Chapter 6
The long flight didn’t wear me out at all.
In fact, the farther I got from that place that broke me,
The lighter I felt.
By the time the plane landed,
I finally managed a real smile.
A smile I hadn’t felt in eight years of slow, quiet misery.
I used to think the worst thing in the world
Was losing the person you love most.
But now I realize,
The real tragedy is loving someone so much
You end up losing yourself.
As soon as my phone turned on, the messages flooded in.
All from Ryan.
[Isabella, I was in a car accident.]
[Isabella, please come back. I need you. I can’t do this without you.]
[I really thought I was going to die. You have no idea how scared I was.]
[…]
The fact that he could still send this many texts
Meant he was clearly fine.
Every message was just another ploy to win me back.
But the reality?
He had Emily there, pampering him every step of the way.
And I was just the emotional crutch
He clung to while he recovered.
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He Got His Dream Baby….. Just Not With Me
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Chapter 6
A free live–in nurse, easy to manipulate.
I let out a bitter laugh.
No hesitation.
Blocked. Deleted.
You can only be disappointed so many times
Before your heart goes cold.
All the emotional games he used to play-
Now that I’m finally clearheaded,
They just disgust me.
Some scars don’t fade just because time passes.
Some memories stick.
I rolled my suitcase out of the airport without looking back.
My new life starts now.
Instead of flying to the Maldives,
I picked another vacation spot.
Somewhere I could actually relax.
Maybe later I’ll settle down in a quiet town back in the States.
Get a simple job, live an ordinary life.
Or maybe I’ll just keep traveling,
Chasing freedom wherever it leads me.
As long as Ryan is out of my life,
None of that toxic baggage can touch me again.
Meanwhile, Ryan spent twenty days in the hospital.
He pulled every string he could trying to track me down.
But all he ever found were faint traces.
I never stayed in one place long.
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He Got His Dream Baby… Just Not With Me
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This was my first real vacation in years-
I wasn’t going to waste it.
The day he was discharged, Emily called.
“Ryan, when are you coming to see me?”
“I miss you.”
They were in the same city.
She was pregnant.
He’d been hospitalized with serious injuries for almost a month-
And she never once showed up.
Her usual excuse was the hospital being full of germs.
She was pregnant, and didn’t want to risk the baby.
Every few days she’d check in with a call,
Just long enough to pretend she cared.
What she really wanted was money.
That’s all they ever wanted from him.
Love?
There was never much of that to begin with.
If she truly loved him,
She wouldn’t have taken the breakup money and walked away without blinking.
Only I stayed.
Only I, the wife who stood by him through it all,
Took hit after hit, and kept forgiving.
“Ryan, it’s not just me. The baby misses you too.”
Her voice over the phone was sweet and seductive.
But his mind got stuck on one word:
Baby.
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He Got His Dream Rabu Just Not With Ma
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Chapter 6
He remembered we had once been expecting, too.
Back then, he didn’t even know about the pregnancy.
And because of my mistake,
That miracle slipped away before it even began.
He’d lashed out–screamed at me, blamed me, humiliated me.
But he forgot something.
He forgot that no one was hurting more than I was.
The guilt.
The pain of losing that child.
The news that I’d never be able to carry again.
All of it collapsed on me like a landslide.
And when his words cut me like knives,
Did he ever stop to wonder if he’d gone too far?
Did he ever think about the way I locked myself in the bathroom,
Slapping myself across the face until I went numb?
He saw it.
He saw everything.
Felt everything.
But he was too consumed with rage,
Too eager to push the blame onto me.
Maybe the moment he saw me fall apart,
That was when the seed of resentment first took root.
Every time he threatened divorce over another woman,
That seed grew deeper, stronger.
Now it’s become a tree.
And there’s no digging it out anymore.
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