My birthday came on a Thursday.
I had planned everything down to the smallest detail.
Ava's favorite restaurant.
Her favorite table by the window.
Her favorite dessert ordered in advance.
I wanted one simple thing—
just one night where it was the two of us again.
Where I could pretend the distance between us wasn't getting bigger.
Where I could forget about Leo Clark and his constant, suffocating presence in our lives.
I arrived at 6 p.m.
By 7 p.m., I told myself she was stuck in traffic.
By 7:30, I convinced myself she'd lost track of time.
By 8 p.m., the waiter started giving me pitying looks.
By 8:15…
I finally got the message.
Ava wasn't coming.
Not because she forgot.
Not because she was late.
But because—
She chose to be somewhere else.
When she finally walked in—
heels clicking hurriedly, hair slightly messy, breath uneven—
I felt a surge of relief.
Until she spoke.
"Ethan, I'm so sorry! I couldn't leave."
"Leave what?" I asked.
Her answer sliced me open.
"Leo's birthday party."
The restaurant spun.
My ears rang.
I had been waiting here—
for her—
on my birthday—
while she celebrated his.
I stared at her.
Her cheeks were flushed.
Her dress was slightly wrinkled.
And her perfume…
It wasn't hers.
It was his.
Leo's limited-edition cologne.
A scent I had smelled in his study at the Clark estate.
My stomach dropped.
My voice was barely a whisper.
"You smell like him."
Ava stiffened.
Then she forced a light laugh that didn't reach her eyes.
"Oh—everyone hugged him today. It's normal. Don't be dramatic."
Dramatic?
I had been sitting alone for two hours on my own birthday.
And I was dramatic?
I swallowed the pain clawing up my throat.
"Did you forget what today is?"
A flicker of guilt crossed her face.
Then her expression hardened—cold, defensive, dismissive.
"Ethan… don't make this about you. Leo's party was important for all of us. For your family. For your future."
My future?
No.
This was about his future.
His rise.
His celebrations.
His importance.
I was just the inconvenient husband who got in the way.
She set a small box on the table.
"Your father and mother asked me to give you this. It's a tie clip."
My heart cracked a little more.
"They couldn't even give it to me themselves?"
"They were busy," she said, waving it off.
Busy.
Too busy on Leo's birthday to see their actual son.
And too busy for Ava to remember mine.
Then I noticed the necklace around her neck.
A delicate, sparkling diamond pendant.
New.
Expensive.
Not from me.
"Where did you get that?" I asked quietly.
Ava instinctively reached up, fingers brushing the pendant.
"Oh—Leo gave it to me. I helped him land a difficult client. He wanted to thank me."
Leo gave it to her.
Not the Clarks.
Not the company.
Leo. Himself. Personally.
I felt something inside me collapse.
"And you wore it?"
My voice was barely steady.
She frowned.
As if I was the unreasonable one.
"Of course I wore it. Why wouldn't I? It was a gift."
A gift.
From him.
And she wore it to my birthday dinner.
If that wasn't a message…
I didn't know what was.
Dinner was silent.
She scrolled her phone.
Smiled at messages she didn't show me.
Barely touched the food.
While I forced myself not to break.
When we finally left, she didn't reach for my hand.
Didn't lean against me like she used to.
Didn't even look at me.
She just walked ahead.
Like I was a stranger.
A shadow.
Someone she had already left behind.
That night, lying in the dark, I checked my phone.
Leo had posted on his social feed:
"Best birthday ever."
And right beside him, holding his cake, smiling brighter than the sun—
was Ava.
Her eyes curved.
Her face glowing.
Her arm brushing his.
She had smiled more in that picture
than she did in our entire marriage.
I put the phone down, staring at the ceiling as tears burned behind my eyes.
And I finally asked the question I'd been avoiding:
"Was she ever mine at all?"