Chapter 3

Elena didn't sleep that night.

She sat on the edge of the bed, her phone in her hands, replaying the recording even though she knew it would hurt every time she listened to it.

The words kept echoing inside her head.

"Elena has changed."

Alexander's voice was clear at the beginning of the recording.

Then came Victoria's voice, calm and confident.

"Changed how?"

A brief silence followed before Alexander answered.

"I don't know... I feel like I can't stand being around her all the time anymore."

Elena closed her eyes.

She hadn't expected to hear that.

Alexander continued.

"For years, she's acted as though her entire life revolves around me. She asks when I'll be home, what I want to eat, whether I'm tired... At first, it was sweet, but now it's become boring."

Her fingers trembled around the phone.

She remembered every time she had waited for him so they could have dinner together.

Every time she had asked him about his day.

Every time she had tried to make him feel that he wasn't alone, despite the pressures of work.

She had never known that the things she did out of love had become a burden in his eyes.

Victoria's voice came again.

"And do you still love her?"

Alexander took a long time to answer.

Then he said, "I don't think so."

Elena felt something inside her break in silence.

But the recording wasn't over.

Alexander spoke again.

"Maybe I loved her in the past, but I don't feel the way I used to anymore. Having her around has become part of a routine I can't seem to escape."

Victoria let out a soft laugh.

"And what about me?"

His voice grew gentler.

"You're different."

Elena stopped the video.

She couldn't bear to listen to anything more.

She set the phone beside her, then raised her hands to her face.

For a moment, she allowed her tears to fall.

But she didn't sob aloud.

She didn't even want the walls to hear her falling apart.

After a few minutes, she wiped her face.

Then she looked at the clock.

Two thirty in the morning.

She had to make a decision.

And that decision wasn't to confront him.

It was to wait.

If Alexander had chosen to live another life, she wouldn't stand in his way and beg him to remember the love he had once felt for her.

She would let him believe she knew nothing.

The following morning, Elena woke up long before he returned.

She hid her phone in a drawer, washed her face, and changed into simple clothes.

Then she looked at herself in the mirror.

Her eyes looked a little tired, but her expression was calm.

Unusually calm.

About an hour later, she heard a car outside the mansion.

She took a deep breath.

Alexander entered the house, taking off his coat as he walked in.

He raised his eyes toward her.

"Good morning."

Elena offered him a small smile.

"Good morning."

He paused for a moment.

He had expected her to ask where he had been all night.

But she didn't.

He glanced at the clock, then looked at her.

"Did you wake up early?"

"A little."

He approached her.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes."

He studied her face.

He noticed her slight pallor and the faint shadows beneath her eyes.

"You look tired."

She smiled calmly.

"Perhaps I didn't sleep well."

It never crossed his mind that she knew the truth.

Instead, he felt concerned about her.

"You should have gotten some rest."

She nodded.

"I will."

He continued looking at her for a few seconds, as though there were something strange about her calmness.

But his mind found a simple explanation.

Perhaps she was just a little tired from doing housework.

He didn't even remember that he hadn't returned home on their wedding anniversary.

As for Elena, she looked at him and could think of only one thing.

This man standing before me is the same man who said I had become a burden to him.

The same man I had loved for four years.

The same man whose return I had waited for every night.

And for the first time, she felt no desire to know where he had spent the night.

Because she already knew.

Alexander spoke as he headed toward the stairs.

"I'll be going to the office shortly."

"All right."

He stopped and called out from a distance.

"Elena."

"Yes?"

"Don't overwork yourself today."

She looked at him.

In the past, those words would have made her smile for the rest of the day.

Now, all she could manage was a simple reply.

"All right."

Alexander went upstairs without suspecting a thing.

The moment he disappeared from sight, Elena's expression changed.

She went to her room and closed the door.

Then she took out a blank sheet of paper and a pen.

She sat down at her desk.

At the top of the page, she wrote:

Things I Need to Take With Me.

And she began writing quietly.

Her clothes.

Her personal belongings.

A few books.

The photographs that belonged to her alone.

The things she had purchased with her own money.

Then she paused.

She looked at the mansion through the window.

This place had been her home for four years.

But now, she realized that she didn't want to take anything from it that tied her to Alexander.

She closed her eyes.

"One week."

She whispered to herself.

"I'll need just one week."

One week to prepare.

One week to hide her pain.

One week to make sure she would never have to return again.

Then she would leave.

And Alexander wouldn't know a thing until she was completely out of his reach.

Meanwhile, in the next room, he believed his wife was simply having a tiring day.

He had no idea that her calmness wasn't a sign of exhaustion...

It was the beginning of the end.