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One hundred and ninety four

Penulis: Ese Gwede
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-06-03 20:55:45

~Fallon~

I didn’t pack much.

Just a suitcase and a duffel, tossed together with zero coordination — swimsuits tangled with sweaters, books I probably wouldn’t read, chargers I’d inevitably forget to use. I didn’t even check the weather.

I just needed to get out.

Of the mansion. Of the headlines. Of the noise in my own head.

The city felt too small lately. Like every streetlight and billboard and paparazzi lens was watching me — waiting for me to crack. Waiting for me to fall apart in public like some tragic ex-wife, even though the contract technically said I wasn’t even that.

I didn’t bother telling Mia. She’d try to stop me, or worse — try to come with me. I couldn’t explain why I needed to be alone, not when I barely understood it myself.

All I knew was that if I stayed, I’d start performing again.

Smiling when I didn’t want to. Posting when I had nothing to say. Turning pain into something palatable. Safe. Sellable.

And I was tired of being palatable.

So I booked a flight. First-c
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  • Fallon’s Reid: An Arranged Contract   Two hundred

    ~Fallon~The night stretched long, each minute blending into the next, and I couldn’t shake the weight of Reid’s voice. It had cut through me like a blade, sharp and unforgiving, but there was something softer in it this time. Something that reminded me of the man I once thought I could have everything with.I stayed up late, sitting on the couch, staring out at the dark horizon until the weight of exhaustion finally dragged me to bed. It was hard to sleep with thoughts of him in my head, but eventually, I drifted off.When I woke the next morning, the air was cooler, the ocean’s sound still rolling in its eternal rhythm. I hadn’t made any decisions, hadn’t even wanted to, but the text was still in my drafts, sitting there, waiting.The villa was quiet—eerily so. The stillness felt almost artificial, like the house was holding its breath with me. I moved slowly, making coffee I didn’t drink and toast I didn’t eat. The mug sat untouched on the table as I wandered the rooms like a ghost

  • Fallon’s Reid: An Arranged Contract   One hundred and ninety nine

    ~Fallon~The ocean breeze drifted through the open windows of the villa, cool and soft against my skin. I curled deeper into the plush couch, phone in hand, eyes on the tiled ceiling, and tried not to feel like I was suffocating under the weight of a two-minute voice note.Mia’s name lit up the screen.I took a deep breath before answering. “Hey.”“Took you long enough,” she said, her voice crisp over the line, filtered with city static. “I’ve been waiting all day.”“I know. I’m sorry. I just…” I sighed. “I wasn’t ready.”“Did you listen to it?”A pause.“Yes.”Another pause.“I’m guessing that’s why you sound like someone flattened your lungs.”I almost smiled. Almost. “He found another number. I didn’t even recognize it at first. But then I played it, and…” My voice trailed off.“And now you’re spiraling,” Mia filled in for me. “Classic Fallon.”I groaned and rubbed my temple. “You don’t understand, Mia. He sounded different. Not cold or careful. Not rehearsed. Just—wrecked. Like he

  • Fallon’s Reid: An Arranged Contract   One hundred and ninety eight

    ~Reid~I didn’t sleep that night.I couldn’t.The second I hit send on the voice note, regret crept in like smoke under a locked door. Not because I didn’t mean it—but because I did.Every damn word.And now they were just out there, floating in her phone, in her hands—if she even opened it.I sat on the edge of my bed, phone in my palm, staring at the screen like it owed me something.It didn’t.No typing bubbles. No read receipts. No call back. No reply.Just silence.A silence that felt like punishment.A silence I probably deserved.⸻By 3 a.m., I was pacing.Back and forth across the length of the bedroom, bare feet dragging over the hardwood floors. I’d told myself I wasn’t going to fall apart. That I’d send the message, let it go, and move on if she didn’t answer.But I was a liar.Because she wasn’t just someone I missed.She was the someone.The axis I’d built my life around without even realizing it—until she was gone.I scrubbed a hand down my face and walked into the bathr

  • Fallon’s Reid: An Arranged Contract   One hundred and ninety seven

    ~Fallon~The message came just after midnight.I was on the balcony, legs curled under me, a blanket draped across my lap. The sky was ink-black and endless, the stars flung across it like someone had spilled them. The ocean below moved slow and steady, brushing against the cliffs in rhythmic sighs.Everything was quiet.The kind of quiet that made your thoughts louder.I was on my second glass of wine. Not drunk—just soft around the edges. Loosened. Unarmored. I’d spent the last hour watching the candle on the table melt into itself, thinking about nothing and everything.That’s when the phone buzzed.The second phone.The one I only kept charged in case of an emergency.I stared at it for a long time. No name, just a number I didn’t recognize. But something in my chest clenched before I even touched the screen.I knew.The way you just know certain things before they happen.Reid.It had to be.I hovered my thumb over the play button like it might burn me. Maybe it already had.Then

  • Fallon’s Reid: An Arranged Contract   One hundred and ninety six

    ~Fallon~The sea breeze tasted like peace.Real peace. Not the kind you fake for the cameras. Not the kind you have to explain, spin, or survive.This was the kind that came with silence. With waking up to waves instead of push alerts. With breathing, fully, and not immediately choking on the weight of everything waiting for me back home.I didn’t even know how badly I needed to leave until I did.The villa was perched on a cliff above the Aegean, remote and sun-bleached, with ivy creeping up the stone walls and the kind of quiet that could swallow a person whole. The pool stretched toward the sea like a promise. The sun hit different out here—less angry, more forgiving.I’d booked it on a whim. Clicked “confirm” without thinking, packed a bag in under fifteen minutes, and left everything else—including my phone, my planner, my wedding ring—in a drawer in L.A.Not even Mia knew where I was.It was selfish. Irresponsible, maybe.But it was mine.And for the first time in a long time, I

  • Fallon’s Reid: An Arranged Contract   One hundred and ninety five

    ~Reid~She was gone.No note. No warning. No trace.Fallon had just… vanished.And I had no one to blame but myself.I had gone to the other house several times and there was no trace.Her phone went straight to voicemail. Her assistants hadn’t heard from her. Her best friend Mia was tight-lipped, and even my own mother — who’d called me yesterday to “check in” with that tone that meant she already knew everything — refused to tell me where Fallon had gone.“She needs space,” Evelyn had said quietly. “You gave it to her, didn’t you?”No. I didn’t give her space.I gave her silence. I gave her fear. I gave her every reason to believe I wasn’t going to fight for her — and now she was halfway across the world, hiding from the fallout I helped create.And I still couldn’t make myself go to her.Coward.That word lived in my throat now, carved into the underside of every breath.⸻The house was too quiet.I didn’t realize how much sound she used to bring — even in silence. A door opening u

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