Chapter 1

My boyfriend, Carter, hadn't spoken to me in five days. But when my national architecture competition win went viral, he finally called-not to congratulate me, but to scream that I' d embarrassed him by not telling him first.

His new girlfriend, Brittney, was the one who tagged him in my post. She was also the one whispering in his ear during the call, telling him I was making him look bad.

This was the final straw in a long, cold war. But the real nightmare began when Brittney sent me a video of her torturing my dog, Apollo, in our old apartment.

Then came a photo of his lifeless body.

I rushed over, blinded by rage, and slammed her head against the wall with an ashtray. Carter, the man I once loved, shoved me away, calling me a maniac for hurting the woman who had just murdered my dog.

He chose her. He always chose her.

As I carried Apollo's cold body out the door, I made a vow. I would make them pay. I would make their lives a living hell.

Chapter 1

Elinore POV:

I stared at the glowing screen, the words of the national architectural competition results blurring before my eyes. Winner. The single word felt impossibly heavy, impossibly light. My design, the one I' d poured my soul into for months, had won. It should have been the happiest moment of my life.

My first instinct, a reflex honed over years, was to call Carter. To hear his voice, to share this explosive joy. I reached for my phone, my thumb hovering over his contact. But then, it stopped. The familiar warmth that usually propelled me to connect with him wasn't there. It felt...cold.

My eyes drifted to our last few text exchanges. A week ago, I' d sent him a picture of the model, asking for his opinion. "Looks good," he' d typed, nothing more. Two days later, a silly meme I thought would make him laugh. No reply. Then, a quiet 'good morning' from me. He' d read it, but didn't respond. He hadn't initiated a single conversation in days.

It wasn't just the texts. It was the empty space beside me in bed for the past three nights. The unanswered calls I' d eventually given up on making. He was always busy, always with Brittney, always dealing with her grandmother's 'dementia crisis' that seemed to conveniently flare up whenever I needed him.

A heavy sigh escaped me, deflating some of the victory high. We had been in a cold war for what felt like an eternity. Each one started subtly, a missed call, a forgotten promise, then escalating into days of strained silence. I couldn't even remember what this particular one was about. It felt like they all blurred into one long, agonizing silence.

And the desire to share, that raw, urgent need to tell him everything? It was gone. Replaced by a hollow ache, a profound indifference. I didn't want to tell him. I didn't care if he knew. The realization hit me like a physical blow. The love, or whatever was left of it, had dried up. It was simply not there anymore.

My thumb moved, but not to his contact. I scrolled past his name, past the ghost of our shared past, and opened a new app. Instagram. I needed to celebrate this, even if I was celebrating alone. This was my achievement.

I took a selfie, holding up the embossed certificate, my smile wide and genuine despite the emotional void. The light from the window caught my hair, making it gleam. I looked good. I felt strong. I typed a caption, short and sweet: "Officially a national winner! So much hard work, so much heart. Cheers to new beginnings!"

The likes and comments started rolling in immediately. Friends, colleagues, even old professors. "Congratulations, Elinore!" "So proud of you!" "An inspiration!" Each notification was a little balm, soothing the sting of Carter's absence. My grin widened. This was what validation felt like. Real, unburdened validation.

Then, a notification popped up that made my stomach clench. Brittney Todd had tagged Carter Mack in my post. Her comment read: "OMG, Carter! Look at Elinore, winning big! So happy for you two! #PowerCouple #Goals."

My blood ran cold. You two? The blatant implication, the false intimacy. I knew she did it to stir things up, to assert her presence in our decaying relationship. But before I could even process the surge of anger, my phone buzzed again. An incoming call. From Carter.

My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic drumbeat. I took a deep breath, steeling myself. This wasn't going to be a congratulatory call. I knew it in my gut.

"Elinore? What the hell is this?" His voice exploded through the phone, sharp and laced with fury. It wasn't the excited, loving tone I'd once craved. It was pure accusation.

I gripped the phone tighter. "What's what, Carter?" My voice was flat, devoid of emotion. The surprise, the anger, none of it was strong enough to break through the wall I'd built around my heart.

"This post! On Instagram! Why didn't you tell me first?" He spat the words out, each one a dagger. "Brittney had to tag me! Do you know how embarrassing that is?"

Embarrassing? My mind reeled. He hadn't called, hadn't texted, hadn't even checked in for days, weeks even. But this was embarrassing? "You haven't contacted me in five days, Carter," I said, my voice dangerously calm. "Not a single call, not a single text. What was I supposed to do? Wait indefinitely?"

"That's not the point!" he roared, his voice cracking with indignation. "The point is, I'm your boyfriend! Your long-term boyfriend! This is huge! You should have told me before you posted it for the whole internet to see!"

"Oh, so you found out through Brittney, did you?" I mocked, a bitter taste in my mouth. "How convenient. Maybe if you spent less time with her and more time with your actual girlfriend, you wouldn't have to rely on her for updates on my life."

There was a muffled sound on his end, a whisper. "...but Carter, she's trying to make you look bad..." Brittney's voice, sickly sweet and low, drifted through the receiver. She was right there. With him.

"See?" Carter snapped, ignoring Brittney's manipulative prompt. "She thinks it's weird too. You're trying to make me look like I don't care. Like I'm not supportive!"

My laughter was a sharp, brittle sound. "Supportive? Carter, you don't care. You haven't cared about anything I've done in months. You're upset because it reflects badly on you, not because you missed out on my moment."

"Elinore, don't twist this!" he yelled. "I'm your partner! You're supposed to put me first! This is a total disrespect! What kind of girlfriend does this? You're acting like I'm some stranger, some random guy!"

I remembered him saying that before. "You're acting like I'm not important enough to share your joy with." Those words, a distorted echo of his current accusation, used to cut me deep. Now, they felt like a distant, irrelevant hum. The sharing desire was long dead.

"You know what, Carter?" I cut him off, the words finally bubbling up from a place of deep, icy resolve. "You're absolutely right. We are over."

The line went silent, a sudden, jarring emptiness where his rage had been. The silence hung heavy, pregnant with the weight of my finality. It was done. The relationship, the struggle, the constant disappointment. All of it.

"Elinore?" Brittney's voice, small and feigned innocent this time, cut through the silence. "Is everything okay? Are you upsetting Carter?"

My gaze hardened, my blood boiling. I could almost picture her, clinging to him, her eyes wide and wet like a scared little bird. That manipulative act. It had infuriated me for so long. But not anymore. Not now.

"No, Brittney," I said, my voice clear and steady. "Everything is perfectly okay. In fact, it's better than okay. It's over."

The click of the phone disconnecting was loud in my ears, a definitive punctuation mark on a chapter of my life I was finally slamming shut. The weight of it, the truth of it, settled over me. It felt like both a relief and a terrifying plunge into the unknown. But mostly, relief. Real, liberating relief. I was free. I was finally, truly free.