Chapter 14
He remained silent after that bombshell, but continued to follow me with stubborn determination, the suitcase wheels tracking our progress like a metronome.
I tried to process his words. No baby? Had Kate lost it? Or had it all been a lie? I didn’t know which possibility was worse–that they’d fabricated a pregnancy to manipulate me, or that she’d actually been pregnant and something had happened.
At a busy intersection, waiting for the light to change, I finally lost my patience completely.
“What exactly do you want from me?” I asked, not bothering to hide my
exhaustion. Pedestrians flowed around us like water around rocks, some giving us. curious glances.
He took off his sunglasses, folding them carefully and tucking them into his shirt
pocket. His eyes, when they met mine, were bloodshot and rimmed with dark
circles.
“Are you afraid of me?” he asked quietly.
I shook my head. What was there to fear now? He had no more power over me. No. more legal ties. No more shared home or finances. No more guilt that he could weaponize.
“We’re over, Ethan,” I said firmly. “This whole thing is creepy. Just go back to New
York.”
I even pulled out my phone, the ultimate bluff: “Should I call Kate to come get you? Is that what this is about? A lover’s quarrel?”
He just looked at me steadily, his gaze more intense than I remembered;
“This is between us.
“Liv, are you so eager to cut me out of your life because of her?”
I almost laughed at the absurdity.
He was the one who’d paraded his supposedly pregnant girlfriend at my birthday.
dinner.
He was the one who couldn’t wait to take wedding photos with her.
He was the one afraid I might drag out the divorce.
Now that I’d set him free. he had the audacity to question me?
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“What more could you possibly want from me?” I asked quietly, genuinely curious. about what delusion he was operating under.
His forehead creased as he looked down at the sidewalk, scuffing his expensive leather shoe against the concrete like a scolded child.
For a moment, I glimpsed the broken teenager who used to smoke alone on the
school roof.
Lost and uncertain about his place in the world..
After a long silence, he finally spoke: “Kate and I… we never slept together.”
His hand clenched into a fist at his side, knuckles white with tension.
“Look, Liv… I think I’m in love with you. I always have been.”
This statement shocked me more than his revelation about Kate.
I automatically stepped backward, creating distance between us, bumping into a street vendor selling fruit.
“Sorry,” I mumbled to the vendor, steadying myself.
When I looked back, Ethan had closed the distance again, his hand reaching for
mine.
I instinctively slapped it away, the sound sharp in the busy street..
“Liv… what are you-”
I cut him off: “Don’t. Just don’t. I have zero interest in being with you.”
His expression cycled through confusion, hurt, and anger, his brow furrowing deeper with each emotion.
“Are you punishing me? Is that what this is?”
A hysterical laugh bubbled up in my throat. “Punishing you? For what? For treating me like garbage for five years? For using me as your emotional punching bag? For parading your fake pregnant girlfriend at my birthday dinner? Which one of these things exactly am I punishing you for?”
People were definitely staring now, but I didn’t care. Years of suppressed rage. were finally finding their voice.
“You don’t get to follow me across the country and declare feelings for me like.
some
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romantic gesture,” I continued, my voice getting louder. “This isn’t a rom–com, Ethan. This is stalking.”
20
