{ ONE }

ALICE

"Melissa is back." Vaylen's voice came from the kitchen doorway, "We're getting married."

For a second, I couldn't breathe right. I lowered the spoon before my hand could start shaking. My palm pressed hard against the table as I looked up at him.

He watched me the same way he always did, like he was waiting to see what I'd do. He wasn't going to see me fall apart.

Three years of making space for him everywhere in my life while he kept one foot out the door the entire time. And now this, dropped across the kitchen like we were discussing weather.

"Melissa?" My voice sounded steadier than I felt. "You're serious?"

"You heard me." His face didn't change. “She's back.”

The room went still after that. “The divorce papers will be ready soon,” he said. “Don't make this harder than it has to be.”

I drew in a breath and held it for a second before letting it out carefully. I'd gotten good at that where Vaylen Morgan was concerned.

He stayed in the doorway watching. I knew what he expected, the breakdown, the tears, or some ugly scene he could use to convince himself.

I wasn't giving him that.

"The food's ready." I set the dish on the table and straightened. "Come sit down."

His jaw tightened. He didn't go to the chair. He walked to the pot instead and lifted the lid.

Steam curled up between us. Then he stopped. Just for a second, but I saw it, recognition of his favorite meal.

I had made it because I was planning to tell him something tonight, something important, because I needed him to be in a good mood first.

But he'd walked through the door and ended us before I got the chance. His hand tightened slightly on the lid before he set it back down.

By the time he turned around again, his face was blank. I picked up the spoon and served his food carefully, keeping my hands steady.

He still wouldn't look at me. He sat down, picked up his fork, and started eating like none of this was happening. I sat across from him quietly.

My hand almost moved to my stomach before I stopped it. Not yet.

He kept eating, calm as ever and detached, like this dinner was routine.

Like I was part of the apartment furniture he'd stopped noticing a long time ago. The silence dragged out after that, heavy and awkward.

I let it sit for a few seconds before putting my fork down. 

“I know you don't love me,” I said.

He didn't react, just continued eating. 

“You married me because losing her messed you up.” My voice stayed even. “And I stayed because somebody had to keep you together.” 

Something flickered across his face and disappeared almost immediately.

“It's been three years, Vaylen.”

“Get to the point.” His jaw tightened.

I nodded once. “I'm not going to fight you over this, and I'm not going to beg.”

Under the table, my fingers were locked together so tightly they hurt. “But... I want one thing.”

He raised his head and looked straight into my eyes. 

“My birthday's in two days.” I didn't take my eyes away. “Have a moment with me. One evening. You pick the place.” I swallowed once before continuing. “After that, I'll sign the papers and I'll leave quietly.”

His fork stopped halfway to his mouth. The silence after that felt different.

Then his fork touched the plate with a quiet clink, and he leaned back in his chair, watching me carefully now. 

“Is that all you want?” he asked.

“Yes.” I replied.

“You don't want anything else?”

“No.” His eyes narrowed slightly.

“Then what do you even get out of this?”

I held his gaze. “One memory of us that will be mine.”

Something shifted across his face too fast for me to catch properly, gone almost immediately. Then he reached for his glass like nothing had happened.

“One evening,” he said slowly.

“One.”

He kept looking at me for another moment before picking his fork back up.

Vaylen had always been good at moving on quickly, too good, where people could stand beside him for years and still end up feeling temporary.

He finished eating, stood up, and adjusted his jacket with neat, practiced movements.

“My lawyer's out of the country right now,” he said as he walked toward the door. “We'll meet him in seven days.”

I said nothing.

At the door, he paused with his hand on the handle.

His fingers flexed once before going still again. “For your birthday... I'll get back to you.” Another short pause. Then, without turning around, he added, “Don't embarrass me.”

Then the door shut behind him. The apartment went quiet after that, leaving just silence and the smell of dinner still sitting in the air.

I picked up his plate and carried it to the sink.

The tap came on. I washed the plate slowly.

The warm water ran over my hands while I stood there longer than I needed to. When I finished, I dried my hands and turned off the kitchen light.

The upstairs hallway was dark, but I didn't need the light anymore. After three years, I knew every corner of this house by memory, every step and every creak in the floor. Funny how easy it is to memorize a place you've spent years trying to make feel like home.

I pushed open the bedroom door and stepped inside. The second the door clicked shut behind me, my hand moved on its own.

Flat against my stomach. I closed my eyes. 

Three weeks.

The words from the hospital had followed me home that morning. They'd sat quietly in the back of my mind all evening, waiting.

Vaylen didn't know. He had stood in that kitchen and ended our marriage without knowing I was carrying his child.

The thought hurt in a way I couldn't really describe, so I stopped trying to. After a while, I knelt beside the bed and pulled out the box hidden underneath.

It had been there since the day I became Catherine Morgan, untouched and exactly where I'd left it.

The phone inside felt cold in my hand. My thumb rested over the power button.

One call. That was all it would take.

One call, and everything about my life here would change, erasing the version of me that existed inside this house. The quiet woman Vaylen had gotten used to, the woman who stayed silent, stayed careful, and stayed easy to overlook.

All of it would end.

I sat there for a long time, staring at the phone. Then I exhaled and placed it back inside the box.

Not yet.

I still had seven days before the lawyers came back, seven days before I stopped being Vaylen Morgan's wife. After that... I'd make the call.

And when I did, Vaylen would finally understand that the woman he'd dismissed so easily was never who he thought she was.

I would disappear from his life completely. And I'd take the one thing he never saw coming with me.