on her bed, half-packed. This was it. She was finally doing it. After years of putting her own life on hold, she was choosing herse

her grandmother asked from the d

uite reach her eyes. "I' ve never been m

e was leaving behind would crush her before she even made it t

isper in the back of her mind. She remembered the sterile, white hospital room, the rhythmic beeping of machines, and the suffocating smell of antiseptic. Liam had b

scribed the changing colors of the sky outside his window, and guided his hand so he could feel the shape of a fork, a cup, his own face. She became his eyes, his anchor. His family, grateful for her devotion, had quietly

journals and guides on caring for the visually impaired. Her own dreams felt distant and unimportant comp

re being into healing. To everyone else, she was the devoted girlfriend of the brilliant tech mogul, Liam Hayes. But she knew the truth. She was a glorified caretaker, a placeholder. Her fu

Ava felt out of place in her simple dress, a stark contrast to the glittering gowns around her. Then Chloe Davis had made her entrance. Liam' s ex-fiancée, a concer

catching up. But then she saw it. He was laughing, a genuine, unguarded laugh she hadn' t heard in months. Chloe touched his arm, her fingers lingering, and he didn' t pull away. Ava' s breath caught in her throat. The sounds of the party fad

ir voices low. She didn' t mean to eavesdrop

s voice was a soft, possessive pu

was strained, full of a con

ipping with false sincerity. "But you and I... we' re from the same world. She can'

festered inside her for years. She was the nurse, the support staff. Chloe was the partner, the equal. The shock was a physical blow, leaving her cold and numb. She

y rooms, each one a fresh wave of pain. She had sacrificed her education, her ambitions, her very identity for him. And for what? To be so easily discarded, so casually dismissed. The grief was overwhelming, but beneath it, a tiny, hard kernel of anger began to form. It was the anger that finally propelled