Gabriella 's apartment was suffocating with silence.
She stood frozen in the doorway of the bedroom, clutching her phone like it was the only thing tethering her to reality. Her eyes were fixed on the two bodies tangled in the sheets, his sheets. Their sheets. And for one agonizing heartbeat, she couldn't breathe.
Jerry looked up first, eyes wide with guilt. "Gabriella, wait,it's not what you think .
"Jerry of all the things I have done for you, this is how you repay me?" Gabriella spoke out loud.
The woman beside him, some stranger whose face Gabriella didn't even recognize, pulled the covers over her chest and turned her face away.
It was as if the world had slowed down, every sound drowned out by the rushing in her ears. She backed away slowly, her hand trembling on the phone. Her chest ached, not from heartbreak, no, not yet, but from shock, from the betrayal she never thought she'd taste.
"Gabriella, listen, baby, I swear." Jerry scrambled out of bed, not even bothering to grab a shirt. He reached for her arm.
She flinched.
"Don't," she whispered.
It was the only word she could muster before turning around and walking out.
She didn't slam the door. She didn't curse or throw anything. She just left. Quietly. The kind of quiet that comes just before a storm.
She walked through the hall like a ghost. When the elevator doors opened, she stepped inside and stared at her reflection in the mirrored wall. Her golden skin was pale, her usually bright brown eyes dull. Her long braids, once her pride, were frizzy and falling apart. And worst of all, she could still feel Jerry's voice echoing in her head.
"Baby, I swear…"
She laughed. A bitter, broken sound.
The walk to her mother's house was long, and the sun had already begun to set by the time she reached the front steps. She hadn't even noticed she was crying until her vision blurred, and the first tear slipped down her cheek.
She rang the bell once. Then again. The door opened moments later.
Amanda, her mother, stood on the other side. Tall, graceful, and ever-serious. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Gabriella's face.
"What happened to you?"
Gabriella swallowed the lump in her throat. "Can I stay here tonight?"
Amanda folded her arms. "Where's Jerry?"
"I, I found him with someone else." Gabriella said.
Silence.
Her mother stared at her, expression unreadable. "You're sure?"
Gabriella blinked, stunned by the question. "I saw it with my own eyes."
Amanda shook her head, stepping back inside. "
Gabriella, you have to stop being so dramatic. Maybe it was a misunderstanding."
A misunderstanding.
Gabriella couldn't believe it. Her mother, the same woman who preached about loyalty and respect, was doubting her. Her own daughter.
"I'm not making it up," she said quietly.
Amanda's eyes were cold. "Well, even if it's true, you need to fix your relationship, not run away from it."
"Run away" Gabriella whispered. "So you think I'm trying to run away from relationship?"
Amanda's lips tightened. "He's a good man, Gabriella. You shouldn't throw that away so easily."
That was it. The final crack.
Gabriella stepped back, her eyes stinging. "So you're telling me to stay with him even if he's cheating? "
"That's not what I meant". Amanda whispered.
"That's what it looks like, I'm so disappointed in you mom". Gabriella said
She called her best friend next. Liz. Her ride-or-die since the age of thirteen. The girl who promised to be there through everything.
It rang four times before she picked up.
"Hey, what's up?" Liz said, her voice upbeat.
"He cheated, Liz. Jerry. I saw him."
There was a long pause.
Then, carefully: "Are you sure? I mean, he told me things were rough between you two lately. Maybe this was just a mistake."
"A mistake?".
"Gabriella, don't get mad."
"You knew."
Silence.
"You knew, didn't you?"
"I didn't want to get in the middle of your relationship."
"You were already in the middle if you knew and didn't tell me," Gabriella snapped, heart pounding. "I needed you."
"I didn't want to lose both of you," Liz whispered.
That was the last thing Gabriella heard before she ended the call.
She spent that night on a bench at the park. The moon hung above her like a silent witness, and the city buzzed around her, cars, distant laughter, sirens wailing in the background. Her phone was dead. Her limbs ached. But none of it compared to the aching in her chest.
Everything she had relied on was gone.
Jerry, the man she had loved for four years, had betrayed her with no hesitation. Her mother didn't believe her. Her best friend had kept secrets.
She had no one.
No one but herself.
By morning, Gabriella's mind was numb, but something had shifted in her. She stood from the bench, stretched her aching back, and looked up at the sunrise bleeding gold across the horizon. It was beautiful. Raw. Honest.
Unlike the people she once trusted.
She pulled out her dead phone and stared at the black screen, then stuffed it back into her pocket. The silence was peaceful. She didn't want to hear apologies. She didn't want excuses.
She just wanted to move.
So she did.
She walked across town to her cousin Amber 's place. Amber wasn't someone she was close to, but they had history, and Amber had always been kind. When Gabriella knocked, Amber opened the door in pajamas and a head wrap, bleary-eyed.
"Girl, what the hell, what happened to you?"
Gabriella didn't even try to explain. "Can I stay for a few days?"
Amber stepped aside. "Come in."
And just like that, a small light flickered at the end of Gabriella 's tunnel.
The next few days were a blur. Gabriella applied for temp jobs online using Amber's laptop. She deleted every photo of Jerry from her phone. She blocked Liz. She avoided all calls from her mother. She cried in the bathroom when Amber wasn't home. She slept a lot. Ate little.
But each day, she woke up.
And each day, she kept going.
Until, one afternoon, Amber came home and said, "There's an opening at the gallery I work at. It's just front desk work, but it's something."
Something.
It wasn't much, but it was hers.
She went to the interview wearing one of Amber's old blouses and a skirt that didn't quite fit. Her hair was in a bun. Her makeup was light. Her smile was forced.
But the owner, an older woman named Tina, saw something in her.
"You've been through something, haven't you?" Tina asked quietly after the interview.
Gabriella hesitated. "Something like that."
Tina smiled. "That's good. People who've been through things tend to work harder. You're hired."
It wasn't a grand moment. No music played. No one clapped. But Gabriella felt something stir in her chest for the first time in days.
Hope.
That night, she stood in front of the bathroom mirror and stared at herself. Not the woman Jerry slept on. Not the daughter her family doubted. Not the friend her best friend betrayed.
She was Gabriella.
She had been burned. But she wasn't ashes.
Not yet.
"I don't need any of them," she whispered.
And for the first time, she almost believed it.