5

Ava's POV

The tiles were freezing against my skin.

I don't know how long I stayed like that. Sitting on the bathroom floor in the guest room, knees pulled up to my chest, my back against the cold tub. My body didn't feel like mine anymore. It felt sore. Heavy. Wrong.

I forced myself to stand. I had to grab the sink just to stay up. My legs were shaking so bad I thought they would give out.

When I looked up, I saw her in the mirror.

Messy hair stuck to her wet cheeks. Eyes red and puffy. There were angry pink marks on the side of her neck. On both of her upper arms, dark fingerprints were starting to bloom, purple and blue, right where he held me down last night.

That was the moment something inside me snapped.

Not broke. Snapped clean.

I was done. I was really done trying to be good enough for people who never even tried to see me.

I was not staying here one more night waiting for him to decide what I was worth.

I opened the bathroom door as quietly as I could. The guest room was dark and empty. Ethan wasn't there. The bed was still a mess, you could still see where his body had been. But he was gone.

From downstairs, I heard a glass clink. And a woman laughing.

Lily. After that phone call about the wine glass last night, she actually came here.

I didn't waste a second.

I grabbed the small duffel bag I had hidden in the closet in this guest room weeks ago. I never thought I would actually use it. I threw in a few t-shirts, jeans, and underwear. My ID. My passport. The little envelope of cash I had been saving from the grocery money Mrs. Caldwell gave me. It wasn't much, but it was mine.

Then I just stood there for a second, looking around the room. I didn't want to take anything else from this house. Nothing here felt like mine anyway. Not even the clothes, really. I just wanted to leave with what I came in with. My own stuff. My own money. That was enough.

I tiptoed toward the door. I had to go down the stairs to get to the front door. But the voices from the living room made me stop behind the stair wall.

It was Ethan and Lily.

"Ethan, you see?" Lily's voice was sharp, full of that smug win. "I told you from the start. That woman is just living off you."

"Lily, don't start again," Ethan sounded tired and drunk. He must have started drinking again after he woke up.

"Why? Are you scared to hear the truth?" Lily laughed, that mean laugh. "She's just a gold digger, Ethan. She only ever wanted your money. If it wasn't for the money, she would never have married you."

I covered my mouth hard. My chest felt tight. So after lying about the wine glass on the phone, now she came here in person to keep lying.

"She's so spoiled, such a drama queen," Lily kept going, her voice getting crueler. "You scold her a little, she cries. You get mad a little, she pretends to be sick. She thinks that will make you feel sorry for her?"

"Lily, enough," Ethan snapped, but not really.

"No! You need to hear this!" Lily stepped closer. "You are Ethan Caldwell. You could get any woman. Prettier, classier, more worthy. Not a cheap woman like Ava. She doesn't deserve to be your wife. She doesn't deserve to be part of our family."

Silence.

I could hear Ethan pouring another drink. Ice clinking in the glass.

"She always talks back to me," Ethan finally said, his voice low and cold. "Even tonight she dared to fight me."

"See?" Lily jumped in fast. "That's why you shouldn't spoil her. A woman like that needs to be taught a lesson. If you're too soft, she'll walk all over you. Who does she think she is, fighting her own husband?"

I closed my eyes. Tears fell and I couldn't stop them.

So this is what they think of me. All this time I tried to hold on, tried to be a good wife, but in Lily's eyes I'm just a cheap woman. Ethan didn't defend me once. He just stood there. He let his sister tear my dignity apart.

A little while later, I heard the front door open. Lily left.

Heavy footsteps came up the stairs. Ethan walked back into this guest room, threw himself on the bed with his wrinkled shirt still on, one shoe still on his foot, and started snoring loud right away. He was wasted. He passed out again.

I waited until his breathing was steady. Until I was sure he wasn't going to wake up.

Only then did I sneak downstairs. Every creak of the old wooden stairs made my heart jump. The house was silent. The whole mansion felt like it was holding its breath.

I reached the front door. And then I looked down at my hand.

That ring. Thin, with small diamonds around it. When he put it on my finger on our wedding day, I thought it meant he would protect me. Now I knew it was just a chain.

I twisted it off. It was a little stuck because my fingers were swollen from crying, but I pulled hard until it came off.

My hand looked strange without it. Lighter. Free.

I set it down gently on the little wooden table by the entrance. I didn't throw it. I just left it there.

"I don't want to be a part of your life anymore, Ethan," I whispered into the dark, quiet house. My voice cracked.

I grabbed my duffel bag. My hands weren't shaking anymore. My heart wasn't racing anymore. I felt weirdly calm. Clear.

I pulled the heavy front door open, and the cold night air hit my face. I stepped outside and didn't look back once. I walked down that long driveway toward the gate, toward the road, toward anywhere that wasn't here. I had no plan. I just knew that if I stayed, I would disappear completely.