It felt like a blade twisting deep.Of course. Because work always came first, didn’t it?
Fuck him. Fuck this.
I stared at the blinking cursor, my heart pounding, fingers trembling over the screen. And then I typed.
Me
I can’t keep doing this Ash
I’m done
A second later, a call came through. I shut my eyes tightly and scrubbed my face, willing away the wave of angry tears.
My phone kept vibrating, and I took a deep breath before answering.
“Pet—”
“Don’t fucking talk.” I cut him off before he could finish. I couldn’t listen to him. His voice was my undoing.Hewas my undoing.
A hard exhale came from the other end of the line, but he said nothing.
“I’m blocking your number. I don’t want this half-in, half-out bullshit, Ash. It fuckinghurts. This hurts worse than you leaving.”
Nothing.
“I want you gone from my life. For real. Don’t call. Don’t text. Don’t come to the city. I need you to stop existing so I can fucking breathe again.” My heart cracked a little more, but I knew this was what I needed. I needed to kill the hope that he was going to come back for me—that he stillwantedto. “Please.” The word left me as a whisper, stripped of strength.
The silence stretched again—heavier this time.
Oppressive.
Final.
“Okay.” His rough voice tightened the vice already crushing my heart.
That was it.
No fight. NoI’m sorry. NoI love you. Just one word that ended everything instead.
I hung up before I could change my mind, doing exactly what I’d said. Erasing him from my life. This time, for good.
For a moment, I just sat there. My chest felt like it was folding in on itself. It didn’t feel real—and maybe that was the cruelest part. That something this devastating could happen in less than a minute.
I curled onto the bed, my hand clamped around the medallion in a death grip. One tear slipped free. One.
But no more.
I wasn’t going to keep crying over Sebastian Langley.
Unclasping the chain from around my neck, I pulled open the drawer of my bedside table and thrust it inside before slamming it shut.
Then I fell back against the mattress.
Turns out, waiting a few years was impossible. The things we’d said to each other months ago meant nothing now. The distance had broken us—and not the fucking ocean. The distancehe’dalways insisted on keeping between us. The emotional one.
I should’ve learned my lesson.
Don’t be the one who cares more.
