5

My phone buzzed.

Sera had posted on social media: "Thank you everyone for your concern. I'm okay now. Thank you to Damien for always being there when I need him. I'll spend the rest of my life repaying you."

The photo showed Sera lying in a hospital bed, her fingers intertwined with Damien's as he sat beside her.

They looked perfect together.

I barely glanced at it before turning off my screen and setting the phone aside.

Damien and I were over.

Whether Sera intended to show off to me or provoke me, I didn't care. I wouldn't feel joy or sorrow because of it anymore.

Even if no one in this house cared about me, I still had to live well for myself.

I cooked myself a warm, hearty dinner and went to bed.

With the house empty for once, this was the most peaceful sleep I'd had in years.

---

I woke up the next morning refreshed.

I made myself a cup of hand-ground coffee and sat in the wicker chair in the garden, listening to the morning news and stretching my muscles.

I prepared the hunting grounds and organized the safe house—tasks I'd always handled for the family.

For the first time, I was truly enjoying life.

I should have been living for myself all along.

After breakfast, I returned to my room to sort through the gifts Damien had given me over the years, planning to return them all.

But as I gathered everything together, I realized something startling.

Even though Damien had successfully inherited the Alpha position and possessed countless power and wealth, he'd never bothered to put thought into gifts for his fiancée.

The things he'd given me could be counted on one hand.

We barely had any photos together. Some of the "gifts" were just random pebbles he'd picked up while we were walking.

The few items were all worthless junk.

Even though I'd treasured each one and carefully locked them away in my drawer.

Now that I took them out, I discovered they'd all yellowed and grown moldy with time.

Just like Damien's feelings for me.

Expired feelings weren't worth clinging to, just like these worthless gifts.

I shook my head.

Damien was a neat freak. He wouldn't want these things back anyway.

I threw everything into an iron bucket—the few gifts, the handful of photos—and destroyed them all with silver powder.

As the silver smoke rose from the corroding memories, I said goodbye to my past and prepared to embrace a new life.

---

After finishing this cleansing ritual, I went to the Beta Elder to get travel permits for other territories.

For my upcoming secret research, I needed documentation that would help me hide my identity and tracks. On the surface, these were just permits for traveling to other territories.

I wanted to spend my remaining days here touring the surrounding areas and clearing my head.

I was browsing through travel guides when Damien arrived.

Unlike my relaxed state, he looked haggard.

According to what Ethan had told him, I'd shown no emotion when receiving the returned engagement gift. Damien hadn't slept all night because of it.

He knew better than anyone how much I loved him. He couldn't believe that would be my reaction.

But when he saw the destroyed gifts and photos in the garden's iron bucket, his world collapsed.

These things that I'd once treasured like priceless artifacts—now I'd discarded them like garbage?

"Why did you burn the gifts I gave you and all our photos?"

I heard the slight tremor in Damien's voice.

I looked up from my travel guide to meet his pale face.

"Those things are useless now. The person who gave them has changed his heart, so the gifts have no value anymore. That's why I destroyed them."

Damien froze for a moment, then seemed to understand something.

"You knew I'd come to see you, so you staged this whole scene on purpose. You're trying to play hard to get and win me back, aren't you?"

"Aria, why are you always so unreasonable?"

He was about to leave immediately when something on my coffee table caught his eye.

Travel permits.

Damien's mind went blank.

"You're leaving the pack? Just because we asked you to put the research patent under Sera's name? You're going to threaten us by leaving? You really are a manipulative woman."

"Tell me—where are you going?"

A strange panic suddenly surged in Damien's chest. He grabbed my arm tightly.

Even though I was right there beside him, visible and tangible, somehow he had the overwhelming feeling that I might disappear forever at any moment.