I'm Done Playing Along

Declan's lips trembled. My face remained perfectly calm."Fine. I'll go."I turned toward the front door, ignoring his parents' protests. Just before I reached it, a hand seized my wrist and yanked me back.‘Are you actually angry? Don’t scare me. Are you leaving me?‘If you leave me, I'll die.‘Please don't leave me.’His inner voice rushed in all at once, wrapping around me. I turned back in shock and saw Declan's eyes rimmed red. My resolve wavered.Then, the very next second, his cold voice came crashing down."Go ahead and leave. But take off those shoes first. I bought those for you."My whole body went rigid. I looked down at the shoes on my feet, worn soft from years of washing.Declan had bought them for me when we got married. At the time, he had just left them in the living room without a word, but his inner voice had seeped through from the bedroom.‘Did you see the shoes, honey? Come ask me about them. Ask me if I got them just for you.‘I had them custom-made.

When our Ripley family went bankrupt, Mom sold her only heirloom, an emerald bracelet. When she passed, it became her single unfulfilled wish to get it back.After Declan learned the story, he reached out to every contact he had, tracked the bracelet down, and paid a fortune to buy it back. I had been so moved that I could not stop crying. I told him I did not know how to ever repay him.His tone was calm, but his eyes were full of love. "Just give yourself to me. That's payment enough."Wren, I want to marry you."He used the bracelet in place of a ring, sliding the only thing Mom had left me onto my wrist to ask me to marry him.Now, he held that same bracelet and said, "I gave this to you because I was going to marry you. Now, you’re asking for a divorce. You won't even be my wife anymore, so what right do you have to take it with you?"You don't actually think you're worth $30 million, do you?"The cruelty of his words shattered whatever was left of my dignity. I swallowed t

Declan threw himself at me like a man unraveling, his voice shaking beyond control. "Blood... Where did the blood come from?""From when I fell yesterday." I pushed his arms away, my smile bitter. "I told you at the time, but you were so sure I was lying."The color drained from Declan's face. "I-I didn't know. I thought—""You thought I was making it up?" I laughed, though it was aimed entirely at myself.He could take every word out of Petra's mouth at face value without a shred of doubt. With me, even after ten years, all he had was suspicion.Sometimes I wondered whether what he felt for me was love or hatred. Even a stranger would not have treated me so poorly.It did not matter anymore. I was done caring."I'm going upstairs to shower and change."Declan grabbed my wrist. My coldness had thrown him off balance, and he did not know what to do with it. His eyes were red. "Go to the hospital first.""No." I pulled free. "Relax. It's just my period. I haven't been sleeping w

Declan watched the taxi disappear down the road. His fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles ached, and the emotions surging through him were more than he knew what to do with.He had no way to process them. For years, I had loved him without reservation. No matter how viciously he spoke to me, I would trail after him, eager to make things right, impossible to drive away.No one had ever taught him how to apologize or earn forgiveness.The only thing he could think of was the broken bracelet. If he had it repaired, would that make me happy? It had to be about the bracelet. That was why I was upset. That was why I was shutting him out.Once the thought took hold, he turned the car around without hesitation and went back to the house. He got down on his hands and knees and searched every corner of the room until he had gathered every last fragment.He was just feeling a flicker of relief when the smell of blood hit him.I was already gone. Where was it coming from?Almost with

That had been Declan’s and my first child.Just the day before, while I was on the other side of that storage room door begging him to let me out, I lost the baby.If Declan had believed me, if he had pulled me out of there and taken me to the hospital, the baby might have had a chance.He gripped the test report until his knuckles went white and broke down completely."Wren... Wren..."The child he had longed for, the child he would have loved more than anything, was gone because of what he had done.On the back of the report, I had written three words.‘Let me go.’It was a sincere request. In our ten years together, it was the only thing I had ever asked of him.Not long after, in a city far from his, I received the signed divorce agreement in the mail. A note was tucked inside with a date and location, asking me to meet him at the courthouse on the first of the following month to finalize everything.The word ‘divorce’ at the end of the note was slightly smudged, as thoug