Turne

smed, a violent tremor shaking me from head to toe. I gasped, a painful, wheezing sound, trying to suck

and distan, cut through the panicked screams of the crowd. He

dy felt like lead, heavy and unresponsive, trapped in the suffocating embrace of

tine, my ankle! I think it's broken! I can't move!" she wailed, her voice surprisingly strong despit

ing with the desperate search for me. Then, with a resigned sigh, he scooped Cristina into his arms, carrying her like a fragile bride. He glanced over his shoul

against my ribs. It was a message f

y, rasping sound that turned into a hacking cough. My stomach was a knot of fire, twis

a cruel joke. He wanted me to stay here, in this suffocating chaos, while he played the hero to his

have been filled with joy, flashed before my eyes. I had planned a surprise trip for him, a romantic getaway to the Tuscan countr

but his phone went straight to voicemail. Hours stretched into eternity. The wine I'd chilled for our celebratory toast

And then I saw her. Cristina, her hand resting intimately on his arm, her hair mussed, her dress a

tered on my face. He saw me then, his laughter dying on his lips, replaced by a look of stunned horror.

rd her voice, a silky whisper from the taxi, "See you tomorrow,

ore roses clutched in his hand. "Annice? What are you doing up?

fuchsia Cristina had been wearing. "Where were you, Au

eal came up. Had to close it." He tried to reach for me

onship?" My voice was rising now, cracking with the pain I could no longer contain. I thr

looked down at the tickets, then back at me, his carefully

ring the fragments of my heart. "Explain why you chose her? Explain why you keep betraying me? Explain why you told her about my mother, about my trauma?" My voice was a raw, guttural scream, a primal cry of agony. The claustro

end it. I swear. I'll end everything with her. I'll never hurt you again." He held me for hours, until the sun came up, until my tears were exhausted, until I was a hollowed

ng to the very person who was destroying me. I was a child tra

into something dark and cancerous, both literally and figuratively. And now, he had left me again

ch still burned, but the pain was a distant hum compared to the icy clarity of my purpose. I wouldn't stay. Not for him. Not for anyon