They had been together for years — from early adulthood into their thirties. She wasn’t wealthy, but she was steady, loyal, and endlessly patient. He came from nothing, and she helped him climb step by step. When he couldn’t afford university, she gave him her scholarship. When he wanted to start a business, she sold her house and her car. Everything she had, she poured into him.

He promised he’d never forget that. But success came fast — too fast. Money, attention, admiration… it changed him slowly at first, then all at once.

And the man she loved became someone she barely recognized.

He began coming home late. Started lying. Started cheating — not out of passion, but out of arrogance, like nothing could touch him and she would always stay. He stopped noticing how tired she looked. He stopped noticing her at all.

The night that broke her was their 10th anniversary. She had decorated the apartment with tiny lights, made his favorite meal, and set the table for two. She waited until midnight.

He never came.

He was with his secretary — not because she was special, but because he stopped caring enough to try.

Months passed. He continued his life as if nothing was wrong, drifting further away, blind to the quiet pain in their home. And then, one morning, his phone rang.

He assumed it was work. Instead, a doctor’s voice met him.

A calm tone. A pause. Then words that froze him where he stood:

“She was admitted this morning. Advanced cancer. She didn’t make it. I’m very sorry.”

He didn’t even know she had been sick.

She had gone through it alone — the exhaustion, the pain, the fear — because he was never around to see it. Because he had left her behind long before she died.

And only then did he understand the size of his loss.

For weeks after her funeral, he moved through life like a ghost, replaying every mistake, every night he chose someone else, every moment he dismissed her love as something guaranteed.

One night, unable to breathe from guilt, he whispered into the empty room:

“If I could go back… I’d choose you. Every time.”

He didn’t expect anything to happen.

But the next morning, he opened his eyes and the world felt wrong — familiar but different. The apartment wasn’t cold or empty anymore. Her perfume lingered in the air. Her shoes were by the door.

His phone buzzed.

A reminder: 10th anniversary dinner — 7:00 PM.

The night he broke her heart. But this time… he was there before the clock even hit six.

And this time, he wouldn’t waste the life she had given him.