Chapter One: The End Before The Beginning

Isabella’s POV

The silence between Damon and me was suffocating—so thick I could almost hear it. I sat across from him in his sleek office, the same space where we’d once laughed and talked about our dreams. But now, nothing felt familiar. Nothing felt warm. Just cold, sterile air and the weight of what was about to end.

My eyes dropped to the paper on the table—divorce papers. My name stared back at me, printed in bold, formal ink. His signature was already there. Neat. Confident. Final. The man I had shared my soul with had already signed away our future.

I blinked back the tears threatening to spill. I had promised myself I wouldn’t cry. Not in front of him. Not when he had chosen someone else.

Damon stood by the window, hands in his pockets, back turned to me like I didn’t even exist. He was always good at distancing himself when things got real. The man who used to pull me into his arms at the end of a long day now couldn’t even look me in the eye.

Funny how love fades when you least expect it.

“Isabella,” his voice broke through the silence like a blade. Cold. Detached. “You know this is for the best.”

Best? For who? Him?

I stood slowly, my hands trembling, as I smoothed down my dress. “You’re going to tell me that leaving me for her is for the best?” I scoffed. “Are you sure about that, Damon? Who is she?”

He didn’t answer. His reflection in the window barely moved, but I saw his jaw tighten. A flicker of emotion—regret, maybe—but it was gone before I could hold on to it.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said, still not facing me. “I never meant to hurt you.”

A bitter, humorless laugh escaped my lips. “You never meant to hurt me, yet you lied to me, disappeared for days, and made excuses about business trips and late nights at work. You stopped showing up. You stopped choosing me.”

He turned then, slowly, and our eyes met. But his eyes were empty—gray and hollow like the storm clouds gathering behind him. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

But it is, I whispered in my mind, swallowing the lump in my throat. “You chose her over me, Damon. Without explanation. Without even trying to fix us. You made your choice. And now, you’ll live with it.”

I reached for the pen beside the papers and signed with shaking fingers. My name now felt like a betrayal. As if I had given up. As if I had accepted that I wasn’t enough.

But I wasn’t done.

I looked up, meeting his eyes one last time. “You’ll get exactly what you deserve.”

With that, I turned on my heel and walked toward the door, the sharp click of my heels cutting through the silence he left behind.

And then it happened.

Just as I reached for the handle, the door opened—and she walked in.

I froze.

Tall. Confident. Perfect hair, flawless makeup, and a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. She didn’t look surprised to see me. No. She looked prepared. Like she expected me to be here. Like this had been planned.

There was something familiar about her. Something I couldn’t place at first. But the moment Damon stepped toward her—too quickly, too comfortably—I knew.

The woman he had chosen…the one I was being thrown away for…wasn’t just anyone.

She was his ex.

Kiara.

The name hit me like a punch to the gut.

I had heard it before. In whispers. In arguments that ended too soon. In the silence when I asked him about her, he brushed it off like she didn’t matter.

Now, she was here. Walking into his office like she belonged. Like she had taken my place—and he had let her.

My heart cracked open in a way I wasn’t prepared for.

I stood there, gripping the doorknob like it was the only thing holding me together. My chest burned. My head spun. All those nights he claimed to be out on business…all those missed calls and empty apologies…they made sense now.

She was the reason.

And the worst part? He didn’t even have the decency to tell me.

They didn’t speak to me. They didn’t need to. Their body language said enough. The quiet smile she gave him. The small nod he returned. I had been erased before I even walked out the door.

I turned away without a word. My heels felt heavier than before as I stepped into the hallway. The cold air outside slapped me harder than any truth Damon could’ve thrown at me.

This wasn’t just a divorce.

It was a betrayal.

As I walked to my car, the sky cracked open with thunder. Rain started to fall—first as a mist, then in steady sheets that blurred the world around me. I didn’t run for cover. I let it soak me. Let it chill my skin. Let it match the ache that lived inside my chest.

By the time I slid behind the wheel, my hands were shaking. I gripped the steering wheel and stared at the empty passenger seat beside me.

There was a time Damon would reach over and hold my hand when I was anxious. There was a time when just his voice could calm the chaos inside me.

Now… there was just silence.

And a name echoing in my mind.

Kiara.

I didn’t know where I was driving. I didn’t care. I just needed to get away. Away from that building, from those papers, from him. From her.

I kept driving until the city lights faded behind me, until the only sound was the rain on my windshield and the erratic thud of my heartbeat.

I ended up at a roadside motel—cheap, quiet, and far from everything that once defined me.

As I checked in, the clerk didn’t even look up. Just handed me a key and pointed toward a room at the far end. I was grateful for the anonymity. For the blank walls and peeling wallpaper that didn’t expect anything from me.

Inside, I dropped my bag and collapsed onto the bed, still in my soaked clothes. I stared at the ceiling, the sound of rain beating like war drums on the roof above me.

How did we get here?

How did a love that once felt so unbreakable turn to ashes?

And why—out of all people—was she back?

I closed my eyes, and for the first time in weeks, I let the tears come. They slid down my cheeks quietly, like a confession I hadn’t meant to make.

But beneath the heartbreak, something else stirred.

A strange tug in my chest. A whisper I couldn’t place.

Not of love.

Of something lost.

Something forgotten.

And I didn’t know it yet—but soon, everything I thought I knew about myself… would burn.