Chapter 5

ESSIE

For the first time since he walked in, something that almost resembled concern crossed his face.

My throat tightened. “I…I don’t know.”

Why the sudden change, It confused me more than Bella’s hatred ever had…and though I hate to admit it, it brought me a strange sense of warmth.

His eyes narrowed slightly, like he was trying to decide whether to believe me. Before he could speak, Bella’s voice cut in sharply.

“Oh, don’t start that,” she said as she came down the stairs.

She was holding one of my bags.

My things. My life reduced to fabric and memory. She dropped it at my feet like it was garbage.

“Take your things and leave.”

I stared at the bag for a moment too long. Something inside me cracked quietly. My chest twisted. This pain was not loud but it felt… permanent.

“Leo,” I choked. My voice softened without permission. “Please. I need to go to the hospital.”

His jaw tightened.

For a second, he looked like he might say something different, something human.

Bella stepped closer to him before he could.

“She always does this,” Bella said lightly, almost amused. “Anytime things don’t go her way, she suddenly becomes sick.”

“I’m not lying,” I snapped at her. My throat burned. Turning to Leo, I muttered. “I’ve been vomiting. I can barely stand.”

That finally made Leo look at me properly. Really look. And I saw it again, the conflict. Like I was a problem he didn’t know how to solve.

Not a person he loved.

“Essie…” His voice dropped lower. “I need you to leave.”

My heart paused…Just for a second. Then, it started breaking all over again. “No,” I said immediately, shaking my head. “No, this isn’t you.”

Bella laughed under her breath. Leo’s expression changed instantly.

“Get out,” he said.

The words didn’t rise above a murmur but they carried a crushing weight.

Before I could respond, my body was already being guided toward the door. I didn’t even realize when Leo’s grip turned from hesitant to firm.

Bella opened it wider, like she had been waiting for this moment all along. The air outside hit me like a slap. It was cold and empty.

And then the door shut behind me. A second later, the lock clicked.

I stood there for a moment, not moving. Hoping if I stayed still long enough, my life might rewind itself.

It didn’t. My emotions were trapped….the tears wouldn’t come. It was as though something inside me had gone numb.

The gate slowly opened, I walked silently…two years of my life packed roughly into a bag by my husband’s mistress.

I turned, just to look at the house we bought…this was where we were supposed to start our family….Then, my eyes caught sight of someone.

Bella stood behind the glass window, watching me and smiling.

When the gate closed behind me, I felt something settle in my chest…realization. I had been removed, not only from a house but also this life…the life I had known….

My hands tightened around the travel bag Bella had thrown at me. It was heavier than it looked. Not because of what was inside. Because of what was missing. I didn’t even have money, my cards or a home anymore.

Just papers, fucking divorce papers. I started walking, at first, slowly. Then faster, like movement could outrun reality.

Leo’s voice replayed in my head. “I don’t care.”

By the time I reached the road, my legs were trembling badly. My skin felt too hot and my stomach twisted painfully.

I pressed a hand to my mouth as nausea rose again.

“Not now..Not now.” I murmured to myself as my knees grew weak, exhaustion in my limbs. A haze of stress clouded my mind as the only thought I had left was Serena.

My best friend.

The hospital should have been my first stop. But I had no money, no phone battery, and nowhere else to go. I needed Serena first.

Leo had hated her. Slowly, carefully, he had cut her out of my life until she became a name I stopped saying out loud.

I constantly told myself it was peace but now I knew it was isolation.

Thunder rumbled, I looked up to see the sky had darkened. I was close to Serena’s house now, but before I knew what was happening, rain began, it poured heavily like the world had been waiting for me to break before it joined in.

I reached the apartment building shaking.My clothes clung to my skin while rainwater slid from the fabric and pooled at my feet.

I knocked once, then twice. My hands shook as my heart beat faster with the anticipation of seeing Serena.

The door opened and a lady with golden brown hair, and tattooed skin. Her pink shirt hugged her figure, while a pair of loose shorts fell just above her knees.

I stared at her in silence.

She looked me over in silence, her expression suggesting I was an interruption rather than a visitor. Then, opened her mouth in an uncomfortable way that made me realize she is probably upset that I had dragged her away from whatever she had been doing.

“Yes?”

“Serena,” I said quickly. My voice cracked.

The woman frowned slightly. She seemed inpatient, and my hands shook at my side as the cold seeped deeper into my bones.

“Serena hasn’t lived here in months.”

My stomach dropped. I whispered. “Oh…” My voice small.

The silence that followed was uncomfortable. Then she said, “You don’t know, do you?”