y step. But no matter how distant the scenery, the hurt remained, a constant weight on her chest. The decision to leave Trey had been one of the hardest she had ever made, but deep down, she kn

sic career had been thriving, and Lucia had been drawn to his passion, his ambition. They had been alike in that sense-two driven s

ore elusive, more secretive, and Lucia had grown suspicious. She had always known that the world of music came with temptations. Groupies, industry parties, and the ever

s just work," he would say. "You know how crazy things get in the music business." And Lucia had believed him-because she wanted to. She wanted to believe

n at work, preparing for a presentation. Her phone buzzed with a notification, and when she opened it, her heart sank. There, on her screen, was a pictur

dismiss it, laughing it off as nothing more than a fan getting too close. "You know how it is," he said, flashing that

ords lacked conviction. The doubts that had once been whispers in the back of her mind

g than the last. Trey with different women at different events, always looking a little too comfortable, a little too familiar. And then there were the messages from the

ic scene. "People are just trying to stir up drama," he'd say. "They're jealous of what we have." But the more Trey tried to explain it awa

as from a woman named Sa'id Abel. The message was brief, but its contents were devastating. "I'm the

rd of this woman before, but the familiarity with which she spoke about Trey made Lucia's stom

king around," he said, his voice calm, almost dismissive. "I've barely spoken to h

ke the other person was at fault, like he was the victim of someone else's schemes. But Lucia knew better now. She had

Trey, Lucia received a series of texts from an unknown number. "You think you can hold on

s still on her side. But Trey had barely reacted, shrugging it off as more drama from people tr

ognized. The final straw came one evening when Lucia, after weeks of feeling like a prisoner in her own home, found yet another video. This one was sent anonymously, just like the

t keep pretending that things would get better, that Trey would change, that he would suddenly become the man she had married. The man she had

to come home. She left a note on the kitchen counter, brief and to t

ef. She had given Trey everything-her love, her trust, her loyalty. And in return, he had given her lies

the moment Trey had signed his first big deal? Was it the constant touring, the late-night parties, the endless parade of people who seemed to orbit around him

o long, she had tried to hold on to something that was already broken. She had sacrificed her own happiness

trange sense of freedom. She was no longer bound by the weight of Trey's lies. She was free to r

g time, Lucia felt like she