Stopping by the door to our bedroom with my small bag of things I’d stuffed inside, I turned one last time. He was lying on the bed, his eyes shut tight, like he had to force them to stay closed

“Are you going to tell me why you did it? Do you even feel the least bit guilty?” I asked.

“Please. Just go, Cara.”

Nodding, I pushed myself past the door, hating the tears streaming down my face. He wasn’t worth them.

He wasn’t worth any of this.

It was almost three o’clock in the morning.

Three o’clock in the morning… and I’d just been kicked out of my apartment.

Standing on the street corner, holding a bag with barely a night’s worth of things, the reality of my situation came barreling down on me.

And so did the rain.

New York was never quiet. There was always movement and lights, but at certain times, it could be oddly peaceful.

As the rain beat down on my head, mixing with the salty tears falling from my eyes, I took a moment to appreciate the almost Zen-like calm happening around me. No cars, no footfalls from impatient pedestrians shuffling off to work. It was calm and eerily serene.

It also freaked me the hell out.

I was a lonely girl, outside, in the middle of the night, about to lose her mind.

I looked at the heavens and begged God to do me just one solid favor and send a friendly, non-creepy taxi driver in my direction. Apparently, the big man was listening because about five cold, wet minutes later, a single taxi appeared.

“Need a lift, sweetheart?” he said, his window rolled down just enough for him to speak to me.

“Yes, please!” I said gratefully, opening the back door and hopping in before he changed his mind.

Tyler had been bugging me for weeks to program the numbers of the major taxi companies in my phone in case I ever needed one.

But my response had always been, “Why? They’re on every street corner.”

Well, I guessed I’d learned my lesson now.

Not that I’d ever tell the cheating, lying bastard that.

The truth of his deceit was still raw in my mind. It felt foreign and wrong—like finding out the world was round when, all along, you’d believed it was really, truly flat.

Tyler had cheated on me.

He’d cheated.

After all this time…

In all those nights he’d stumbled in, reeking of cheap booze and women, I’d never once thought he’d cheat on me.

We were Cara and Tyler.

We made it four years, long-distance.

Four long years.

Why would he choose now to mess it all up?

“Do you have an address for me, sweetheart?” the driver asked, looking back at me through the rearview mirror.

“Um…”