Chapter 1
552words
It should have been a sweet night. Alex was in Hong Kong on business, and before leaving, he'd kissed my forehead and asked me to review a document for his roadshow.
"Just check the formatting, darling," he said. "You have such a good eye."
I do have a good eye. I can select the perfect wine for dinner parties, transform this sterile Park Avenue apartment into something worthy of Architectural Digest, and charm his judgmental Wall Street friends. I always thought this was our unspoken agreement.
Until I opened an encrypted file on his desktop labeled "Decision." The password was our anniversary date.
The document contained no lengthy explanations—just a simple list divided into two columns, like someone weighing pros and cons at the grocery store.
【Lena】
Pros:
Calm, sensible, never causes trouble.
Clean family background, parents approve, presentable in public.
Caring. Keeps the house tidy so I can focus on work.
Marriage material.
Cons:
A bit... boring. Life with her is like lukewarm water.
【Chloe】
Pros:
Interesting, passionate, makes me feel alive. Her soul has color.
Cons:
Emotional, unstable, a ticking time bomb.
Hates socializing, can't stand being confined, absolutely loathes my parents.
Not marriage material.
At the bottom, a handwritten conclusion like a judge's final verdict:
"You can't cage an eagle like a canary—it would be too cruel. I love her too much to marry her."
He wouldn't marry her.
Because being his wife meant enduring his parents' harsh scrutiny, smiling through endless business dinners, transforming into a perfect, undemanding housewife.
He couldn't bear to make Chloe suffer such hardship.
I didn't cry. Tears seemed redundant in the face of such a clinical assessment.
I simply adjusted his roadshow document to perfection, as requested. Then I shut down his computer.
In that moment, I heard something snap inside my heart—clean and final.
The next morning, I opened my laptop to find my long-forgotten resume—【Lena Easton, Documentary Director】.
Beside it, an urgent recruitment notice from an NGO called "Frontline."
【Urgent: Documentary Director needed for humanitarian mission in Caucasus conflict zone. Extensive experience in high-risk areas required.】
The message rang like a distant yet crystal-clear bugle call.
I opened a long-sealed folder labeled "SYRIA," containing my portfolio—images captured in the ruins of Aleppo, stained with blood and dust.
I gathered them, attached them to my resume, and clicked the cold, sterile "Submit Application" button.
Alex doesn't know I have a list too.
It shows the places I want to go and the things I want to do. Only now, not a single item includes him.
Chapter Two (Second Revised Edition)
The moment I clicked "Send," I felt a sharp, long-forgotten freedom.
I suddenly remembered a conversation in Alex's study a month earlier. One of his friends had half-jokingly asked why he'd chosen the "safe bet" Lena instead of Chloe, whom everyone knew he'd once loved passionately.
Alex had taken a swig of whiskey and vaguely replied: "You don't get it. Chloe and I... we're cut from the same cloth. Two fires together would just burn the house down."
Now I understand—he wasn't afraid of burning down the house. He just couldn't bear to confine his beloved flame within four walls.
So it turns out... I was second choice all along.
