Eliana hit the pavement hard.
Click-click-click…
Camera flashes went off in a storm, catching her sprawled and disheveled from every angle.
She looked up at Nathaniel on instinct and met nothing but cold eyes.
She understood exactly what he wanted from her.
The realization cut through her chest like a blade.
He wanted her to turn to the cameras and say: It was all a misunderstanding.
Ms.
Blake wasn’t feeling well, and my husband happened to be nearby.
Compassion for a sick person is simply the kind of man he is.
Eliana’s hand tightened over her stomach.
She smiled down at the pavement.
Clouds drifted lazily overhead.
Sunlight broke through the gaps in the crowd in thin, scattered beams.
None of it landed on her.
She steadied herself and rose slowly to her feet.
With her back turned to Nathaniel, she said, evenly, “I feel for Ms.
Blake’s illness.
That’s all this is.”
“So you two are friends, then?” someone in the crowd asked, missing the point entirely.
“Friends?” Eliana let out a short laugh.
“Hardly.
Who becomes friends with the woman constantly at odds with her husband?” she said coolly, then waved toward Chloe, who’d already pulled the car up.
“Eliana!” Nathaniel’s voice rose behind her, edged with anger.
She didn’t turn around.
Just kept walking, spine straight.
Chloe swooped in to rescue her but not before turning back with a sharp, satisfied smirk.
“Anyone watching this would swear the wife and the mistress were the ones brawling.
Never seen anyone so shameless in my life.
Disgusting.”
“You!” Vivian started, furious.
Chloe cut her off before she could finish.
“What, did I lie?
Everything I said is true.
If you want to weaponize a camera against me, be my guest, there is nothing I can do about that.”
Vivian’s face drained of color at that, and she swayed as though about to collapse.
Chaos erupted around her instantly.
Chloe didn’t look back.
She got Eliana into the car, and they pulled away.
“Relax, that little fainting act was obviously fake.
I’ve seen enough of it to spot it instantly,” Chloe said, trying to soothe her.
Eliana managed a tired smile.
“It’s not her I’m worried about.
What happens if they come after you at the hospital for this?”
The light ahead turned red.
Chloe hit the brakes and grinned sideways at her.
“Sweetheart, you forgot the hospital director is my dad.”
Eliana rolled her eyes.
“Didn’t I distinctly remember someone swearing she’d never claim that man as her father?”
“Wow, look at that, I only remember these things when they’re useful!
I wish every expert in this city was secretly my father.”
They kept teasing each other until Eliana’s color came back, and by the time the light turned green, the mood in the car had lifted completely.
“Go on, say it.
I’m free all afternoon.
Your wish is my command today,” Chloe declared dramatically.
Eliana caught the mood too, her smile turning sly.
“I actually do need a favor.”
“What is it?” Chloe asked, all wide-eyed innocence.
“Help me move.” Eliana grabbed her wrist.
“No backing out.”
Chloe surrendered on the spot.
So the two of them, along with a professional organizer and a small moving crew, ended up back at the house Eliana had shared with Nathaniel for the past year.
Their wedding had been thrown together in a rush; everything about that house had been arranged on short notice, back then.
But over the year that followed, through all the small renovations she’d quietly made, it had actually started to feel like a home.
Not just some cold, empty structure anymore.
Which made this all the more of a shame.
Chloe directed the movers in circles while Eliana wandered over and picked up a bottle of perfume off a shelf.
Nathaniel had brought it back for her after his very first business trip following the wedding.
A classic scent.
He’d come home that day still carrying the chill of London on his coat.
He’d rushed straight from the airport to find her, still in his travel clothes.
That embrace had been urgent.
So had the kiss that followed.
For a moment, they had felt like any other ordinary married couple.
She uncapped the bottle and sprayed a little into the air.
It smelled exactly the same as it had that day.
Exactly like the way he’d kissed her right after spraying it on her skin, all those months ago.
“Should this go in a box too?” Chloe asked, already waving over a mover when she spotted the perfume.
Eliana shook her head.
“No need.”
She slid off the wedding ring he’d picked out for her almost as an afterthought and set it down on the table.
But watching the boxes pile up outside, she paused, then tucked the perfume, the ring, and a short note explaining what they were into one of the drawers instead.
Within the hour, the house was cleared out.
Everything that had once been hers except that one bottle of perfume and that one ring was gone.
Moving felt overwhelming right up until the moment you actually committed to it.
Then it went fast.
Sorting out your own heart worked the exact same way.
The car pulled away toward Eliana’s new place, wind drifting through the open window, the old house shrinking in the rearview mirror with every block.
Only by letting go of what came before could she actually move forward.
She still had a long list of things left to do.
The sudden collapse of the Hart family.
The suspicious circumstances around her father’s death, quietly ruled an “accident.” Both needed answers, and she intended to find them.
She realized, somewhere along the way, she’d spent her entire life living for other people.
It was time to live it for herself again.
Starting with the music competition.
It meant funding, yes but it also meant visibility, a chance for people who’d known her father to finally see her again.
She pulled out her phone, found the contact from earlier, and typed back: I’ll do the show.
…
Elsewhere, Vivian was still crying.
Nathaniel murmured soft reassurances, though his mind kept replaying Eliana’s departure her back turned to him, that flat, defiant tone.
She’d known exactly what he wanted her to say.
And she’d refused him anyway.
Again.
He’d sent her message after message.
No response.
It was always like this now.
In little more than a day, she’d become an entirely different person deliberately picking fights, defying him at every turn.
First the divorce papers.
Now this scene at the hospital.
For some reason, his mind kept snagging on the way she’d looked at him the night before, asking for his final answer.
Something sorrowful in her eyes.
But also something disturbingly at peace.
For a second, that unsettled him more than he wanted to admit.
“Nathaniel, please don’t be too hard on Eliana,” Vivian said through her tears.
“I understand why she’s upset.
She saw us online, came to confront us in person I can live with that, because”
Her tears came harder.
“Because I’m the one who stole these months from your marriage.
So whatever she says about me, however she lashes out, I deserve it.”
Right as she said it, she stumbled.
Cough cough
Blood spilled from her lips.
“Vivian!” Nathaniel lunged for his phone, already dialing for an ambulance.
As for Eliana’s strange behavior back at the hospital he chalked it up to a tantrum.
She couldn’t survive without him.
That much he was sure of.
Vivian just shook her head, offering a pale, brave smile.
“It’s just late-stage progression.
This is normal.
Don’t panic.”
The nurse hurried over to settle her.
The moment Nathaniel turned away, brow still furrowed, already mentally drafting whatever he planned to say to Eliana, Vivian calmly wiped the “blood” from her chin and spat a small burst blood capsule out of her cheek.
She laughed under her breath to the nurse.
“Wonder how badly he’s going to chew her out.
Honestly, can’t wait to watch.”
Then she pulled out her phone, scrolling happily through the flood of comments online.
The internet had turned entirely against Eliana.
“Vivian went to the hospital for painkillers, not even treatment anymore, just enough to die with some dignity and Eliana still shows up to make it about herself?!”
“The woman is dying and Eliana can’t even give her that much grace?”
“Honestly Vivian and Nathaniel look like the real couple here.
Golden pair.”
“That fall Eliana took looked so bad, lol”
“Eliana, step aside already.”
“Eliana, just sign the papers already!”
“Divorce Eliana +1”
“+10,086”
…
Vivian smiled, delighted, and pulled up her messages.
“This is exactly the momentum we wanted today.
Keep the buzz going, keep the marketing tight.
I want Eliana buried under this by tonight.”
“Oh and find out what she was actually doing at the hospital today.
I want to know.”