Chapter 7

Three days until the end.

My phone started buzzing in the morning and didn't stop.

All messages from Crystal in New York.

The first was a picture of her and Andrew in a hotel lobby, hugging each other tightly like a couple deep in love.

The second was a photo of them at a Michelin-star restaurant, with Andrew tenderly cutting her steak.

There were more, with even more explicit details.

I saved every single message, my face devoid of expression.

These photos would be the perfect "souvenir" to leave for him.

For the next two days, I methodically erased every trace of myself from the house.

I packed away or destroyed my clothes, my books, and anything else that proved I had ever lived there.

I even repainted my room and took down all our photos, making the space look as if it had never been occupied.

On the afternoon of the final day, I called my only friend, Maria.

"Lucia? You sound... strange," Maria said, her voice full of concern. "What's going on?"

"Maria, I need to see you," I said. "There's something important I need to tell you."

An hour later, we met at a quiet café.

She gasped when she saw me. "Gods, Lucia, you've lost so much weight, and..."

"And what?"

"Your aura... it's changed," she said with a frown. "You seem… colder. Like a different person."

I took a sip of coffee. "Maybe this was the real me all along."

"What did you want to tell me?" Maria asked, worried.

I took a phone out of my bag and placed it on the table in front of her. "If Andrew asks where I am, give this to him."

"What do you mean?" Maria picked up the phone. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere far away from here," I said calmly. "Maria, this might be the last time we see each other."

"Don't worry. This is my choice. The phone has the answers he'll want. When he wants to know why, he'll understand."

I stood up and gently stroked her hair. "Take care of yourself, Maria."

After leaving the café, I returned to the house that would soon no longer be mine.

As the sun set, I stood alone in the backyard, staring at the field of rainbow moonflowers.

This was the beginning of our love, and it would also be the end.

Midnight approached. The final moment before our mate bond snapped for good.

I lit a torch and tossed it into the center of the flowerbed.

Flames spread quickly, the rainbow-colored petals twisting, withering, and turning to ash in the inferno.

Just as the fire roared at its peak, a searing agony shot through the mark on my shoulder.

The pain was more intense than I could have ever imagined, like a white-hot branding iron peeling the mark from my very soul.

"Ah—!"

A pained cry escaped my lips as I collapsed to my knees.

But the agony lasted only a few seconds before it vanished completely.

In its place, an unprecedented feeling of lightness filled my body.

The spiritual chains that had bound me for five years finally shattered.

I got to my feet, gave the burning garden one last look, and walked away without a backward glance toward the car I had parked by the gate.

I stomped on the gas and drove toward freedom.

At that same moment, in a luxury hotel in New York, Andrew, wrapped in the arms of Crystal, suddenly felt a sharp pang in his chest.

He shot up in bed, clutching his heart, feeling as if something vital had just been ripped from his life.

He tried to reach for me through our mental link, but found nothing.

The connection that had been a constant hum in the back of his mind for five years... was silent.

Gone.