Chapter 2 Nathan's Pov

I was halfway through signing the last damn file when the office door creaked open without a knock, classic James.

"Of course you're still here," he drawled, sauntering in like he owned the place. "The overachiever husband of the year."

I leaned back in my chair, loosening my tie slightly. "Some of us actually work."

He smirked. "Work? Bro, you've been watching the clock for the past hour, waiting to bolt home to your wife and baby like a golden retriever."

I rolled my eyes, but a smile tugged at the corner of my lips.

"Don't even deny it," he added, settling into the chair across from me. "You're head over heels. You hear her name and your eyes get all soft. You used to be a cold bastard, now you're...." he paused, making an exaggerated heart sign over his chest. "A lovesick simp."

I snorted. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up."

He grinned. "It's actually cute. You and Ava... you made me believe love might not be a scam."

"Coming from a guy who dates women like they're trial shoes at a mall, I'm touched."

He laughed. "Well damn. Let a man heal."

I stood, grabbing my keys. "Look, when you meet someone like Ava... everything just changes. She makes life softer."

James raised a brow. "Wow. That deep? You really found your person, huh?"

I didn't hesitate. "Yeah. I did."

There was a pause a warm, understanding silence between friends.

He stood too. "Tell Ava I'll drop by this weekend. I miss my little teddy bear. Liam better still remember his Uncle James."

"He will," I said, already lighter just thinking about going home. "You're hard to forget."

We exchanged a lazy wave as I stepped into the elevator. Home. The thought warmed every inch of me. Ava's laugh. Liam's sleepy coos. That was all I needed tonight.

I turned on the radio and smiled to myself. The sky was golden, the roads nearly empty, a perfect evening. The soft ring of my phone interrupted the peace. I glanced at the screen.

Ava.

It was a voicemail.

Weird. She rarely sent voicemails.

Curious, I tapped play.

Her voice came through the speakers. It was soft. Shaky.

"Nathan... I don't even know how to start this."

"I've spent nights trying to find the right words, but there's never a good way to say goodbye."

"You didn't do anything wrong. You were perfect. Maybe too perfect. But this life... it's not for me. I feel suffocated, like I'm drowning and smiling through it."

"I know this will hurt you. God, I know it'll break you. But I have to leave. I can't keep living a lie, pretending I'm happy when I'm not."

"Don't come looking for me. Don't waste time trying to understand."

"Take care of Liam. Tell him I'm sorry... Tell him I love him in my own messed-up way. I hope he never becomes like me."

"I hope he becomes like you."

"Goodbye, Nathan."

The voicemail ended.

The silence afterward was suffocating.

My fingers clenched the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white.

No. No. No.

I turned the car around sharply and raced home, heart pounding against my ribs like a war drum.

The second I burst through the door, I called out, "Ava?!"

Silence.

"Ava, please! What the hell is going on?!"

I searched everywhere, the living room, the kitchen. My voice echoed back at me in empty rooms. My chest tightened.

I bolted up the stairs. Our bedroom door was wide open.

Her side of the closet half empty. Some hangers dangled. Her favorite scarf was missing. The perfume I gave her for our anniversary gone.

I stood there, dizzy, heart slamming.

She really left.

She really left me.

I stumbled to the bathroom, looked in the mirror. My face pale, wide-eyed. I looked like a ghost. My mind refused to believe what my eyes saw.

I ran back into the hallway, half hoping I'd see her curled up on the couch, smiling, saying it was a sick joke. A prank. Anything but this.

But no Ava.

No laughter.

No scent of her lingering in the air.

Just silence.

And a cold kind of heartbreak I'd never known.

I walked into the nursery on numb legs. Liam was still in his crib, asleep. Peaceful. Innocent.

He didn't know his mother had vanished.

I sank to the floor beside him, staring.

Ava was gone.

But she'd left me with the most fragile, beautiful part of her.

I reached into the crib, pulled him to my chest. His tiny body curled into mine like he'd done a thousand times before.

I held him close, burying my face in his blanket, and I cried.

I sobbed like a man who had lost his future, his love, and his reason all at once.

"I don't know what I did wrong," I whispered brokenly. "I loved you, Ava. I gave you everything. Why wasn't that enough?"

Liam stirred and let out a sleepy coo, reminding me that I still had something to live for.

"I promise you, Liam," I whispered through clenched teeth, tears falling onto his onesie, "I won't let this destroy me. I'll give you everything. Even if it kills me."

And in that moment, in the stillness of that nursery, surrounded by memories and heartbreak...

A father was reborn from the ashes of a shattered man.