Chapter 6

Jessica, meanwhile, orchestrated a symphony of distress, rushing to Ethan's side and dabbing at the insignificant wound with a lace-trimmed handkerchief produced from some hidden recess of her gown.

"Ethan! Oh, my love, are you injured?" she cried. "Speak to me! Do not you dare leave me, Ethan! We have a future! Our future!"

Her performance was flawless in its execution.

Amelia watched, a cold detachment settling over her. This was a scene from a poorly constructed melodrama.

Ethan, leaning heavily on Jessica, his face pale more from shock than any real injury, looked at Amelia.

A faint, triumphant smirk touched his lips.

"You see, Amelia?" he rasped, his voice weak but laced with his customary arrogance. "I told you. I would give my life for Jessica. She is everything to me."

He paused, his gaze hardening. "You? You are nothing. Less than nothing."

He expected her to shatter, to dissolve into tears, to finally comprehend her own insignificance.

He was still playing the old game, using Jessica as a weapon to wound her.

Amelia met his gaze, her own calm, almost pitying.

"The waiting period for the divorce is nearly at an end, Ethan," she said, her voice quiet but firm. "Only a few more days remain."

She turned and walked away, leaving him to his minor wound and his dramatic leading lady.

The sound of sirens grew closer. Someone must have telephoned the police.

She did not look back. His words, his taunts, they no longer possessed the power to inflict pain.

He was correct. She was nothing to him. And he, at long last, was nothing to her.

Amelia waited in the hospital corridor while Ethan was treated for his injury-a few stitches and a tetanus injection.

A doctor emerged, looking mildly exasperated. "He will be fine. It is a superficial laceration. He may return home."

Jessica was cooing over Ethan, fussing with his bandage, her devotion on full display for any and all onlookers.

Amelia watched them, a strange sense of peace settling over her.

This was their drama. She was merely an unwilling spectator, soon to depart the theater for good.

Amelia spent that night in the small, sparsely furnished temporary apartment she had rented under her maiden name.

She packed her few remaining possessions into two suitcases.

Her art supplies, her sketchbooks filled with new designs, the simple, practical clothes she had purchased for her new life in New York.

Each folded garment, each secured sketchbook, was a quiet repudiation of the life she was leaving.

She felt no sadness, no regret. Only a quiet, burgeoning anticipation.

The dawn of a new day, a new life, was approaching.

The next morning, Amelia met her lawyer, Mr. Davies, at his chambers.

"Everything is in order, Ms. Hayes," he said, handing her a crisp, official-looking document. "The divorce was finalized by the court this morning. You are officially a free woman."

He smiled warmly. "Congratulations."

Amelia took the document, her fingers tracing the embossed seal.

A free woman. The words resonated deep within her.

A wave of relief, so profound it almost buckled her knees, washed over her.

She drove to the bank, the divorce decree clutched in her hand.

She removed her wedding ring, a heavy, ornate diamond band that had always felt like a manacle.

A faint white line remained on her finger, the ghost of her marriage. It would fade, she knew.

She placed the ring, along with a copy of the divorce decree, into a small, unadorned velvet box.

She added a brief, formal note: "Ethan, Our marriage is concluded. This chapter is closed. I wish you... whatever it is you seek. Amelia."

No anger, no recrimination. Merely a statement of fact. A final, definitive period.

Ethan was still at his penthouse, recuperating from his "ordeal," basking in Jessica's sympathy.

He expected Amelia to appear, full of remorse, begging his forgiveness for... something. He was never quite clear what he expected her to be sorry for, only that she should be.

He was lounging on the sofa, Jessica feeding him grapes, when his assistant announced Amelia's arrival.

"Let her wait," Ethan said dismissively. "She can steep in her own guilt for a time."

He was still convinced this was all part of her game.

Amelia did not wait. She walked into the living room, her expression serene, her eyes clear.

She placed the small velvet box on the coffee table before him.

"This is for you," she said, her voice devoid of emotion.

She did not look at Jessica, who was observing her with a mixture of suspicion and triumph.

Her gaze was fixed on Ethan, a cool, appraising look that made him vaguely uncomfortable.

Ethan felt a fleeting moment of unease. Amelia's composure was... unnatural.

She was not crying, not shouting, not pleading. She simply stood there, calm and self-possessed.

It was so unlike the Amelia he knew, the Amelia he could so easily manipulate.

His phone buzzed. A message from Jessica, though she sat beside him: "Get rid of her, darling. She is spoiling the atmosphere."

He glanced at it, then back at Amelia.

"What is this, Amelia?" Ethan asked, his voice laced with suspicion. "More trinkets? Another attempt to elicit some feeling from me?"

He gestured dismissively at the box. "I do not want it. Whatever it may be."

He picked up the box, intending to toss it aside, but its unassuming weight, its quiet presence, gave him pause.

He looked at Amelia, expecting some sign, some tell. There was none.

Amelia met his gaze one last time. She regarded the man she had once loved with the detached curiosity of a naturalist observing a specimen, a creature whose habits and passions were now entirely alien to her.

"Goodbye, Ethan," she said softly.

And then, she turned and walked out of his apartment, out of his life, without a backward glance.

The click of the door closing behind her was a sound of absolute finality.

Amelia drove straight to the airport.

She checked in her luggage, passed through security, and walked to her gate.

As she sat waiting for her flight to New York, she took out her phone.

In a quiet, methodical ritual, she blocked Ethan's number, Jessica's number, and the numbers of every member of the Caldwell family and their social circle. An act of digital exorcism.

She deleted their contacts, erased their messages, wiped clean every trace of her old life.

Her new life was about to begin. She would not be looking back.

New York. The Design Institute. Her art. Her freedom.

A small, genuine smile touched her lips.