I left the mansion before sunrise.
I didn't slam the door, didn't cry loudly, didn't even leave a note.I just walked out with a small suitcase and a heart that felt like it had forgotten how to beat without hurting.
I booked a cheap hotel, one of those quiet places meant for people who didn't want to be found.I stayed there for days.
Ignoring Ethan Cole was easier than I expected.
Ignoring my feelings wasn't.
He called.He texted.He sent voice messages, short, tense ones at first, then longer ones filled with irritation, confusion, something like fear.
But I didn't answer.
Not because I wanted to punish him.
But because I knew hearing his voice would break me all over again.
The hotel room became my little cocoon.Dim, silent, lonely.I ate very little, slept even less, and stared at the ceiling until my eyes burned.
And yet… even after everything, a small, foolish part of me wanted to understand.
Just one explanation.One honest truth.One reason why he said what he said to Camille.
I still loved him.That was the cruelest part.
So after days of running, I made a decision I hated myself for:
I would go back,
not to return,not to forgive,but to get closure.
To end things face-to-face.
To hear whatever, lie or truth he had left for me.
I took a taxi back to the mansion.The road looked unfamiliar, even though I had memorized every turn. My heart kept thumping painfully, whispering warnings I refused to listen to.
When the driver dropped me at the gate, my hands were shaking.
Just ask him, I told myself.One last time.
The door was unlocked.
Ethan always forgot to lock it when he was stressed.
I stepped inside slowly, the familiar scent of cedar and his cologne wrapping around me like a ghost I couldn't shake off.
"Ethan?" I called softly.
No answer.
I walked deeper into the house, toward our bedroom, my feet moving even as my instincts screamed to turn back.
That's when I heard it.
A sound.
Soft. Breathless.Too intimate to belong to silence.
I froze.
Then pushed the bedroom door open.
And the world ended quietly.
Ethan Cole was in our bed.
And Camille was with him.
Time didn't stop.It didn't shatter.It simply… collapsed inward.
They didn't notice me at first.They were too wrapped in each other.
My voice came out before I could stop it, small, cracked, trembling:
"Ethan…?"
He jerked away instantly, shock exploding across his face.
"Liana, wait, this isn't-"
I stepped back.
Then another step.
Then another.
My chest felt hollow, like someone had scooped out the inside of me and left only air and pain.
Camille didn't even look ashamed.She looked satisfied.Victorious.
"Liana, please, listen-" Ethan tried again, scrambling for words, pulling on his shirt.
But I couldn't hear him.
I couldn't hear anything.
My feet moved on their own, carrying me away from him, away from the bed, away from the lie I had slept beside for months.
I rushed down the stairs.
He shouted my name.I didn't stop.
I reached the front door, grabbed it, and ran.
The air outside was cold enough to sting my skin.I didn't know where I was going; I just needed to run until my lungs burned more than my heart.
The pavement blurred as I sprinted, tears blinding me.
"LIANA!" Ethan's voice echoed behind me.
But I didn't look back.
How could I?
I had hoped, just once, that he'd tell me the truth.That I mattered enough for an honest explanation.That what we shared that night was real.
But it was nothing.
Just a lie wrapped in warmth.
My legs carried me farther and farther down the dark road.The wind whipped my hair into my face.My suitcase bounced behind me until the handle slipped from my hand.
I didn't even notice.
I just kept running.
Then there were headlights.
Bright.
Fast.Too fast.
The car swerved around the corner, the tires screeching against the asphalt. I tried to step out of the way, but my foot slipped on the wet pavement.
Everything turned white.
I heard Ethan scream my name.
I felt my body lift off the ground.
Then,
Silence.
A deep, suffocating silence that didn't hurt anymore.
When I woke days later, I was in a hospital room with white walls and an empty chair beside my bed.
Ethan wasn't there.
No one was.
The Present
The divorce papers came after I was discharged. Clean, polite, emotionless.
Just like him.
I signed them without hesitation.
That was the closure I needed.
And when I stepped out of the hospital doors, the world felt strangely new,
as if it had been waiting for me to start again.
Far away from Ethan Cole. Far away from every broken piece of my past.
And far away from the girl I used to be.