A couple of long-time colleagues approached me quietly. “Charlotte, the CEO brought Emma to your office first thing this morning. They moved all your stuff out. What’s going on?”
I nodded, signaling I understood, and gave her a reassuring squeeze on the arm.
Walking into my office, I saw my things had been cleared out. My wedding photo with Liam was tossed into the trash.
Emma didn’t even try to hide her satisfaction. “Sorry, Charlotte. Liam insisted I move in right away, so they cleaned out your stuff first thing this morning.”
She feigned shock when she saw the photo. “Oh, who tossed your wedding picture with Liam like this?”
She picked it up and handed it to me. I took it, pulled the photo out of the frame, and ripped it into pieces. “No need to save trash.”
Behind me, I heard Liam’s voice, filled with disbelief. “Charlotte, what are you doing? How could you tear up that photo?”
He rushed over, scrambling to gather the torn pieces, trying in vain to put it back together. But broken things can never truly be fixed, just like the feelings between Liam and me.
I used to treasure that photo. Back when we first got married, Liam’s business was just starting, and we were scraping by. We barely had enough for the wedding rings, and we had nothing left to spare.
I’d suggested, “We don’t need wedding photos. We can do it later.”
But Liam had said, “I don’t want you to feel shortchanged by marrying me.”
To afford that photo session, he worked ten straight days, pulling all-nighters doing odd jobs just to make it happen.
In hindsight, the whole thing didn’t even cost that much, just over a thousand dollars, less than what Liam spends on one of his ties now.
But it was that photo set that made me marry him, despite the doubts I had about his commitment.
Looking back, I realized that once cracks show, it’s better to walk away sooner rather than later.
