A Second Chance, Not With You

For six years, Ava Miller, a struggling musician in Austin, had shared her life-and her dreams-with Ethan Cole, a charismatic motocross legend. Their home felt comfortable, their routine established; she believed they were on an unspoken path toward forever. But her world crumbled when a drunken confession from Ethan's closest friend revealed a devastating truth: Ava was merely a carefully chosen understudy, a "practice girlfriend," serving as a convenient placeholder for Ethan's long-standing, unrequited obsession with his high school sweetheart, Chloe Vance. The betrayal was gut-wrenching. Ethan's deepening disinterest was palpable, her birthday forgotten while he openly pursued Chloe. The vicious cycle escalated when Chloe's jealous machinations led to Ava being brutally hit by a car. Yet, even from her hospital bed, Ethan, hopelessly blind to Chloe's malice, coldly hung up on the nurses, dismissing Ava's severe injuries as a mere act for "attention." Utterly discarded and bleeding, Ava was left to grapple with the horrifying realization: every tender moment, every song she'd penned for him, felt like a meticulously crafted lie. The man she loved saw her as less than nothing, a disposable echo of another woman. Was her entire existence with him a cruel illusion? With her spirit shattered but an unbreakable resolve forged in despair, Ava made the definitive choice to leave everything behind. She fled Austin for Boston, embracing a new path set by her family: an arranged marriage to a kind, stable doctor. But in a twist of fate, the past refused to stay buried, resurfacing dramatically on the very day Ava sought her new beginning.