Chapter 1 - The Ring on the Table
“I’m sorry.”
She wasn’t speaking to Adrian.
She was speaking to the tiny gray shape in the photograph.
For six years, Elena had apologized to herself. She had excused the late nights, the canceled vacations, the sudden departures, and the constant, suffocating presence of Serena Keller.
She had believed love required patience.
She had believed loyalty meant waiting.
She had been wrong.
Elena stood up.
She did not cry.
The tears had already been spent in empty hotel rooms and cold beds.
She walked into the master bedroom.
She ignored the walk-in closet filled with thousands of dollars of designer dresses Adrian had bought her. She ignored the jewelry boxes. She ignored the safe containing enough cash to start a new life in luxury.
She pulled a worn duffel bag from the top shelf.
She packed three pairs of jeans.
Five sweaters.
Comfortable shoes.
Her prenatal vitamins.
Then she walked to the vanity mirror.
She looked at the woman in the reflection.
She looked tired.
But for the first time in years, she looked free.
Elena slid the three-carat diamond engagement ring from her finger.
The platinum wedding band followed.
She carried them back to the dining room.
The candles had burned down to pools of melted wax.
She placed the rings perfectly in the center of the ultrasound photograph.
She did not leave a note.
Adrian didn’t need a letter to understand what he had lost.
He only needed to see what he had left behind.
Elena picked up her bag.
She walked out the front door.
May you like
She did not take a car from the garage.
She walked three blocks in the cold Chicago wind, hailed a passing taxi, and disappeared into the city.
