My Boyfriend Cheated With His Student, I Left

Marcus's sixth patent had just gone through, and he said he was going to give me the grand proposal, the one that would close out four years of dating.

The campus quad was covered in candles and roses. Marcus stood in the middle of it holding a bouquet, his eyes shining.

He was halfway through his speech when his graduate student Claire threw herself into his arms. The plain silver band on her finger, identical to his, caught the candlelight.

The crowd went still, then started murmuring. Every face turned toward them with the kind of look people get when they think they've stumbled onto a secret.

And I was standing in the middle of that crowd. His girlfriend of four years, the one he had kept hidden the entire time, watching them hold each other. Watching him swallow the rest of his speech. Watching him hand my flowers to her.

My phone buzzed in my hand. A message from S.

"Sweetheart. Have you thought about it? We know we were wrong."

Marcus's sixth patent had just gone through, and he said he was going to give me the grand proposal, the one that would close out four years of dating.

The campus quad was covered in candles and roses. Marcus stood in the middle of it holding a bouquet, his eyes shining.

Those flowers were meant for me. Claire thought the proposal was for her, and she threw herself into his arms before he could open his mouth.

I stood in the crowd and watched him hand my flowers to her.

I pulled out my phone. My fingers were shaking as I typed.

"Clear this up. Now."

Thirty minutes later, he replied. "Claire is young. She got carried away. If I make a public statement, people will tear her apart. Don't read too much into it."

I stared at the screen and gripped the phone so hard the case bent.

Nice work, Claire.

Claire was Marcus's PhD student.

An orphan who had grown up in foster care.

Marcus pitied her, and that pity had always tilted into something closer to favoritism.

A message popped up in the department group chat. Someone had shared a post from the campus social platform.

hashtags: [Dr. Marcus Hale and grad student Claire, relationship confirmed], [Breaking down every soft moment we missed]

The post had a photo of Claire teary-eyed, Marcus down on one knee, and an older shot of the two of them walking through campus together. The comments were unhinged.

"She looks shocked. She had no idea Professor Hale was going to be this brave, going against everything to claim her. I'm sobbing."

"I cannot believe my ship sailed. It's fate, I swear."

"The straight-laced professor and the brilliant student. They're perfect together."

Claire had liked that last one.

I looked at the comments. I looked at the like. My chest got tighter.

Claire could like a comment. Marcus couldn't post a denial.

There was no logic to it. He just didn't