Chapter 17
All for nothing.
Maya
The door slams.
The sound makes me flinch. For a moment, I just stand there. Motionless. Staring at the space where he stood. I can still smell him—a cruel reminder of memories that no longer fit.
And then it lands.
My legs give out before I can catch myself. I stumble back, hitting the couch hard, and a sound breaks out of me that I don’t recognize. It just won’t stop.
Tears blur everything.
The walls. The floor. The world.
He’s gone. But the silence is worse.
His words didn’t leave with him. Every single one remains, a shard of glass lodged under my skin. And every breath I take just drives them deeper.
“You couldn’t be a better version of Cecily if you were born again.”
The sentence repeats like a curse.
Born again. As if even a new life wouldn’t be enough to make me worthy.
My chest tightens until I can’t breathe. I press a hand against it, but it doesn’t help. The ache keeps spreading.
“You don’t even deserve to stand in the same room as her.”
I hear his voice again… the disgust in it, the certainty.
I reach for one of the pillows, clutching it like it could hold me together, but the tears come harder.
Ugly, shaking sobs that make my whole body hurt. My throat burns with the memory of his laughter.
“No. You’re not a whore… Whores are smarter. They get paid.”
I want to scream. To throw something. To tear this place apart the way he tore me.
But instead, I sink deeper into the couch, breath hitching, the sound of my crying breaking in uneven gasps.
I gave him everything.
Every part of me. Body, heart... I’m carrying his child.
And he humiliated me. Crushed me beneath his heel.
Turned his back on me like I was nothing.
I press my face into the pillow and let it swallow my tears. And the pain.