The Lies He Told Me (Grace and Antonio)

My friend pulled up Antonio's Facebook profile.

"Antonio and Stella have been inseparable lately.

"Anyone who didn't know better would think were the woman in his photos."

Antonio had blocked me on Facebook.

He had never posted a single picture of me.

Now, his profile was plastered with images of Stella's back: at amusement parks, trying on wedding dresses, watching the sunrise over the ocean.

It was clear he was deeply in love with her.

My friend looked at me with concern.

"Don't be too upset. If Antonio knew about Stella's past, he would break up with her."

"I'm fine. I'm over him," I smiled, genuinely feeling a sense of release.

In a few days, I'd be gone from this place forever.

I wouldn't waste another moment grieving over Antonio.

When Antonio, whom I hadn't seen for days, showed up, I didn't react.

He glanced around, happily texting someone. "Didn't you decorate the house?" he asked.

"You said you wanted to keep things simple. So did I."

He said nothing, his gaze falling on the small checkboard where I'd been counting down the days until the wedding. "Time flies. Our wedding is in a week." He said with a smile. I erased the number and wrote "5". "Our wedding is in five days."

Antonio never paid attention to the details of my life.

My mother called, and I stepped onto the balcony to take the call.

in his phone. "Who was that? I thought I

"Work." I said indifferently.

I'm too busy." Antonio. continued,

I started packing my

return, Antonio couldn't bear to

suddenly asked, "Where's

he realized he

said casually, unconcerned about

Antonio looked

but his

glanced at it, stood up,

my forehead. "Sorry,

Work has been crazy.

make

you the happiest

once this

alive

is all over."

overflowing with

felt disgust instead of

him

Time crawled by

before

note on the calendar

my greatest wish for

knew it would

father, and

wheel alone and watched the

a picture of

Antonio

met to finalize