Chapter 5

For a second, I wondered if I'd somehow managed to send that message to Hector.

Then I remembered—I'd scheduled it seven years ago, set to send on our anniversary. Never thought it would reach him under these circumstances.

His reaction? Pure rage.

When I didn't respond, he fired off a furious voicemail: "Sienna, where the hell are you hiding? Dragging this divorce out just makes me hate you more!"

He thought my message was some desperate attempt to keep him tied to me, convinced I was still out there, hiding and clinging on.

If I'd known back then that Hector would never really be mine, I never would've married him.

What Emma threw away, I could never hold. And what she wanted to reclaim, I had no chance of keeping.

I'd been trapped in this marriage, sinking deeper every day, believing in a future that wasn't real. I'd stood by him through his worst days, through setbacks and endless nights of rebuilding. I never left, not once.

But his promises barely lasted seven years. How