He walked straight into the living room and dropped onto the sofa. His face was tight with anger. I stayed standing near the doorway.

He stared at me like he was waiting for me to apologize.

“Judith’s been struggling lately,” he said. “She has brain cancer. As for the wedding, it’s still happening.”

“Okay.”

Gideon froze. He actually looked stunned.

Like he expected tears. Arguments. Something he could control.

His eyes narrowed slightly. “You should come with me to a party tonight,” he said after a moment. “Since you’re going to be my wife, you should meet my people.”

“No need,” I said softly.

“What do you fucking actually want?” he snapped, standing up. “Don’t act like this just because I’ve been busy. I’ve given you a chance already!”

A chance.

I looked at him quietly. He really thought everything between us was just about chances. About him deciding when I was worth noticing.

“I’m not your possession, Selah. I have my own life too.”

That part almost made me smile. He stormed toward the door before I could respond.

“I gave you an opening,” he said over his shoulder. “Don’t come back begging later.”

The door slammed shut behind him. And just like that, the house went silent again.

I rubbed my temples and walked over to the calendar and tore off another page. The paper made a soft sound in the silence. Two weeks left. That was all.

...

Gideon and I spent the next few days moving through the city separately, finally visiting places we had once talked about over the past four years but never actually gone to. Mountains, old streets, small restaurants hidden between busy roads. It should’ve felt meaningful, but it didn’t. It felt more like two strangers completing unfinished tasks before parting ways.

Today, after everything, I ended up at a riverside restaurant. The sunlight outside was warm, the water calm, and for the first time in a while, I actually felt a little lighter. I didn’t expect him to be there.

But Gideon was already inside, sitting across from Judith. Long curled hair, soft face, eyes always a little too confident. Gideon leaned forward slightly, focused only on her. His hands were peeling shrimp carefully for her. No hesitation, no coldness. He fed her gently, like she was something fragile he was afraid to lose. Judith smiled at him, eyes soft and satisfied, and Gideon looked at her the same way.

I stopped walking for a second, then moved to a seat far away near the window. I didn’t say anything, didn’t interrupt. I had already told myself I wouldn’t fight anymore.

Around us, the restaurant slowly noticed them. Whispers spread, heads turned, phones lifted. Gideon Salerno didn’t usually appear in public like this, not without guards, not without control over every angle. But tonight he looked almost ordinary. Judith leaned closer as people started clapping and cheering, someone shouting for them to kiss.

Judith didn’t hesitate. She turned toward him, eyes glossy, lips parted like she had been waiting. Gideon paused for only a second, then gave in and kissed her. The whole place erupted in applause and cheers, like they were watching the ending of a perfect love story, the kind people root for without thinking about anyone else in the room.

I stayed by the window, quiet and still, hands resting on the table without movement. Was I supposed to feel betrayed? Or stupid? Nothing came clearly, only a faint tiredness. Maybe I really was just in the way of something that already belonged to them.

Judith noticed me first. Even from across the room, I saw the curve of her lips, that quiet satisfaction she didn’t bother hiding. A moment later Gideon pulled back from the kiss, breath uneven, still caught in the attention of the room, and his eyes followed hers. Then he saw me.

Everything shifted instantly. His expression tightened, warmth gone. He stood up and walked straight toward me. Before I could react, something heavy hit my face. Beef. Hot, greasy. The smell filled my senses at once. I blinked slowly, more stunned than hurt.

“You’re fuckinv stalking me now?” Gideon’s voice cut through the silence.

The restaurant went still. I wiped my face with my sleeve, oil smearing across my skin, warm and disgusting.

His jaw tightened when I didn’t react the way he expected. For a brief second something flickered in his eyes, then disappeared.

“That was just a misunderstanding. Don’t make a scene,” he said colder now. “Judith is here too. Go apologize to her.”

I looked past him. Judith sat perfectly still, watching with a calm, satisfied expression.

So that’s the “sick” woman he was so worried about. Only a fool like Gideon would believe all of this.

I pushed my chair back and stood. “I’m leaving,” I said quietly and turned toward the exit.

“Stop.”

I didn’t.

His hand grabbed me and shoved me hard. I lost balance at once and hit the stairs. My head struck the edge with a brutal crack. Pain exploded through my skull as warmth spilled down instantly. My vision blurred, everything tilting.

Sounds around me warped, footsteps, voices, gasps, all distant like I was underwater. Through the haze I saw Gideon standing there, cold, unmoved. Then he turned away, pulling Judith closer like nothing had happened.

“You’re the one who caused this,” his voice cut through faintly. “Don’t expect forgiveness unless you apologize to Judith! Pathetic.”

