"You will.When you're sitting in some rundown house mediating sibling fights instead of attending charity galas and planning vacations in Europe, you'll remember what you had with me."
The picture he paints should terrify me, should make me reconsider what I'm giving up for a life of chaos and responsibility and uncertainty.
Instead, it makes me feel more alive than I have in months.
"Maybe I will," I say, and I mean it."But it'll still be better than this."
Ethan's face hardens into something ugly and unfamiliar."You're making the biggest mistake of your life."
"No," I say quietly."The biggest mistake of my life was saying yes to you in the first place."
Part of me came here hoping he’d make it easy.That he’d show me who he really was.I didn’t expect him to do it so thoroughly.
He stares at me for another long moment, and I can see him calculating whether there's any angle left to play.Any way to manipulate me back into the box he's built for our life together.
Finally, he takes the ring from my outstretched hand.
“Fine,” he says, pocketing the ring.“But when you’re drowning in regret, don’t expect me to throw you a lifeline.And just remember this choice when social services come knocking.When those kids start to fall apart under your care.”
"I won't."
"We'll see."
He turns and walks toward his bedroom, leaving me standing alone in the sterile perfection of his living room.I should feel something; regret, fear, uncertainty about what I've just done.
Instead, I feel free.
My phone buzzes in my purse, and I fumble for it with shaking hands.Hades' name on the screen makes my heart skip a beat.
"Hello?"
"Hey."His voice is rough, concerned."Everything okay?You sound shaken up."
"I'm...I just broke up with Ethan."
Silence on the other end of the line, long enough that I wonder if he's hung up.
"You okay?"he asks finally.
"Yeah.I think I am."
"Good.That bastard didn't deserve you."
The simple words, spoken with such quiet conviction, make my chest tight with emotion.When was the last time someone defended me like that?When was the last time someone saw my worth without trying to change me to fit their vision of what I should be?
"How are the children?"I ask, needing to focus on something concrete and important.
"They're asking for you.Lily's been crying for the past hour and wants her aunt Evie to read her a bedtime story."
The image of that little girl upset and wanting me makes my chest ache with longing."I'll be right there."
"Evangeline."Hades' voice stops me as I'm about to hang up."You sure about this?About all of it?"
The question hangs between us, loaded with implications and possibilities and the weight of choices that can't be undone.
"I'm sure," I say, and I mean it.
Because for the first time in years, I'm making a decision based on what feels right instead of what looks right.For the first time in years, I'm choosing love over security, chaos over control, the unknown over the suffocatingly familiar.
