Chapter 4

"No," I said, my voice a low growl. I tried to sit up, a searing pain shooting through my leg, but I reached out and grabbed her wrist. My grip was weak, pathetic, but it was all I had. "You can't take that."

She tried to wrench her arm away, her face twisting in annoyance. "Ethan, let go! You're hurting me! What is your problem?"

"What is my problem?" The question was so absurd I almost laughed. "You abandoned me, you humiliated me, and now you're trying to steal from me for the man who assaulted me. And you're asking what my problem is?"

"It's over, Olivia," I said, my voice gaining a strength I didn't know I possessed. I let go of her wrist. The fight was pointless. The ring was gone, but I could reclaim myself. "We're done. The engagement is off."

Her face went blank with shock. For the first time since she' d burst in, she looked genuinely thrown off balance. "What? No. You don't mean that."

"I have never meant anything more in my life."

"But... ten years!" she stammered, her eyes welling up with tears that I now recognized as a performance. "We've been together for ten years, Ethan! You can't just throw that away!"

"You threw it away," I said, my voice cold and flat. "You threw it away every time you lied to me, every time you ran back to him. You threw it away when you left me on the floor of that church."

"I can't live without you!" she cried, the classic line from her manipulative playbook. "You're my rock, Ethan! You're the only stable thing in my life! If you leave me, I'll have nothing!"

The words, which once would have filled me with a sense of purpose and love, now just sounded pathetic. She didn't love me; she loved what I provided. I was a utility, a piece of infrastructure in her chaotic life.

"You have Liam," I said, the name leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. "You seem to be doing just fine with him. You were holding his hand in the hospital while I was waiting for surgery."

Her face flushed. She had no defense. "That was a mistake," she said, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "I was confused. I'll make it up to you, I promise. We can fix this. We'll get married, just like we planned."

I was so tired. Tired of the lies, tired of the drama, tired of her. I just wanted her gone. I looked at her, my face a blank mask. "Fine," I said. The single word was a lie, a strategic retreat.

A relieved smile broke across her face. She thought she had won. "Oh, Ethan, thank you! I knew you'd understand." She clutched the ring box to her chest. "I'll just... I'll just show this to Liam, to calm him down, and then I'll bring it right back. Everything will be okay."

She leaned in to kiss me, but I turned my head away. Her lips brushed my cheek, cold and meaningless. She didn't seem to notice. She practically skipped out of the room, leaving the door ajar behind her.

The moment she was gone, the facade dropped. I wasn't fine. I was shattered. But in the wreckage, a single, clear path had emerged. I reached for my phone, my fingers flying across the screen. I pulled up an email I had saved for months, an offer from a prestigious research institute in Chile, nestled high in the Atacama Desert, a place to study the stars in perfect clarity. I had turned it down for her, to build a life with her here.

I found the number for the head of the department, Dr. Evelyn Reed. My heart pounded as the phone rang.

"Dr. Reed," I said when she answered, my voice hoarse. "This is Ethan Miller. I know the deadline has passed, but... is that research position still open?"

There was a pause on the other end. Then, her warm, professional voice came through. "Ethan. It's good to hear from you. As a matter of fact, it is. We were hoping you'd reconsider. When can you start?"

"As soon as my leg heals," I said, looking down at the cast. "As soon as I can fly."

A wave of relief so powerful it felt like a physical force washed over me. I was getting out. I was escaping the orbit.