I was stunned. I’d always assumed Ashley’s
pursuit of Ethan was completely voluntary. I
hadn’t realized the resentment simmering
beneath the surface. And I hadn’t realized
Ethan hadn’t told Ashley I was coming.
Ethan, however, wasn’t moved. His face was
a mask of suppressed anger. “You’ve said all
this a million times, Ashley!”
“But I did it all for you! You could’ve walked
away if you didn’t want it!”
That was the last straw. Ashley exploded, her
face red, veins bulging in her forehead. “You asshole!” she screamed. “You’ll never repay
me for what you’ve put me through! If you
betray me, I’ll kill you!”
r
She lunged at him, hitting and scratching.
Nana Rose was directly behind them. Fearing
for her safety, I tried to intervene, but Ashley
turned her rage on me.
“You bitch!” she spat, her face contorted, her
eyes narrowed into slits. “It’s all your fault!
You seduced him! You whore! I’ll rip your
face off!”
“Why don’t you just die?!”
I’d never seen this side of Ashley. Her
obsession with Ethan had warped her into
something monstrous. She was like a rabid
animal.
She swung at me, but Ethan’s parents
stepped in. Ashley, surprisingly strong, shoved
<
his mother, a trail woman, to the floor. She
cried out in pain.
Ethan’s eyes went red. He slapped Ashley
hard. “Enough!” he roared.
“Not even close!” The slap only fueled her rage. She attacked Ethan again, a whirlwind
of fury. Nana Rose, terrified, tried to speak,
but couldn’t get the words out. Her face
turned purple.
I looked at her, my blood running cold. “Stop!
Stop it! Something’s wrong with Nana Rose!
Call 911!”
It was snowing heavily, and the ambulance
took a while to arrive. By the time the
paramedics got Nana Rose onto a stretcher,
she was fading fast. She clutched my hand,
L
tears streaming down her wrinkled cheeks.
Ashley was still screaming at Ethan, clinging
to him, preventing him from going to his
grandmother.
I sobbed, gripping her hand. “Nana Rose,
don’t worry about me. I’ll be okay.”
She finally let go of my hand as they lifted her
onto the stretcher. Five minutes later, in the
back of the ambulance, Nana Rose’s heart
stopped beating.
Nana Rose’s death was the final straw for
Ethan. Just a few months ago, they were
inseparable, their love plastered all over social
media. Now, Chloe texted me, giddy with
gossip. “Girl, you are not going to believe
this! Ethan and Ashley are imploding!”
く
Before I could reply, another barrage of
messages arrived. “Apparently, Ashley is
completely unhinged. Crazy possessive. At
first, it was all lovey–dovey, but now she
treats him like a child. He can’t even work
late or go out for dinner without her blowing
up his phone.”
“Remember when our classmate, Tom, was
visiting? Ethan took him out to dinner, and
Ashley called him seventeen times that night!
Ethan finally turned off his phone, but guess
what? She’d put a tracker on it! She showed
up at the restaurant and caused a scene!”
I wouldn’t have believed it before, but after
what I’d witnessed, nothing about Ashley
surprised me anymore.
–
Г
“What happened?” I texted back.
“She went nuts! Slapped him in front of everyone, screaming about how he’d betrayed
her. Said he owed her everything, that he’d
pay if he ever left her. It was scary.”
“And then she started yelling at Tom!
Accused him of being a bad influence and
told him to stay away from Ethan. Insane!”
I frowned. This sounded exactly like Ashley.
Her obsession had clearly twisted her mind. I
could see how being with Ethan would
amplify her worst qualities. She’d equate his
independence with betrayal. “I love you so
much, I’ve sacrificed everything for you, so
you owe me your complete obedience.” It was
a toxic mindset.
“Poor Tom. Just trying to have a nice dinner, and he gets verbally assaulted. He’s been
telling everyone how crazy she is.”
“Ethan’s reputation is shot. No one wants to hang out with him anymore. They’re afraid of
Ashley’s wrath. Talk about karma! He brought
this on himself!”
I was about to reply when a coworker gasped.
“Oh my god! Is someone jumping off the
building across the street?!”
I followed her gaze. A figure was standing on
the ledge of the building opposite ours. I
couldn’t see the face clearly, but I knew
instantly. It was Ashley.
“Come on!” I shouted, grabbing my
く
coworker’s arm. “Let’s go!”
