Aria and Matthew. Matthew and Aria. They were two peas in a pod for 5 years, and all that ended two days ago.

“Aria, would you please tell me what happened? I can’t help you if I don’t know.” Her therapist sat in her chair, doing her best to console Aria’s unstoppable sobs.

“He’s a traitor!” She shrieked for the tenth time in the past hour.

“Aria, please.”

Her eyes were bloodshot and she shook with no more tears left in her. She took a couple deep, trembling breaths.

“I was in the kitchen at my friend’s houses, and a text popped up on her phone from my boyfriend. I clicked on it, and I knew her password because we were close, but I was never the type of person to check people’s texts.” She paused to wipe a tear from her eye.

“It’s alright, Aria.”

“The text was about me, and he was complaining about how the only reason he stayed with me was because he felt bad and it was too late to back out of it. I found out they were planning to run away together because in my friend’s phone was an unsent text. It read, ‘I can’t wait until we can run away, I love you.’”

She collapsed back into her palms, the next round of sobs had begun.