Chapter 2

Olivia POV

I began a systematic boycott of our geography.

The coffee shop on 5th where he obsessed over the dark roast. The jazz club in the Village. The little Italian place that kept a table open for us on Fridays. I was erasing myself from the map of his life before he even noticed I was gone.

It was a slow erasure. A ghost fading before the lights even came on.

*Leaving is the only way,* I told myself. I repeated it like a mantra while I brushed my teeth. *Freedom is on the other side of this pain.*

But god, the pain was physical. It felt like my ribs were being pried open one by one.

I stood in front of the dumpster behind my apartment building. The air smelled of stale garbage and city exhaust.

In my hand, I held the stone.

The crude heart he had carved seemed to mock me now. It was heavy, cold against my sweating palm.

I should keep it. A memento. A reminder of the lesson.

No.

I lifted my hand. My arm shook.

I let go.

It fell into the dumpster with a dull, anticlimactic thud. It didn't shatter. It just disappeared among the coffee grounds and discarded takeout containers. Buried. Just like us.

I went back upstairs and started the real purge.

I pulled the shoebox from under the bed. This was the dangerous territory. The minefield.

Photos. Ticket stubs. A dried rose from our first Valentine's Day.

I picked up a letter. It was on thick, cream-colored stationery. Marcus's handwriting was jagged, aggressive, but the words...

*Olivia, you are the only calm in my chaotic world. When I look at you, the noise stops.*

I read it twice. Tears blurred the ink, making the words swim.

He had meant it then. I had to believe he meant it then. If he didn't, then my entire life for the past three years was a hallucination.

But meaning it then didn't save me now.

I took the letter to the kitchen sink. I grabbed the long lighter I used for candles.

I flicked it on. The flame hissed.

I held the corner of the paper to the fire. It curled, turning black, then orange. I watched the words *only calm* turn to ash. I dropped it into the sink and watched it burn until there was nothing left but grey flakes.

I did it with the next one. And the next.

Smoke filled the kitchen, bitter and acrid. It smelled like a funeral.

I washed the ash down the drain, just like the hair I had chopped off in the bathroom sink an hour ago.

Later that afternoon, I had to go to Thorne Enterprises to drop off some files my father needed Marcus to sign. It was unavoidable.

I walked into the lobby, my head down, hugging the folder to my chest like a shield.

The elevator doors dinged open.

They walked out.

Marcus and Izzy.

He was adjusting his cufflinks, looking impatient. Izzy was right there, in his space. She reached up, her manicured fingers straightening his tie, smoothing the lapel of his jacket.

It was intimate. Domestic. It was something I had done a thousand times.

I froze behind a large potted fern, paralyzed.

Izzy looked up. Her eyes found me instantly.

She didn't look guilty. She smiled. It was a sweet, sugary smile that didn't reach her eyes. She picked up a coffee cup from the receptionist's desk and handed it to Marcus.

"Here, darling. Hazelnut, just how you like it."

He didn't even like hazelnut. He liked black coffee. He hated anything sweet.

But Marcus took it. He smiled at her. A genuine, soft smile. He drank it anyway.

He didn't see me. I was ten feet away, and I was invisible.

My phone buzzed. It was my father.

*Dinner tonight. The gala preparation. Marcus and Izzy will be there. You need to come, Olivia. Don't make a scene.*

I stared at the text. I wanted to throw the phone through the glass window.

I couldn't refuse. My father's business was entangled with Marcus's. I was the bridge, even if the bridge was burning.

I walked past them.

"Olivia!" Izzy called out.

I stopped. Marcus turned. His eyes swept over me, cold, indifferent. He looked at my short hair and frowned, as if I had worn the wrong shoes.

"You cut your hair," he said. Not a compliment. An observation. A criticism.

"It was in the way," I said.

"We'll see you tonight," Izzy chirped. "Try to wear something lively. You've been looking so... grey lately."

I didn't respond. I walked out of the building, into the humid New York heat.

That night, at the dinner, I sat across from them.

I watched Marcus cut his steak. I watched him lean in to hear what Izzy was whispering. I watched the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when she laughed.

He looked at her with a terrifying amount of adoration.

It was the look he used to give me.

And that was the moment the hope finally died. It didn't go out with a bang. It just suffocated.

I sat up straighter. I took a sip of wine.

I looked at Marcus's cruelty and Izzy's fakeness, and I didn't feel sad anymore. I felt fueled.

*One week,* I thought.

I had one week until the flight I had secretly booked to Montana departed.

I finished my dinner. I smiled when required. I was the perfect statue.

When I got back to my apartment, it felt different. It wasn't a home anymore. It was a waiting room.

I pulled out my suitcase again. I packed the rest of my clothes. The zipper screamed in the quiet room.

*Zzzzzzip.*

I locked it.

I walked to the window and looked out at the skyline one last time.

"You don't own me anymore," I whispered to the city.

The suitcase sat by the door. The lock clicked shut. It sounded like a gun being cocked.

My heart was locked too. And I threw away the key.