ログインChapter 14That was how long it had been since I walked out of that house with a heart that barely held itself together.Four months of… surviving.Not living.Just… surviving.I stood in front of the small bathroom mirror in my apartment I now stay in, one hand resting on the sink, the other pressed lightly against my stomach. I had to move out of the hotel two months ago to conserve money. “You’re getting bigger,” I murmured softly.Not obvious yet.Not enough for strangers to notice.But I knew.I felt it.Every single day.The nausea.The exhaustion.The random waves of dizziness that came out of nowhere and left me gripping walls like my life depended on it.And the nights…God, the nights were the worst.Too quiet.Too long.There was no distraction then.No noise to drown out my thoughts.Just me… and everything I was trying not to think about.I closed my eyes briefly and inhaled.“Get through today,” I whispered.It had become a habit.A routine.Not life plans.Not dreams.
RICHARD (Four Months Later)I couldn’t focus.That was the problem.The numbers in front of me blurred into meaningless lines. The formulas on the screen…ones I would normally dissect within seconds, sat untouched, incomplete.Useless.I leaned back in my chair and exhaled sharply, dragging a hand down my face.“Get it together,” I muttered.But nothing was coming together.Not tonight.Not for the past few nights, if I was being honest.I couldn't just stop thinking. Thoughts I shouldn’t be having.Yet there she was.Again and again. Felicia.My jaw tightened slightly.Why?Out of all the women I had been with… out of all the faces, names, bodies that had come and gone without leaving a trace…Why her?I stood up abruptly and began pacing across the room, my hands clasped behind my back.It didn’t make sense.None of it did.That night…I stopped walking.Closed my eyes briefly.Damn it.That night at the hotel replayed in my mind like a scene I couldn’t shut off.The way she walk
HARRYI tightened my tie slowly, my eyes fixed on my reflection in the mirror.“Perfect,” I muttered under my breath, adjusting the knot just a little more.Everything had to be perfect today.No mistakes.No slip-ups.No second chances.Behind me, the room was quiet…too quiet for a hotel suite that expensive. But I knew why.Athena was still asleep.From the mirror, I could see her figure sprawled across the bed, sheets barely covering her. Completely relaxed. Completely unbothered.A faint smirk tugged at my lips.Athena…Now that was a woman who understood her place. She had been in my life even before Felicia and she knew what I have always wanted.No questions.No complaints.No emotional baggage.Just… ease.Simple.Predictable.Exactly what I needed.Not like…I cut the thought off immediately.No.I wasn’t going there.Not today; not now. I exhaled sharply and straightened my jacket, brushing invisible dust off the sleeves.Last night flashed briefly in my mind.Her laughter.
FELICIA By midday, I was done.Or at least… as done as I could be.Suitcases.Different sizes of boxes.All that I could gather from the remains of the last three years of my life.I sat on the edge of the bed again, staring at everything.I reached for my phone and searched for a storage facility nearby. I needed to keep all of the things I had packed into storage for now. My fingers moved slowly, my mind still lagging behind.A few options popped up.I picked one.Called.Spoke briefly.Arranged for a pickup.“They’ll be there this afternoon, ma’am,” the voice on the phone said.“This afternoon,” I repeated.“Thank you.”I hung up and placed the phone beside me.And then…I just sat there.Waiting.Not for the van.Not for the end.But for something inside me to feel different.Stronger.Better.But it didn’t.Not yet.I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees, staring at the floor.“Get through today,” I whispered.“Just… get through today.”Minutes passed.Then more.Until
FELICIA I opened my eyes slowly.For a moment, I didn’t move.Didn’t breathe too deeply.Didn’t think.Because the second I do… everything would come rushing back.The ceiling stared down at me, familiar and distant at the same time.Two days.It had been two days since I signed those papers.Two days since everything I thought my life was… came crashing down like a pack of cards.My throat tightened slightly.“Two days,” I whispered to myself, my voice dry and barely audible.It didn’t feel real.It still didn’t.But then again… neither did anything anymore.I blinked slowly and turned my head to the side.The room looked the same.Nothing had changed.And yet… everything had.This wasn’t my room anymore.This wasn’t my home anymore.I swallowed hard and pushed myself up slightly, resting against the headboard.The dull ache in my body reminded me of how little I had actually slept.Yesterday…Yesterday had been a blur.I barely got out of bed.I cried.And cried.And cried.Until t
FELICIA A week later… he came home with it.I knew the moment I heard the door open.You know how you just feel when something is about to end? Like the air changes… like even the walls are waiting?That was exactly how it felt.I was in the living room again…same spot, same couch, same blank stare at a TV I wasn’t even watching. At this point, the television was just noise. Something to fill the silence that had been growing louder every day.His footsteps echoed in.Slow.Measured.Not angry. Not rushed.That was what made it worse.I didn’t turn immediately.I didn’t want to.Because once I did… it would become real.But he stopped right in front of me with a manilla envelope in hand , and the silence stretched between us until I had no choice.So I looked up.And there he was.Harry.Calm.Collected.Like this was just another business decision.“Felicia,” he said.Just my name.Nothing more.I swallowed slowly. “Hmm?”He didn’t sit.He didn’t hesitate.He just extended a file to
FELICIA The house didn’t feel like home anymore.It hadn’t for a while.I sat on the couch, staring blankly at the television. The screen flickered with colors and voices, but none of it registered. It was just noise; background distraction for a mind that refused to rest.Everything felt… hollow.
HARRYI had never been afraid of a boardroom meeting before.Not once.But as I stood outside the conference room that morning, my hand hovering just inches from the door, I felt something unfamiliar, something unsettling crawling beneath my skin.Fear.I clenched my jaw.This was ridiculous.I bui
FELICIA “Yes,I promise, I will do that for you, Felicia… just help me out.” Harry started. His voice was calm…too calm.I stared at him, searching his face, hoping foolishly that I might see something that resembled the man I once believed in.But all I saw was calculation.The same patterns.My h







