Chapter 2

Alycia Kennedy POV:

Jackson' s eyes, as if burned by my quiet defiance, flickered with an unfamiliar fury. His earlier guilt had vanished, replaced by a cold, hard anger. He looked at me as if I had personally ruined his perfect charade. The air shifted, growing heavy with unspoken threats.

Campbell, still clinging to his arm, let out a soft, theatrical moan. "Oh, darling," she whispered, clutching her stomach. "My heart... it's just so much. This excitement." Jackson immediately turned his full attention to her, his previous concern for me completely forgotten. He rubbed her arm, his face etched with worry. "Are you alright, my love? Alycia, what was that for?" he snapped, his voice sharp with accusation.

Campbell, with a delicate sniff, took the locket from my hand. Her perfectly manicured fingers toyed with the silver chain for a moment, her eyes glinting with malicious amusement. "It's a little... gaudy, isn't it, Jackson?" she said, her voice dripping with disdain. She held it up, letting it swing mockingly, as if it were a cheap trinket.

Before I could even process her words, she simply dropped it. The locket hit the polished marble floor with a barely audible clink, rolling once before coming to rest near the leg of a champagne table. It lay there, forgotten and abandoned, a symbol of my discarded love. My blood ran cold, solidifying in my veins. It wasn't just the locket she threw away; it was five years of my life, my hopes, my dreams.

Jackson, oblivious or uncaring, simply tightened his arm around Campbell. "Come on, everyone!" he boomed, a forced cheerfulness in his voice. "Let's not let a little misunderstanding spoil the celebration! The night is young!" He gestured expansively, urging the musicians to play louder, the waiters to serve more champagne.

"No," I said, my voice cutting through the noise, flat and resolute. "I'm not staying." My legs felt like lead, but I forced myself to move. I wasn't running; I was walking away, head held high, leaving behind the wreckage of my past.

Jackson' s face darkened, a storm gathering in his eyes. He watched me go, his expression a mixture of disbelief and simmering rage. The perfect groom façade slipped, revealing the tyrant beneath. But I refused to meet his gaze. His anger no longer held any power over me.

I walked out of the ballroom, through the gilded hallways, and into the cool night air. My phone buzzed in my hand. I checked it, a sliver of irrational hope flickering within me. Nothing. No calls, no texts from Jackson. Not a single word. He hadn't even attempted to stop me, to explain, to apologize. The silence was deafening, confirming what I already knew: I was utterly alone in this.

Later that night, as I stared blankly at the ceiling of my empty apartment, a notification popped up on my phone. It was Jackson. A video. He and Campbell, dancing intimately, her head nestled against his chest, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. He was whispering something to her, something that made her laugh, a genuine, joyful sound. My stomach churned. That slow, intimate dance, those soft whispers, the way he held her... it was all so familiar. Those were our moments, our dances, our words. He had simply transferred them, effortlessly, to her.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. I couldn't even bring myself to be angry anymore. Only a profound, aching emptiness remained. I tapped the 'heart' icon, liking the post. A final, sarcastic blessing on their perfect, public life.

The next morning, with a dull ache in my chest, I meticulously packed my belongings from the sleek, modern villa Jackson and I had shared. Each item I touched brought a fresh wave of memories, fragments of a life that was never truly mine. The framed photos, the matching coffee mugs, the books we'd read aloud. I sorted through them, keeping only what was unequivocally mine, leaving behind the ghost of a shared future.

How many times had I asked him, pleaded with him, to just acknowledge us? "Jackson, when can we tell people?" "My friends are starting to ask questions." "My parents want to meet you properly." Each time, he had a new excuse, a new promise. "Soon, my love. Just a little more time. The company is at a critical stage. My investors are conservative." His words, once comforting, now felt like a cruel deception.

He had never been unwilling to go public; he had just been unwilling to go public with me. The realization hit me with the force of a physical blow. He wasn't afraid of commitment; he was afraid of committing to me. The pain was sharp, but with it came a strange, exhilarating sense of freedom. The illusion was shattered. I was finally free.

I drove back to my small apartment, the one I' d kept even after moving in with Jackson, a small part of me always knowing I might need an escape hatch. The familiar walls, the worn furniture, they felt like a warm embrace. This was truly mine. No secrets, no lies, just me.

My phone rang, startling me. It was my mother, her voice bright and cheerful. "Alycia, darling! Your father and I were just chatting about you. Remember Cole Smith? From the Smiths across the street? Such a lovely family. His mother mentioned he's back in town, looking to settle down. We told him all about you." She chattered on, oblivious to the storm raging inside me.

I remembered Cole. A quiet, intense boy, a few years older than me. My parents had tried to set us up once, years ago, when I was sixteen, before Jackson. I' d politely declined, my heart already fluttering for the charismatic, ambitious Jackson Johnson. How ironic.

"Mom," I interrupted, a strange calm settling over me. "Tell Cole I'd love to meet him." My mother gasped with delight. "Oh, Alycia! That's wonderful news! I'll tell his mother right away!" I hung up, a small, resolute smile on my face. A new chapter. A new beginning.

The next morning, I typed out my resignation letter. Short, concise, professional. "Please accept this letter as formal notification of my resignation from my position as Executive Assistant at Johnson Tech, effective immediately." I attached it to an email, my finger hovering over the send button. My mind wandered back to the early days, when Jackson first hired me, barely eighteen, fresh out of high school. He' d been so charming, so attentive. He'd taught me everything, showering me with praise, treating me with a special deference that made others in the office green with envy. I' d believed it was love, a whirlwind romance with my brilliant, powerful boss.

A hollow laugh escaped me. All those "special privileges," the extra attention, the late-night work sessions that blurred into stolen moments of intimacy. It wasn't about my talent; it was about control, about having me exactly where he wanted me: close enough to be his, but distant enough to be disposable. I knew, with a sickening certainty, that all those "benefits" would now be transferred to Campbell. She wouldn't be just his wife; she'd be his new "executive assistant," stepping into the role I' d so lovingly, so naively, crafted for myself.

My phone rang again. It was Jackson. His voice was cold, clipped. "Alycia. What is this?" he demanded, skipping any pleasantries. "My HR just forwarded me your resignation. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I'm resigning, Jackson," I stated, my voice calm, unwavering. "I think that's pretty clear."

"Resigning?" he scoffed. "After everything? You think you can just walk away? What, are you trying to punish me? Is this your way of getting attention?" His words were laced with a familiar contempt, a hint of the controlling man I' d grown to fear. "If you try to leave me, Alycia, I swear, you'll regret it."

His threats, once so potent, now held no sway over me. I had always been the one to back down, to apologize, to smooth things over. But not anymore. "Jackson," I said, my voice steady, "I'm not trying to punish you. I'm leaving. And there's nothing you can do about it." The words felt liberating, a declaration of independence. My heart, though still bruised, beat with a new rhythm, a rhythm of freedom. "It's over."