Chapter Three Leaving My Past Behind

Melinda’s POV

My heart pounded hard, thudding against my ribs. The weight of betrayal sat heavy in my gut, making me feel sick. Every breath felt shallow, like even the air was filled with disappointment.

My life was falling apart. My heart raced. My hands shook on the wheel, but I kept them there tight, my knuckles turned white. I hadn’t stopped crying since I left .

My vision blurred as the city lights bled into each other, streaks of gold and red running like wet paint. I blinked hard but the tears kept coming, hot and steady. This wasn’t real, it couldn’t be but the ache in my chest said otherwise. This was a bloody nightmare.

What was I going to do?

It had been over thirty minutes since I walked out of Andrew’s office, and I still had no idea where I was going. I didn’t need a destination. Not yet. Just  movement.

I needed to feel like I was putting distance between myself and the mess behind me. Only the engine kept going, filling the empty space Andrew and Vanessa had cut out of me.

The Los Angeles skyline blurred through the windshield. The lights flickered as I drove past. Horns blared in the distance but I didn’t hear them not really. I only heard the echo of his voice. The fabric of my world tearing at the seams.

And the dress I wore the same silly white thing I put on every anniversary was now a cruel joke. White. A color for innocence.A color for fools. For funerals. It clung to my skin, damp with sweat, sticking to me like regret.

I should’ve torn it off and burned it the second I walked out of that building. Vanessa’s body tangled with Andrew’s flashed behind my eyes again and again like a horror reel stuck on loop. No matter how hard I blinked, it kept playing. Too loud. Too clear.

What shattered me most wasn’t Andrew it was Vanessa. My own sister. Of all people, it was her. I used to think blood meant something, that she’d always have my back. But now I see her clearly.

She’s been reaching for what’s mine since we were kids. The boys, the attention ,they never wanted her. Not really. They came to her just to get closer to me. And I think..

Maybe that’s what broke her. Or maybe she was always like this. I just refused to see it.

My phone buzzed on the passenger seat. Again.

Andrew.

His name lit up the screen, bright and smug. I silenced it without even glancing fully. He didn’t get access to me anymore. Not with excuses. Not with fake remorse. Not with that voice that used to make me feel safe.

I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew one thing for sure I wasn’t going home besides that, the house wasn’t mine anymore. Not really. It hadn’t been for a long time.

We built it together brick by brick, side by side. Fresh out of school, full of dreams and blueprints.

Somewhere along the way, I’d stopped being a partner. I’d become a background fixture. A tool. A name he used when it suited him. A name he could ruin when it didn’t.

He thought I’d fold. Collapse into tears and wait for him to explain it away like he always did. But Andrew didn’t know me anymore.

Maybe he never really did.

The city roared around me, full of strangers and steel and neon promises. I drove south, leaving everything I knew behind. My thoughts raced, faster than the wheels under me. But in all that noise, one thing started to make sense.

I needed out.

Not just out of the house or the firm. Out of this entire existence.

Out of the life where I lived beneath Andrew’s shadow. Where my talent was measured only by how well it propped up his ego. Where my silence was a duty and my loyalty a weapon turned against me.

I passed Culver City. Then Inglewood. The freeway signs stretched across the sky like fate whispering options.

Bakersfield. Barstow. Las Vegas.

Vegas.

I hadn’t thought about it in years. Not since our honeymoon back when Andrew still looked at me like I mattered. When I still believed in forever.

The city had felt like freedom then, pulsing with life, wild and unstructured. Neon lights. Endless possibilities. A reset button disguised in chaos.

Maybe that’s what I needed now.

A new name. A new state. A version of me untouched by him.

I tapped my fingers on the wheel as the idea took root. Vegas wasn’t just a fantasy anymore. It was a real option. A plan.

I wouldn’t take anything he could use against me. Not the car. Not the house. Not the furniture we picked out together while pretending we were happy. I’d vanish clean. Quiet. Careful.

Before making any move , I had to protect what mattered to me.

I pulled off the freeway and into a dimly lit gas station. I killed the engine. The silence that followed was thick like it was waiting for something. But this time, it didn’t break me. It steadied me.

I reached into my purse and pulled out the flash drive I’d hidden behind an old photo strip. A backup of every design I’d ever created. Projects Andrew had taken credit for. Ideas I brought to life that he presented as his own. Time stamped. Tracked.Untouchable. They were mine. The receipts he didn’t know I had.

I pulled out my notebook next and started writing.

Checklist:

1.​Call my lawyer the one I met through a client, not the one we both used. Discreet. Brutal.

2.​Freeze all joint accounts.

3.​Transfer my shares from the firm quietly, legally, permanently.

4.​Change my number.

5.​Disappear.

I stared at the list. Then added one more.

6. Come back stronger.

Because I would and when I did, I wouldn’t be the woman who wore white dresses and waited to be chosen. I’d be the woman who rebuilt herself from scorched earth and didn’t ask for permission.

My phone buzzed again.

Vanessa.

Of course.

I didn’t open it. I blocked her number.

They thought they’d broken me. That I’d seen the pictures, heard the voices, and disappeared like some wounded bird.

They didn’t know I hadn’t run.

I was just getting started and they were going to regret ever crossing me .

I turned the key, started the car, and rolled back onto the highway. I wasn’t ready to hit Vegas yet. Tonight, I needed sleep. A cheap motel. A quiet room with a lock. Tomorrow would come fast and I’d need a clear head.

The woman Andrew married was gone.

The woman replacing her?

She didn’t want revenge.

She wanted legacy.

And she was ready to fight for it.