We rushed outside. A crowd had already
gathered, buzzing with excitement.
“Heard they’re breaking up. The guy wants
out, but the girl’s not having it. Threatening to
jump.” A woman with wide eyes relayed the
gossip with relish.
“That’s messed up,” a young man scoffed.
“Suicidal manipulation? If he doesn’t want to
be with her, he shouldn’t have to be!”
“It’s not that simple,” a girl next to him
argued. “Why get involved with someone if you’re just going to dump them and drive
them to this?”
I scanned the crowd and spotted a familiar
く
figure standing at the front. Ethan. He looked
thinner, more fragile than the last time I saw
him. His white shirt billowed in the wind,
emphasizing his gauntness.
The building was only six stories high. We
could hear Ashley yelling.
“Ethan, you bastard! After everything I’ve
done for you! You think you can just walk
away?!” Her eyes bulged, wild and frantic.
“Think again!”
“You’re insane!” Ethan yelled back, his eyes
bloodshot. “I don’t love you anymore! Can’t
you just accept that?!”
“That’s bullshit!” Ashley shrieked. “Why did
you break up with that bitch for me then?!
Did she seduce you? Is that it?!”
く
Ethan looked like he was about to break. “I
was an idiot! I was blinded! Okay?!” he
screamed. “I would’ve never left Sarah if I
knew you were like this!”
Ashley’s face twisted into a grotesque mask
of rage. “You want to go crawling back to her? You wish! You’ll never get rid of me,
Ethan! Never!”
“Just die already! Just fucking do it!” Ethan
shouted, losing control.
I stared at him, horrified. He looked like a
broken man, a shadow of his former self.
What had happened to him in just a few
months? Hadn’t they been in love?
Ashley kept yelling, but she didn’t jump. I
knew she wouldn’t. She was all talk. She’d
threatened suicide countless times during our
seven years together, but she never actually
had the guts to do it.
The standoff continued for over an hour. Just
when I thought she’d given up, the
unthinkable happened. Ashley, probably numb
from standing so long, lost her footing and
slipped.
“Aaaaaah!”
She plummeted to the ground.
A sickening thud.
“Oh my god!”
“Call 911!”
“Someone’s dead!”
The crowd erupted in panic. Ethan stood
frozen for a moment, then scrambled towards
her, his face a mask of horror.
The ambulance arrived quickly. Paramedics
loaded Ashley onto a stretcher and sped
away, sirens wailing. I couldn’t believe what
I’d just witnessed. I numbly followed my
coworkers back inside.
I rarely posted on social media, so my
colleagues didn’t know about Ethan and me.
As we walked back, they gossiped.
“He’s such a good–looking guy. Why would
he go for someone like that? Ugly and crazy.
“Maybe she’s rich,” someone offered.
“Then why would he dump her?”
“Probably couldn’t stand looking at her
anymore. Did you see her face? All those
pimples and freckles. I couldn’t even eat if I
had to sit across from her.”
“Have some respect. She just fell off a
building…….”
I heard the rest from Chloe. Ashley had
survived the fall, but barely. She’d broken her
spine and was paralyzed from the neck down.
Ethan paid her medical bills and took care of
her until she was discharged, but then he
couldn’t take it anymore. He tried to break up
with her.
L
Ashley’s family wasn’t having it. They blamed Ethan for her condition, demanding $300,000
in compensation and insisting he marry her
and take care of her for the rest of her life.
Ethan’s family wasn’t poor. While he’d been
independent since graduation, his parents weren’t about to let this slide. They agreed to discuss a financial settlement, but marriage?
Absolutely not. They already blamed Ashley
for Nana Rose’s death; there was no way
they’d let her into their family, especially now
that she was paralyzed. They weren’t going to
let their son ruin his life.
Ashley’s family threatened to sue, to destroy
Ethan’s reputation, if he didn’t comply. The
two families were at war.
“Ethan’s losing it,” Chloe told me, almost
gleeful. “A classmate saw him the other day.
Said he looked like a zombie. Unshaven,
staring into space… completely checked out.”
I hung up the phone, a strange mix of
emotions swirling inside me. The sharp, agonizing pain of the breakup had dulled. I realized it wasn’t time that healed all wounds,
but habit. Being with someone for so long becomes a habit. Breaking that habit feels like losing a limb. But eventually, the wound closes, and you learn to live without that limb.
It was terrifying how quickly seven years
could fade. Just a few months, and it felt like
a lifetime ago.
