Chapter 3

Ava walked away from Liam's building, his harsh words echoing in her mind. "Have you no decency?" She was dirty, her dress was torn, and her heart felt like a hollow, aching void.

She found herself walking to the one place she had left. A small, rundown apartment complex on the other side of town. She knocked on the door, and it opened to reveal the kind, wrinkled face of her grandmother, Rose.

"Oh, my sweet girl," Grandma Rose whispered, pulling Ava into a hug. "What happened to you?"

Inside the tiny, clean apartment, Ava finally let it all out. She told her grandmother everything, the sobs shaking her entire body. Rose just held her, stroking her hair, letting her cry.

"Liking someone isn't a mistake, Ava," Rose said gently when the tears subsided. "But you can't force someone to like you back. And a man who lets others humiliate you isn't worth your tears."

The simple wisdom was a balm on her raw wounds. She spent the night there, feeling safe for the first time in a long time. The next day, while helping her grandmother clean, she found an old business magazine. There was an interview with Liam inside.

The reporter asked him what kind of woman he admired. "Someone quiet, elegant, and simple," he had answered. "Someone who knows her place."

Everything Ava wasn't.

A desperate, foolish idea took root in her mind. If he wanted quiet and simple, she would give him quiet and simple. She took the magazine, a strange determination solidifying within her.

A week later, she showed up at his office again. This time, she wore a plain white dress, her hair was tied back neatly, and she wore no makeup, revealing the pale skin and the dark circles under her eyes. She looked like a ghost of her former self.

She saw him coming out of a meeting and walked up to him, trying to smile. "Hi, Liam."

He stopped, his eyes doing a quick, dismissive scan of her new look. "What now, Ava?"

"I... I just wanted to see you," she said, her voice barely a whisper. She tried to link her arm with his.

He immediately stepped away. "This is a new tactic? It doesn't work. Leave."

The rejection, after she had tried so hard to become what he wanted, was devastating. The fragile composure she had built crumbled.

"I love you!" The words burst out of her, raw and loud, turning heads in the busy lobby.

Liam' s face turned stony with fury. He grabbed her arm, his grip painfully tight, and dragged her out of the building and into the parking garage. He shoved her against his car.

"Are you insane?" he hissed, his face close to hers. "What is your goal here? To ruin my reputation completely?"

The stress and the emotional turmoil were too much. She felt a sudden warmth under her nose. She touched it and her fingers came away red. A nosebleed. A symptom her doctor had warned her about.

"Liam," she said, her voice trembling as she showed him the blood. "I'm sick. I'm really sick. The doctor said... I don't have much time."

She looked at him, her eyes pleading. "Just... give me six months. Be with me for six months. After that, I'll disappear. I promise."

He stared at the blood on her fingers, then at her face. There was no compassion in his eyes, only cold disbelief. He looked at her as if she were the most pathetic liar he had ever seen.

"You'll say anything, won't you?" he said, his voice laced with contempt. He wiped his hand where she had touched him as if wiping off dirt.

He stepped back, straightened his tie, and got into his car without another word, leaving her leaning against the cold metal, her own blood on her hand, utterly alone.