Chapter 5

He wasn't done talking. I hung up anyway.

Not me --- but the person I used to be, Mrs. Harrison, was expected to go and do her duty.

Nathan believed that no matter how badly he hurt me, I would do what I'd always done: clean up his mess without a word.

I looked at my phone calmly. After a moment, I dialed the number back.

The assistant picked up immediately, voice even more strained. "Mrs. Harrison, you---"

"You've got the wrong person."

I cut him off. My voice was flat. Unbothered.

"Mr. Harrison's girlfriend is sick. He should sign the forms himself, or contact her family."

"I'm not anyone to her. I can't authorize anything."

It was the first time I had ever openly refused to perform the role of Mrs. Harrison --- all the privileges it came with, and all the chains.

Silence on the other end. He clearly hadn't seen that coming.

A few minutes later, my phone started going off again.

Nathan's personal number.

I picked up. His voice came through like a wall collapsing --- so loud I had to hold the phone away from my ear.

"Nina! What is your problem? If anything happens to Chloe, I swear to God---"

I waited until he finished.

"Are you threatening me, Nathan?" I asked quietly.

"I'm ordering you to get down here. This is your obligation as my wife. Don't make me come get you myself."

Still the same tone. Still the man who believed he could control every corner of my life.

I didn't let him finish. I hung up.

Then I opened his contact and pressed the button I had never once considered pressing before.

Block.

Silence. Real silence. Like the world exhaling.

I went to the back of my vanity drawer and took out the wedding ring I had kept safe for three years.

The diamond was enormous. It caught the light and threw back something cold and expensive.

Once, it had been the thing I treasured most. Everything I believed in, everything I loved, in a single object.

I carried it out to the living room.

The piano sat there with its lid shut, like a quiet grave --- the last warmth between us, buried.

I set the ring on top of the lid.

It made a small sound. A soft clink, barely there.

I took a photo and sent it to the husband I'd just blocked. One final message.

The message was simple. One picture, two sentences.

"Nathan --- your first love needs you. Go do right by her."

"From this moment on, I am not your wife. Which means I no longer need to learn from your example."

"This ring, and everything that came with being Mrs. Harrison --- I'm giving it all back."

I sent it. Then I deleted the entire conversation.

When it was done, I felt something I hadn't felt in years.

Lightness.

Like the weight I'd been carrying for so long had finally cracked apart at my feet.

I didn't need to mirror him anymore to find my balance.

What I wanted was something clean. A real beginning.

I went back to my room. I didn't take a single thing that belonged to Mrs. Harrison.

Not the designer bags. Not the couture gowns. Not one piece of the beautiful stage dressing he'd used to make himself look good.

I took only what was mine. My ID, my phone, and the one thing my mother had left me.

Then I took Ethan's arm, and we walked out together.

The front door closed behind us with a soft, solid click.

Like a wall going up between me and everything that had come before.

I didn't look back.

At the same moment, across town, Nathan finally had a spare second to check his phone.

The photo of the ring --- cold, stark, abandoned on that piano --- and the words beneath it drained the blood from his face.

For the first time, he felt it. Real panic.

He shoved past the doctors and nurses crowding around him and sprinted out of the hospital, driving home like something was chasing him.