002

Ava knew something was wrong the moment she stepped into the house.

The lights were all on, far brighter than usual, and the silence felt deliberate. Not the calm silence of a quiet afternoon, She slowed without meaning to, her hand tightening slightly around the strap of her bag as her eyes lifted toward the living room.

Everyone was there.

Not just Landon and his mother, but extended family members too, seated neatly as though this were a meeting they had planned days in advance. No one looked surprised to see her. No one stood. They were all already settled.

Landon sat at the center of the room.

Relaxed. Composed. He looked nothing like the distant, irritated man she had been living with for months. Beside him sat Scarlett. His Assistant

And sitting way too close.

Scarlett’s knee brushed his. Her posture was open, confident. Like She belonged there, and she knew it. One hand rested lightly on her stomach, not protectively, but intentionally, as if she wanted Ava to notice it immediately.

Ava stopped just inside the room.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Giselle was the first to speak. She always was. “Sit down, Ava.”

Ava did not move. “I asked a question, Landon.” She said facing Landon now.

Giselle’s lips tightened briefly before smoothing again. “You’ll have your answer shortly, so sit.”

Landon leaned forward then, placing a thin folder on the table. He slid it toward the empty seat opposite him.

“Please,” he said. “Let’s not make this harder than it needs to be.”

Ava’s gaze dropped to the folder. She already knew what it was before anyone said it.

“Those are divorce papers,” Giselle said coolly, confirming it anyway. “We thought it best to address this as a family.”

Ava inhaled slowly and walked toward the table. She didn’t sit. She picked up the folder but didn’t open it yet.

“And why,” she asked, her voice steady, “am I being divorced without warning?”

Scarlett shifted beside Landon, her hand pressing more firmly against her stomach. “I’m pregnant,” she said gently. “Three months pregnant.” She added

The room felt suddenly smaller.

Giselle wasted no time. “A miracle, really. Something this family has waited years for.”

Her eyes slid toward Ava, unashamed. “Something you were unable to provide.”

Ava nodded faintly, as though she were absorbing new information instead of confirming something she had already lived with for years.

She looked at Landon. “Is this true?”

He hesitated for half a second. Then he nodded. “Yes.”

That was all he said.

Ava opened the folder then. She skimmed the pages slowly, carefully, as if she were reading a contract that belonged to someone else. The terms were simple. Clean and Efficient. No compensation beyond what the law demanded. No acknowledgment of the years she had spent holding that household together.

Ten years of her life…

Her mother died serving them, and she followed the same path without question. Being Loyal. Patience. Enduring everything. She gave them everything she had, believing it would count. And this… this was what it boiled down to.

“You’ve been seeing her for how long?” Ava asked quietly.

Landon did not meet her eyes. “That’s not relevant Ava.”

“It is to me.”

Scarlett spoke instead. “It wasn’t planned. But things happen. And Landon felt it was only right to be honest.”

Ava almost smiled at Scarlett’s fake innocence.

Giselle leaned back in her chair. “We took you in when you had nothing, Ava. We gave you a place, a name, a position. But kindness should not be mistaken for obligation. You have served your purpose.”

The words landed heavily, but Ava did not react the way they expected. She didn’t cry. She didn’t raise her voice. She simply closed the folder and placed it back on the table.

“If you wanted me gone,” she said calmly, “you could have said so.”

“We did,” Giselle replied. “Repeatedly. You simply failed to listen.”

Scarlett watched Ava closely now, waiting for the collapse. Waiting for anger or desperation.

Instead, Ava smiled.

It wasn’t bright. It wasn’t triumphant. It was small and tired, the smile of someone who had finally stopped trying.

That unsettled them.

“You’re smiling?” Giselle asked sharply.

“Yes,” Ava said. “I think I finally understand.”

Landon frowned. “Understand what?”

“That I was never meant to stay,” Ava replied. “I was meant to fill space until someone more useful arrived.”

Scarlett stiffened slightly but said nothing.

Ava picked up the pen.

Landon’s eyes widened. “You’re just going to sign it?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not going to argue?” he asked. “You’re not going to say anything?”

Ava paused, pen hovering over the paper. “What would you like me say?”

Giselle scoffed. “Don’t pretend you’re taking the high road. You have nowhere else to go.”

Ava signed her name either way ignoring Giselle’s taunts.

The sound of the pen moving across the page was the only sound in the room.

When she finished, she placed the pen down and straightened.

“I’ll pack my things,” she said.

“That’s it?” Landon asked.

“Yes.”

She turned toward the stairs without another word.

Upstairs, she packed quickly. Methodically. Clothes, shoes, personal items. Nothing decorative. Nothing sentimental. She didn’t pause to look at photographs or remember promises. She had done enough remembering already.

Her bag sat on the bed.

Inside it was the hospital folder.

The actual truth of It all…

Ava could see it…Scarlett was playing a game. A desperate little game that was doomed to fail. Because now Ava knew the truth, and that pregnancy? It wasn’t Landon’s, not by a mile.

She zipped the bag closed.

When Ava returned downstairs, the living room was empty except for Landon. He stood near the door, uncertain now, like a man who had expected resistance and didn’t know what to do without it.

“You’re really leaving,” he said.

“Yes.”

“You didn’t even try to stop this.”

Ava looked at him then, her expression calm but final. “I tried for ten years.”

She walked past him.

The door closed behind her.

And just like that, the life she had built in silence ended the same way.

Quietly.