The words barely reached me. My ears rang. My head split open with pain then darkness.

When I woke up, there was a man sitting beside my bed.

“You’re awake,” he said, leaning forward and carefully adjusting the pillow behind my head. “I’m Mordecai Moretti. You came in covered in blood, I thought we were going to lose you.”

I forced myself to sit up a little, my body heavy and slow, and I thanked him quietly while telling him I could cover the medical fees. He immediately waved it off, saying he was a doctor and saving people was normal for him, then he asked if he should call my family.

That question made my chest tighten for a second, but I shook my head and refused. I couldn’t let my parents see me like this and worry even more when everything tied back to the Laureen family and Salerno Empire was already breaking them apart.

There was no point adding more weight to them, not now, not when I barely had time left anyway.

Mordecai didn’t push after that. He just nodded like he understood there were things I wasn’t ready to say, and in the days that followed he kept coming back quietly, sometimes bringing medicine, sometimes just checking on me without asking too many questions. He never made me feel small or like I was a burden, and that alone felt strange because I couldn’t remember the last time someone treated me like I was just a person and not part of some mafia arrangement or debt.

During those ten days in the hospital, my phone kept lighting up with messages I didn’t fully want to open. My parents checked on me gently, Gideon’s name appeared more than once, and Judith’s messages were always there in between.

Photos of them together. Smiles at dinners. Private moments meant to be seen.

At first I thought it would still hurt, but it didn’t. I would just look at the screen for a second, then turn it off. Even Gideon’s name started to feel distant, like it belonged to someone I used to know in a life that wasn’t mine anymore. The pain I used to carry for him had already started fading, and I wasn’t sure when that happened.

...

When I was discharged, the sunlight outside felt strangely warm against my skin. My steps felt lighter too, like something heavy inside me had finally started to loosen, and I remember wondering if this was what it felt like to stop waiting for someone who was never going to turn around anyway.

I went back to the Salerno estate afterward.

The bridal chamber was quiet, too quiet, and I went straight to the study to get my diary because I needed to keep writing down whatever memories I still had left before they disappeared completely. I was still reaching for it when I saw her.

Judith.

She was already inside, sitting comfortably in my space holding my diary in her hands and flipping through it without hurry. Her expression changed the moment she saw me, turning into something sharp and amused at the same time.

“So this is what you’ve been hiding,” she said softly. “All these little notes about your sad life. Aww, poor girl.”

My fingers tightened instantly.

“That’s mine!" My voice came out sharper than I expected.

She tilted her head, amused. “Everything in this house is connected to Gideon,” she replied. “Including you. Don’t you get tired of pretending you matter?”

I took a step forward. “Give it back.”

She sighed dramatically and flipped another page. “I wonder what you wrote about me,” she said. “Or about him. Did you cry while writing it? Did it hurt when you realized you were never really his choice?”

“Give it back!"

She smiled wider, then footsteps came from outside the door. Judith noticed it immediately. And in one quick motion, she slammed her head against the edge of the desk, hard.

She dropped to the floor right after, screaming.

“Don’t touch me! Gideon, help! Selah is hurting me! Gideon!"

My eyes widened. What? Before I could even move, the door slammed open and Gideon walked in.

His presence filled the room instantly, heavy and controlled, and his eyes moved first to Judith on the floor, then to the torn diary pages scattered everywhere, and finally to me standing there.

And that was all it took.

His expression hardened.

He didn’t ask anything.

He didn’t hesitate.

He grabbed a stool nearby and brought it down on me without warning.

Pain exploded through my body as I dropped to the floor, my breath breaking instantly, and above me his voice came cold and furious, already decided.

“You never stop fucking causing problems, Selah! Now you’re even hurting her.”

I stared at the torn diary in my hands and couldn’t think at all.

My mind felt completely empty.

I had already been avoiding Gideon as much as I could, staying quiet, staying out of his way, trying not to exist in front of him anymore, so why did he still keep hurting me?

Why wasn’t it enough for him to ignore me?

Pain burned across my back where the stool had hit me, but I still held onto the damaged notebook tightly. My fingers shook while I gathered the ripped pages because there were already too many things I couldn’t remember anymore.

If these pages disappeared too, then those memories would disappear with them.

Gideon stood over me with bloodshot eyes, fury written all over his face.

“Selah,” he said through clenched teeth, “you’ve really disgusted me this time. I never thought you’d become this vicious.”

His voice got harsher with every word.

“Judith’s already struggling because of the wedding and now you’re trying to hurt her too? Do you actually want to drive her to death?”

