He rushed to book me a first-class flight to Southport. However, the moment I boarded the plane, my phone rang. It was Lucy.