I Was Abandoned, But He Regretted ItBOOK1-Chapter 1

Congratulations! You have been accepted into the Interior Design program at Kensington University, London.

I could hardly believe that the dream I had kept buried for so long was finally coming true.

I wanted to celebrate. I wanted to scream to the world that I had made it. But when I thought about the first person I wanted to tell—Bobby, my husband of five years—my smile instantly faded.

Bobby wasn’t here. He wasn’t by my side to celebrate this moment. Instead, he was having fun with his friends at a luxury hotel downtown. I knew this because my coworker, Amelia, had shown me a social media post.

There was Bobby, his charming smile wide as ever, standing in the middle of his group of friends. But what shocked me the most was the presence of Grace, Bobby’s coworker, who had been coming up in our conversations a lot lately. In the photo, Grace was leaning intimately against Bobby, and in the next slide… there was a video of them passionately kissing.

I immediately turned my face away from Amelia’s phone screen. Deep down, I had known something was wrong for a while, but seeing the proof with my own eyes still felt like a dagger to my chest. Tears began streaming down my face uncontrollably.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm the storm of emotions raging inside me. Bobby had always belittled me, treating my dreams as something too grand for someone like me—a waitress.

“You know, Irish, prestigious universities like that don’t take people like you,” he had once said, his condescending tone barely concealed.

But I did it. I proved him wrong. Yet strangely, this victory felt hollow when I realized that the person I always thought would support me was the one who doubted me the most.

That day, I decided Bobby didn’t need to know about my acceptance. He didn’t deserve to hear this good news, just as he didn’t deserve me. I was going to leave Bobby and all the bad memories that came with him. I would go to London and start a new life.

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The restaurant was winding down as Uncle Jack, the owner of the place and the only family I had left, finished his work for the night. I handed him my acceptance letter, and his soft blue eyes immediately lit up.

“I knew you could do it, Irish!” he exclaimed, pulling me into a tight hug. “I’m so proud of you.”