I slowly raised my head and looked at him.

For a second, Gideon froze after meeting my eyes. Something flickered across his face, almost uncertain, almost uneasy, but it disappeared quickly.

Anyone with common sense could tell Judith hurt herself on purpose.

Anyone could see it.

But Gideon never looked at Judith with reason.

To him, she was always innocent.

Always fragile.

Blood slowly soaked through my clothes and stained the floor beneath me.

“You fucking clearly did something wrong,” he said. “Judith wouldn’t accuse you for no reason. I’m already letting this go because of everything you’ve done for me and the Salerno family.”

He crouched slightly in front of me, his tone colder now.

“So stop making trouble and apologize to her! Do that, and we’ll end this here.”

I just stared at him quietly.

Apologize?

After he nearly broke my back for another woman?

After everything?

Even if I forgot the past, my body still remembered pain.

I said nothing.

Gideon’s expression darkened immediately. He probably thought he had already compromised enough and that I should obediently accept it, the way I always used to.

But I couldn’t.

Not anymore.

A mocking laugh escaped him.

“Fine,” he snapped. “If you’re still acting stubborn, then maybe this marriage should end here.”

He grabbed Judith protectively and pulled her closer before heading toward the door.

Then he stopped for one last second and looked back at me with cold disappointment.

“Don’t come crying and begging later, Selah. I gave you enough chances already, and all you’ve done is disappoint me.”

The door slammed shut so hard the walls trembled.

The sound echoed inside my head until dizziness rushed over me again.

I looked around blankly, trying to steady my breathing. Something happened just now.

I knew it did. But my thoughts felt foggy, slippery, hard to hold onto.

There was a man.

Someone I used to care about maybe.

But his face already felt blurry in my mind.

If my back wasn’t hurting so badly, I would’ve thought none of it was real.

I stayed on the floor for a long time, slowly picking up the torn diary pages one by one. My hands were trembling while I tried to tape everything back together because I couldn’t rewrite those memories anymore.

Some of them were already gone forever.

I didn’t even know how much time passed before I finally finished fixing the notebook enough to close it again.

When I looked up, my reflection in the mirror startled me.

My face was pale. I looked less like a person and more like something abandoned.

The strength left my body all at once and I collapsed onto the floor again.

Cold wind drifted in through the open window, moving softly through the silent living room until another page from the calendar loosened and fell.

Three days left.

...

When I woke up again later, the entire house was dark and silent. For a moment, panic wrapped around my throat because I couldn’t remember where I was or why everything felt so unfamiliar.

It took me a while to calm my breathing.

Then I reached for the notebook beside me.

Right.

The surgery.

Three days.

That was the important thing.

I spent the next few days staying inside the room and reading through my diary over and over, trying to memorize every name and every memory connected to the people I loved.

Mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, and friends.

I repeated them quietly to myself because I was terrified I’d wake up one day and forget all of them completely.

One night, my phone lit up with a notification.

I opened it slowly.

It was from someone named Judith.

There was a picture attached.

A man was asleep beside her in bed, shirtless, his neck covered with dark marks and lipstick stains.

Under the photo, she sent another message.

“We went a little crazy last night. Aren’t you jealous? If you know what’s good for you, leave Gideon already. He belongs to me.”

I stared at the screen for a long moment.

Gideon.

That name again.

For some reason, seeing his face stirred faint images in my head, broken flashes that disappeared before I could grab onto them.

I frowned and opened my diary again, flipping through the pages carefully. There was barely anything about him there.

So he probably wasn’t important anymore.

Maybe he used to be.

But not now. Not enough to remember.

I turned my phone off and placed it aside before lying back down on the bed. My eyes drifted toward the calendar on the wall.

Three more days… That was all I needed to remember. As for Gideon and Judith…

They didn’t matter anymore.

…

My parents called me early in the morning.

The signal kept cutting because of the storm where they were staying overseas, but I could still hear the worry in my mother’s voice.

“Selah, the weather’s terrible here,” she said. “Your father and I might not make it back in time for the wedding.”

Wedding.

That word made me pause.

I tightened my grip on the phone and tried to remember.

Whose wedding?

For some reason, my mind stayed blank.

I only remembered my parents because of the diary beside my bed. Without it, even their voices sometimes felt distant and unfamiliar, and that terrified me more than the surgery itself.

My father sighed heavily on the other end. “We already prepared your gift and everything. We didn’t expect this storm.”

I forced myself to smile even though they couldn’t see me.

“It’s okay,” I said softly. “Don’t worry about me. Just stay safe and come home when the weather clears.”

