Chapter 5

Bird skipped out the door, pulling Brennan after him, his laughter echoing down the hall. I watched them go, a thin, ironic smile stretching my lips.

The front door slammed shut, plunging the house into a profound silence. It wasn't the warm, peaceful quiet I once knew; it was the suffocating stillness of a tomb.

I walked to my bedroom, my feet heavy on the plush carpet. I needed my passport, my essential documents. I opened the closet door.

My wedding dress, still pristine, hung in its garment bag. I touched the delicate lace, a ghost of a memory of a day filled with hope and promises. It felt like a lifetime ago.

My phone buzzed. A message from Cheri. 'Can we talk, Allison? Just us girls?' Her audacity was staggering.

I typed a quick reply. 'Don't even think about it. Or I'll post every detail of your affair for the world to see.' She didn't reply.

I remembered the first time Brennan ever mentioned Cheri. 'My new assistant, Allison. Very efficient. You'd like her.' He' d said it so casually, so dismissively.

But even then, a tiny, insidious seed of doubt had been planted. Now, I knew. That casual mention had been the beginning of the end, the first tremor of the earthquake that would collapse my world.

A month passed in a blur of laser treatments for my eye. Brennan and Bird hadn't contacted me once. It was as if I'd simply ceased to exist, vanished into thin air.

The divorce cooling-off period ended uneventfully. My final check-up revealed my eye was healing perfectly, no scars. A strange sense of lightness settled over me.

"Dr. Evans," I began, my voice soft, noticing the furrow in her brow. "Is everything alright?"

Her gaze lingered on a young man at the reception desk, his face etched with worry. "It's not my patient, but... his younger brother needs a corneal transplant. He's trying to sell a kidney to pay for it. Such a bright young man, a PhD student, but from a humble background."

I listened, a cold familiar ache twisting in my gut. A young man, desperate to save his brother, willing to sacrifice himself. "How much is the surgery?" I asked, the words surprising even myself.

"Quite a sum, I'm afraid. Even with insurance, the out-of-pocket is astronomical," she replied, shaking her head sadly.

"I'll pay for it," I stated, my decision firm, immediate.

Brennan had thrown away millions on Cheri-on scarves, on trips, on setting up her son in Bird's life. He had spent a fortune trying to make me jealous, to gaslight me, to replace me. And here was a young man, trying to save his brother.

"Consider it my celebration. A new beginning, a new sight," I told Dr. Evans, a faint smile touching my lips. A new life deserved a good omen.