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Chapter 8: Morning Comes

ผู้เขียน: Romance Addict
last update วันที่เผยแพร่: 2026-03-18 18:32:51

I do not sleep much.

Not because I am crying, not because I am falling apart, just because my brain refuses to switch off, cycling through everything on a loop like it is trying to make sure I have processed every single detail before it lets me rest.

I lie there listening to the sounds of the apartment. Derek shifting on the couch at 2am. The refrigerator hum. A car passing outside. The particular silence of a home that has already ended even though nothing is packed yet.

At six-fifteen I give
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  • EYES OPEN   Chapter 9: I Know About Saturday

    I read the message four more times in the elevator.I know about Saturday.The doors open at the lobby and I walk out into the morning like a woman who is completely fine, keys in hand, coffee in hand, because whoever sent this does not get to see me rattle. Not in a lobby. Not anywhere.I push through the front door into the cold air and I stand on the pavement and I think.Saturday. Archer's. Me and Rhys sitting across from each other at a corner table for nearly an hour. Who knew we were meeting? Nobody. I told nobody. Rhys told nobody, I am almost certain of that, but almost is doing a lot of work right now and I need to close the gap between almost and completely.I call him.He picks up on the second ring. "Hey.""Did you tell anyone about Saturday?" I ask without preamble. "Anyone at all. A friend, a family member, anyone."A pause. Short but present. "No. Why?"I read him the message.Silence."Send it to me," he says. His voice has shifted. Flatter. More controlled.I forward

  • EYES OPEN   Chapter 8: Morning Comes

    I do not sleep much.Not because I am crying, not because I am falling apart, just because my brain refuses to switch off, cycling through everything on a loop like it is trying to make sure I have processed every single detail before it lets me rest.I lie there listening to the sounds of the apartment. Derek shifting on the couch at 2am. The refrigerator hum. A car passing outside. The particular silence of a home that has already ended even though nothing is packed yet.At six-fifteen I give up on sleep entirely.I shower. I dress. Dark jeans, white shirt, my good blazer. I do my makeup carefully, the full version, not because I care what Derek thinks but because armor takes different forms and today I want mine visible.I look at myself in the bathroom mirror for a moment.Good on paper."Not anymore," I tell my reflection.I walk out to the kitchen and start the coffee.Derek appears in the doorway ten minutes later, pillow crease still on his cheek, wearing yesterday's shirt. He

  • EYES OPEN   Chapter 7: The Email

    I sit on the edge of the bed with my half-packed bag beside me and I open my email.Rhys has forwarded something.A screenshot. From Vivienne's phone. I do not know how he got it and right now I do not care because what I am looking at stops every thought in my head completely dead.It is a conversation.Between Vivienne and Derek.From two and a half years ago.Two and a half years ago, and two months before Derek proposed to me.I read it once fast and then again slowly because the first time my brain refused to fully process it.Vivienne: Are you actually going to marry her?Derek: It makes sense. She is stable. Good on paper. My parents love her.Vivienne: And us?Derek: Nothing changes between us. You know that. You are getting married too, it is the same thing.Vivienne: It is not the same thing.Derek: Viv. Come on. You know how I feel about you. This does not change anything.Vivienne: Promise me.Derek: I promise.I stare at my phone screen until the words blur slightly.Stab

  • EYES OPEN   Chapter 6: Friday

    Friday arrives the way all dangerous things do.Quietly.Derek is in a good mood at breakfast. Humming while he makes toast, refilling my coffee without being asked, kissing the top of my head on his way past like we are a couple in a commercial for something wholesome. He has no idea. Absolutely zero idea. And the contrast between what he thinks this morning is and what this morning actually is, is so sharp it almost makes me dizzy."Big dinner tonight," he says, sitting across from me. "Might run late.""That is fine," I say. "I will probably just have a bath and an early night.""You sure? I can try to wrap it up by nine."I look at him over my coffee cup. This man. This genuinely unbelievable man. Planning a considerate evening around a wife he has been lying to for two years."Take your time," I tell him warmly. "I will be here."He smiles and reaches over and squeezes my hand.I smile back.The moment he leaves I text Rhys one word.Today.His reply is immediate.Ready.I spend

  • EYES OPEN   Chapter 5: Archer's

    I get there first.Deliberately.I want to see him walk in before he sees me. I want that five seconds of observing without being observed, the small advantage of knowing what I am dealing with before the interaction starts. Old habit. My mother called it paranoia. I call it preparation.Archer's is a corner cafe with exposed brick and good lighting and the kind of background noise that makes private conversations possible. He chose well. I pick a table near the window, order a black coffee, and sit with my back to the wall facing the door.Twelve minutes later, Rhys Callahan walks in.Okay.So the photos did not lie, they just undersold.He is tall, broader than I expected, wearing a dark jacket over a grey shirt, no tie, sleeves pushed to the elbows. He scans the room with the kind of practiced quiet efficiency that tells me he also wanted to get here first and he is mildly annoyed that he did not. His jaw is doing something tight and controlled and his eyes find me in about four se

  • EYES OPEN   Chapter 4: What I Want

    What do I want?Nobody has asked me that in a very long time.Derek used to ask, in the beginning. What do you want for dinner, what do you want to do this weekend, where do you want to go for our anniversary. Small questions. The kind that feel like love when someone is asking them and feel like performance when you look back and realize they stopped somewhere around month eight and you did not even notice.I type back to Rhys: Can we meet?Three dots.When?Saturday. Somewhere public.There is a place called Archer's on Clement Street. Noon.I save the address. Then I put my phone down and lie back on the bed and stare at the ceiling and do something I have not let myself do in three weeks.I cryNot the ugly kind. Not the falling-apart kind. Just quiet tears running sideways into my hair while I breathe steadily and let myself feel the full weight of what this is. Two years. I gave this man two years of my life, my body, my loyalty, my future plans, the name I legally changed, the

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