She’d forgiven him, alright. And from what I’d heard on our calls which I deliberately kept one-sided, it had been a total summer of love. I’d never heard Lena sound as happy as she had these last three months, dating her crazy hot hockey player.

The truth was, I’d been kind of jealous that she’d unexpectedly started living her best life. Her romance with Keane was going great, and she adored her internship at this therapy collective, called the Institute for Better Boys. She’d even started talking about letting go of her father’s med school dream and applying to a few grad programs to pursue a degree in child psychology.

So, I really didn’t understand why she was so hot to leave all that behind for med school in California.

“Oh, Keane…” Lena’s voice became a lot less cheery. “I broke up with him.”

“You broke up with him?” I repeated. “Why? He’s been so great to you. Plus, he’s, like, famous and insanely hot. Are you out of your mind?”

“No, just the opposite. I’m being practical. I mean, Keane and I don’t really make any sense. He’s this big deal hockey player, and I’m just me. I doubt we would have lasted much longer, even if I had stayed in Boston.”

Anger surged through me. “What? How can you say that?”

It was like Lena was writing a revisionist history about what had gone down this summer. Unlike her college boyfriend, Keane had treated her like gold. Even though he was a professional hockey player, he’d made her a top priority. Also…“You two were so happy. Do you think those kinds of relationships just happen all the time?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it one way or the other,” Lena answered, her voice careful like she was talking to one of the kids with mental health issues at her internship. “I mean, I’m only twenty-two. I shouldn’t be thinking about relationships right now. I should be thinking about my career. Like you.”

“No, not like me,” I insisted. But then I had to stop because how I was supposed to conclude that argument. With the truth that I wasn’t interning in New York on the cusp of medical school because I’d been revenge married to a Chinese gangster who thought I’d betrayed him?

Still, it made me so mad that she was just throwing her healthy relationship away. I ended up giving Lena an excuse to get off the phone just a few minutes later. And I couldn’t force any enthusiasm into my voice when I congratulated her on being accepted into med school before I hung up.

If I still had my freedom, I would’ve gone up there and talked her out of moving halfway across the country. But I didn’t. I couldn’t.