Chapter 3

I changed into my pajamas and walked out. Austin was staring at his phone, smiling.

"Where is the medicine?"

He looked up, completely blank.

"What medicine? Oh, babe, look at this! Mason is so smart. He’s reciting Shakespeare's sonnets!"

He shoved his phone in my face. On FaceTime, Hailey's son was clumsily reciting a poem.

Whenever Lily tried to show Austin her English spelling bee words, he always looked annoyed.

Yet here he was, acting like a devoted father, teaching another man's kid line by line.

I asked quietly,

"Did you forget your own daughter is sick?"

He snapped back to reality, looking embarrassed.

"Sorry. I'll look for the medicine now."

Hailey’s face appeared on the screen, looking guilty but smug.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Chloe. My son just loves learning so much, he ended up taking up all of Austin's time."

"I'll make sure to limit our FaceTime calls to only three hours a night next time."

Austin searched the cabinet and said,

"It's fine. Loving books is a good thing. My daughter only wants to go to Disneyland all day. She has no ambition."

"And three hours isn't enough anyway. Don't we still need to review your fashion design drafts tonight?"

Hailey smiled shyly, her eyes flashing with a hidden victory.

"Thank you, Austin. If it weren't for you, I really wouldn't know what to do..."

"Don't say that. Your happiness is all that matters."

Austin stood up and said to me,

"Chloe, we're out of NyQuil. I'm going down to the 24-hour pharmacy. Take care of Lily."

He kept the FaceTime call active, rushing out the door without looking back.

For the past three years, he spent every single evening like this—talking to Hailey.

I ordered the medicine on DoorDash instead. I wasn't going to wait for him.

Half an hour later, a sweating delivery guy knocked on the door.

"Sorry, ma'am. The elevator in your building is broken. I had to run up the stairs."

"I hope I didn't delay your kid's medicine."

I thanked him profusely and handed him a bottle of cold water.

"Not at all. Thank you so much."

He chugged the water, waved, and left.

Three hours later, Austin finally returned with a bottle of cough syrup.

"Sorry, babe. The elevator was broken, so I had to take the stairs. And Hailey had a minor emergency..."

It was laughable.

Even a random DoorDash driver knew the urgency of delivering medicine, yet Austin let his sick five-year-old daughter wait three hours.

I didn't even look at him.

"No need. She's already asleep."

He fell silent, mumbling a guilty "sorry."

That was his default reaction to us for the past three years.

I went to Lily's room to sleep.

Now that I had decided to let him go, every second spent near him felt like torture.

The next morning, Lily ran up to Austin, full of excitement.

"Daddy, next Tuesday is my school's Field Day! Will you come play with me?"

Kids have short memories. She still wanted to be close to her father.

Austin, wanting to redeem himself, nodded instantly.

"Of course! Daddy will definitely be there and win first place for you!"

Lily happily got onto the school bus, waving goodbye.

Austin lowered his hand, turned to me, and said,

"Hey, can you let Hailey look at your new fall fashion drafts?"

"She's hit a creative block. I helped her look at her drafts all night, but I couldn't help much."

My footsteps paused.

I studied fashion design, and so did Hailey.

Whenever I was stressed about my designs, losing sleep over fabric and cuts, Austin would only scoff.

"Nobody's job is easy. Either deal with it or quit."

So I stopped sharing my struggles with him.

But when Hailey came back, he suddenly forgot his own words.

Not only did he spend every night helping her find inspiration, but he even started learning about fashion design just to help her.