I hung up slowly after comforting them for a while, then stared at the phone in confusion.

Wedding.

Why couldn’t I remember something that important?

Not long after, another call came.

This time it was Gideon’s parents.

Their voices sounded warm and careful, asking if I was ready for the wedding rehearsal because everything at the church had already been prepared.

Again, my thoughts went blank.

I didn’t even know how to answer them.

So I just hummed quietly and ended the call as politely as I could.

Afterward, I sat alone in the villa trying hard to remember if I had forgotten something important, but the house around me didn’t feel like a bride’s home at all. There were no wedding decorations, no flowers, no dresses laid out waiting for the ceremony. Nothing. The place felt empty.

Maybe everyone remembered wrong. Or maybe I was never supposed to get married at all.

How could someone in my condition even think about marriage when I was preparing for brain surgery?

That thought settled the confusion a little.

So I stayed home quietly for the next few days.

Sometimes the headaches became unbearable and I had to take painkillers while lying in bed waiting for the dizziness to pass. Sometimes I would sit beside the calendar for hours, staring at the final pages and counting down silently.

Then finally, the last day arrived.

I woke up early that morning and opened the window. Fresh air rushed into the room and for once my chest didn’t feel so heavy.

The calendar had reached the end.

I started packing my luggage slowly because I knew I’d be leaving for a very long time after the surgery. Maybe months. Maybe longer.

As I packed, I removed everything that belonged to me from the villa like books, clothes, photos and the lttle things scattered around the house.

By the time I finished, the entire place looked cold and untouched, almost as if I had never lived there at all.

I picked up my suitcase and was about to leave when the front door suddenly opened.

A man and a woman walked in together.

I frowned immediately.

The man was tall, dressed in black, carrying himself with the kind of cold arrogance that made the entire room feel smaller around him. The woman beside him clung to his arm comfortably.

Both of them walked into the villa as if they owned it.

Something about the man irritated me instantly.

I didn’t know him well, but my body reacted before my thoughts could catch up.

The man stopped in front of me and looked down at me with a sharp expression, the kind powerful men wore when they were used to controlling everyone around them.

“Today’s our wedding day,” he said coldly. “I’m giving you one final chance. Apologize to Judith properly and maybe I’ll still show up.”

I stared at him in confusion. Was he insane? Who talks about marriage like it’s charity? And why would I apologize to a stranger standing in my own house?

I looked at him more carefully then.

Cold eyes. Arrogant posture. The kind of man who expected obedience without question. How did I ever end up connected to someone like this?

Just looking at him made me uncomfortable.

The woman beside him tightened her grip around his arm and looked at me smugly, clearly enjoying the situation.

The man kept watching me, probably waiting for me to cry or beg but I couldn’t understand why I would ever lower myself for someone like him.

When I stayed silent, his expression darkened immediately.

“Selah,” he said sharply, “you’ve disappointed me again. Let me make this clear. If you refuse to apologize to Judith, then don’t expect me to attend the wedding. Your Laureen family will become a joke in front of the entire mafia circle.”

Then he turned slightly.

“Judith, let’s go.”

But even while walking away, he moved slowly, almost deliberately waiting for me to stop him.

As if he was completely certain I would run after him eventually. Something about that confidence almost made me laugh.

After a moment, he stopped again and looked back at me, his tone softening slightly though it still carried that same cold superiority.

“I never said I wouldn’t marry you,” he said. “Judith just can’t let go of me. That’s why she became depressed. Everything I’ve done was for your sake too.”

His voice lowered further.

“So stop causing problems and try to understand my intentions. The wedding is about to start. My condition hasn’t changed. No apology means I won’t appear.”

He spoke as if he was already being generous.

As if I should feel grateful he was willing to marry me at all.

And somehow, I knew without understanding why this man truly believed I loved him enough to endure anything? He probably thought I would still choose him every single time.

The strange thing was… I felt nothing when hearing those words. Only confusion over why I would ever tolerate someone this arrogant.

The man finally left with Judith, still carrying himself with absolute confidence that I would eventually surrender.

I watched the door close behind them and shook my head slowly. What kind of terrible luck would make someone fall for a man like that?

I almost felt sorry for the version of myself who once did.

Then I picked up my luggage again, walked over to the calendar, and tore off the final page.

Done.

I looked around the villa one last time, at the place holding memories that no longer felt real to me, then turned away without hesitation.

Far away, church bells began ringing.

Some weddings were probably starting.

At the same time, I boarded the plane leaving this city behind.

And as the aircraft rose into the sky, so did the last traces of the life I used to have.