At first, I’d been consumed by anger, hoping
Ethan and Ashley would get what they
deserved. Now, seeing their lives fall apart, I
didn’t feel vindicated. Just… sad. Life was
<
didn’t feel vindicated. Just… sad. Life was
unpredictable. A few months ago, we were
planning our wedding. Now, just a season
later, everything had changed.
One evening, as I was walking up to my
apartment, I saw a figure slumped by my
door. I jumped, then realized it was Ethan. He
looked so different, I almost didn’t recognize
him. He was even thinner, dark circles under
his eyes, unshaven, his face gaunt and hollow.
He looked up at me, his eyes red and swollen.
Before he could speak, tears started
streaming down his face. My heart ached, but
I kept my expression cold.
“What are you doing here?”
His voice was raspy, barely a whisper.
<
“Sarah…” he choked out. “Is it too late to say
I’m sorry? Am I the biggest asshole on
earth?”
I looked down at him. “You have no idea.”
“But…” He wrapped his arms around his
head, his body shaking with sobs. “But I am
sorry. I messed up so badly. I had
everything… why did I do this?”
Despite everything, hearing him cry like that…
it almost broke me. But I held firm. “This is
what you chose, Ethan. I begged you to stay,
but you chose her.”
His voice was thick with pain. I saw the veins
bulging in his clenched fists, his knuckles
white.
く
“She pursued me for so long… I hated it at
first. But then… I started to feel… touched.
She loved me so completely, so intensely… I felt sorry for her. I started responding.”
He choked back a sob. “I thought I loved her.
But after we got together… I realized I didn’t.
It was just pity. And pity isn’t love.”
“She changed after we got together. She
became so controlling. Checking my phone
constantly, deleting all the women from my
contacts, calling my female coworkers,
warning them to stay away from me, yelling at
my male friends… telling them not to take me
anywhere…”
His voice cracked. “That’s when I knew I’d
made a mistake. I’d felt sorry for her, but
just looking at her modo
sick I
<
now… just looking at her made me sick. I
couldn’t stand being at home. I’d sit in my car
for hours after work, dreading going inside…”
He poured out his heart, a torrent of regret
and self–loathing.
“I tried to break up with her, but she wouldn’t
let me. She threatened me… I didn’t think it
would end like this… I didn’t want this! What
am I going to do?” He broke down, his body
shaking like a leaf.
“I’m so stupid! I had everything! We could be
married now… We were together for so
long… I used to dream about you in a
wedding dress…” His sobs echoed in the
hallway.
I thought I’d be devastated, but I just felt…
<
numb. He seemed far more heartbroken than I
had been. He finally understood my pain.
He didn’t need a response from me. He just
needed to unburden himself. After a while, he
looked up, his eyes red and swollen, a flicker
of hope in his gaze.
“Sarah, do you think… do you think we
could…”
“No,” I said, cutting him off. “What do you
think I am? Someone you can just discard and
then pick up again when it’s convenient?”
His face went white.
“Move,” I said flatly. “I’m going inside.”
“I gave you so many chances, Ethan. You
<
chose Ashley every single time.”
“You made your bed. Now lie in it.”
He stood up slowly, leaning against the wall
for support. A bitter smile twisted his lips.
“You’re right,” he whispered. “I feel sick even
asking.”
“But I had to know.”
The motion–sensor light in the hallway clicked
off, plunging the stairwell into darkness.
Ethan walked slowly down the stairs. At the
bottom, he turned back, the darkness
swallowing him whole.
“Sarah,” he said, his voice breaking.
“I’m a scumbag. This is my karma. I deserve
it.”
“But you… you’re good. Don’t waste any
more tears on me. You’ll find someone a
thousand times better.”
He turned and walked away. I watched him
go, speechless.
I never saw Ethan or Ashley again. I don’t
know if they left town or what. I stopped
caring. I healed. The seven years we spent
together felt like a distant dream. Sweet at
first, then unbearably bitter. But the dream
was over. It was time to move on.
I placed a bouquet of lilies on Nana Rose’s
grave. “I’m doing okay, Nana Rose. Don’t
worry about me,” I whispered.
The cemetery was silent, only the wind rustling through the trees. Winter was finally over. Tiny green buds were appearing on the forsythia bushes, promising the arrival of spring. I pulled my coat tighter and walked
away. Winter was gone. Spring was coming.
