LOGINLandon checked into the same hotel as me, and his room was right next to mine. That night, sleep eluded him. He paced back and forth outside my door. In the end, I couldn't stand the noise anymore and opened the door. He sank to his knees in front of me, begging for my forgiveness through a flood of tears. "Please give me one more chance! I'll give you anything you want, and I'll do whatever you ask of me. I just want to make amends. I don't want our eight years together to end here!"I plastered a smile on my face as I mirrored the coldness he had once shown me. "Grow up, Landon. Are you telling me your world will fall apart without me?"Before he could admit to it, I added, "But mine has to exist without you."He froze in place, watching helplessly as I closed the door in his face. …The following day, Landon waited in the lobby, hoping to catch me when I came down. However, the receptionist told him I had already checked out and that I had left something for him. It was a
We stood outside that cafe until the sun dipped below the horizon and the streetlights flickered to life. Landon had finished his coffee and was just holding onto the empty cup, looking around for a place to toss it. I pointed at the trash can next to us. He walked over, dropped it in, and came right back. Honestly, he seemed like a lost kid. "You should go," I said softly.He shook his head, slowly but firmly. "Not yet."Instead of sending him away, I took him to a restaurant I frequented. It was a cozy little place that served home-cooked meals, and the lady who ran it knew me well. Her eyes lit up when she saw me walk in with a man. "Rose, is he your boyfriend?" she asked.I shook my head and replied in the local language that he was just a friend. Landon sat across from me, watching me converse effortlessly with the owner. He watched me order our food with ease and watched my eyes crinkle into little crescents whenever I smiled.It had been ages since he last saw these
Carissa was the one who asked for a divorce, and Landon made no effort to change her mind. The couple went straight to the courthouse and completed the procedure. Before parting ways, she said solemnly, "If you ever cross paths with Rose, please apologize to her on my behalf. No matter what happens, she'll always be my best friend." Landon nodded, turned on his heel, and vanished into the wind. One day, he spotted me in his colleague's social media feed. The moment he saw my back, he knew it was me. Hence, he booked the earliest flight to Zelani and rushed over through the night. By the time he touched down, it was the early hours of the morning. While standing on the streets of a large metropolitan city, he clutched the screenshot of that photo from his colleague's social media feed. He held onto it like a dying man clutching at a final straw. I was standing before a vast lake, with my back to the lens. The wind swept my long hair up, and I was wearing a blue dress he had ne
Insomnia began to take hold of Landon. In the dead of night, he'd sit by himself in the living room, staring blankly at the glowing lamp. He tried turning it off, but when the darkness closed in, those images became even clearer instead. The image of me curled up in the corner… The blood streaks on my arm… My face snapped to the side by his slap…He unlocked his phone and went to his photo album. It was filled with photos of Carissa, photos of Leon, and family portraits of the three of them. Yet, after combing through the entire device, he found a total of three pictures of me. The first was a candid shot. I was in the kitchen cooking instant noodles. My hair was a mess, and I was right in the middle of a yawn. The second picture was a selfie from when we had first become a thing. My eyes were crinkled into little crescents, and his arm was draped over my shoulder. The third photo was taken when my depression was at its worst. Unable to bear seeing me like that, Carissa had se
"I'm sorry… Rose, I'm so sorry…" With trembling hands, Carissa pulled out her phone and dialed my number. The number saved as an emergency contact, which had always been answered within seconds, would now never connect again. Carissa sank to the floor. She refused to give up, dialing the number over and over. "Please, I beg you, pick up the phone! I was wrong. I was so wrong…" She sobbed so hard she could barely breathe. The bedroom door was pushed open by Landon. He immediately understood what had happened and asked anxiously, "Is Rose not answering the phone?"Carissa nodded, clutching his hand in fear. "Say… After how I just treated her, after the things I said to her, do you think she's hurting? What if she does something reckless again? Landon, we never should have gotten together..." Her sobs swallowed the rest of her words. Landon's blood ran cold, and his mind uncontrollably flashed back to the scenes of my meltdown—of me smashing everything in the house and of me
Neither Carissa nor Landon said a word during the whole ride home.Leon leaned against the window, his eyes red and puffy. "I won't let anyone bully you, Mommy. If anyone dares to bully you, I'll just do what I did today and beat the bad people until they scurry away!"Landon caught on and tightened his grip on the steering wheel. "Did you hit Rosie today, Leo?"Leon nodded smugly, like a hero who had just defeated a monster. "I not only hit her, but I also threw a cup at her and bit her hand!"Carissa was thrown forward and hit her head as the car screeched to a halt. "What are you doing, Landon?""Who taught you to do that, Leon Ross? Who told you it was okay to raise your hands against someone?" Landon's abrupt outburst left both passengers paralyzed with shock. Leon started shaking like a leaf, tears streaming down his face. "I… I just don't want Mommy to cry anymore. I don't want you two to fight every day."Carissa snapped back to her senses and pulled Leon into her arms.