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The next morning, I arrived at my desk job —the same routine I'd kept for the past few years. Colleagues turned toward me, acknowledging my presence with smiles and nods. I sat in my chair and positioned myself for the tasks at hand. As the morning went on, though, I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. I had skipped breakfast and now the pangs were becoming more and more difficult to ignore. I shrugged it off, promising myself that I could eat something at lunchtime.By noon, it had become worse. My vision was blurry at times, and my hands were shaking while typing. I pushed on, driven by the urge to get my work done before I took a break. This was a busy period, and I did not wish to lag. However, at around 3 PM, I just couldn't ignore these signs my body was giving. I called it off and headed home to rest.I trudged out to my car, gathering my things. Each step seemed heavier than the last. The world tilted a bit to one side, and I felt myself having to hold onto
I sat at the very end of the bed, my heart thumping as I just stared at the door. The room was smothering. The walls seemed to close in on me with each second. Noah had locked me in an apartment that he had bought expressly to keep me hidden from the world. The windows were barred, and I could see outside the door guards who had taken their place to prevent me from leaving. It was now that the feeling of being caged finally washed over me like a wave, and it was an effort to maintain steady breathing.How had this happened? I thought about all the warnings, all the red flags that I had ignored. I should have known Noah wouldn't give up so easily. Even after all that, a piece of me had still hoped he would turn his back on all this eventually, that he would see reason. Now that hope seemed foolish, almost childish.I heard footsteps, so my body stiffened. Slowly, the door opened, and there he was—Noah. He dominated the room; a sense of familiarity and fear overtook me. At one time in my
I sat at the foot of the bed, staring at the door, my heart hammering in my chest. The sense of powerlessness wrapped me in a smothering blanket, making each breath a little more labored than the previous one. Noah had confined me to this apartment. His twisted form of love turned into prison. My situation was unmistakable—I was trapped, and the man I loved turned stranger, obsessed and unhinged.I heard movement outside the door, and my body naturally straightened. The door creaked, and there he was—Noah. His presence seemed to fill the room, carrying an intoxicating mixture of fear and confusion. I had tried reasoning with him, pleading that he let me go, think about Anne, his wife, and his unborn child, but Noah was beyond reasoning now. Obsessiveness had completely taken over his mind."Christie," he said softly, his voice that unnerving blend of tender and determined. "I brought dinner."I watched as he brought a tray into the room to place upon the small table beside the bed. The
That night, I cried myself to sleep. Sorrow sat on me so heavily that I could not keep my eyes open. The tears dried up on my cheeks, leaving paths of salt and sorrow. My room was dark; the silence was oppressive. My thoughts whirled with fear and hopelessness. Never had I felt so alone, so utterly abandoned by the world. But finally, with sleep, it was a jumble of fear, exhaustion, and the dire necessity of escape that occupied my mind.The world I entered then in my dreams was no better. Shadows loomed large, and the familiar faces of those I loved were distorted and unrecognizable. I could feel Seth there, reaching out for me, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't grasp his hand. Looming in the background was Noah's face; his eyes were cold, unfeeling, watching my every move. It felt like a dream that didn't end, stuck in a revolting sequence of fear and anxiety.Yet, deep inside my sleeping mind, I felt something wrong. I was not alone. A presence was seeping into the corners
I sat there, pen shaking in my hand, the divorce papers right in front of me, like a sentence of death. My heart was racing in my chest; with every pulsation, it recalled for me that life I was being forced to abandon. The ink on the papers seemed to blur before my eyes and mix with the tears I fought back. This couldn't be happening. It felt like a nightmare, one from which I couldn't wake up. But no matter how hard I had wished it to be some kind of dream, reality stared at me, cold and unforgiving, right in the face.Noah stood over me, looming, as if his presence was a threat in itself, his face a mix of triumph and impatience. It was a side of him I had seen before—the side that would stop at nothing to get what it wanted. And now, what he wanted was my complete and utter submission, my willing participation in the destruction of life as I'd built it with Seth. My poorer, well-beloved man, who did nought but care for me, was to be cast aside like rubbish."Sign it, Christie," Noah
This restaurant, with no other patrons, felt very quiet, eerily so. It was as if the place had been abandoned, and in a lot of ways, it had—by force. Noah had made sure this was the case by emptying out the place so we could have some sort of "private dinner." He claimed that was all this was, but the reality was much darker than this. I was a prisoner, confined in this elegant cage of sparkling chandeliers and polished silverware, which seemed to mock the horror of my situation.Noah sat opposite me, his demeanour quite calm and collected, in pungent contrast to the turmoil now rising inside of me. His cold, calculating eyes used to be warm and familiar, but now they belonged to a stranger, a man who remained unrecognized to me. He smiled at me, but it was nothing like the real thing. It was that smile of a predator, one pleased with his catch."Isn't this nice?" he asked, his voice smooth and deceptively gentle. "Just the two of us, enjoying a meal together. It's like old times, isn'
I wobbled into the apartment, my legs like lead, my heart heavy from the events of the night. My mind was racing to a degree, trying to get everything that had happened in order, but sheer exhaustion made thinking impossible. All I wanted to do was fall onto the bed, bury myself under the covers, and somehow, magically, wake up from this nightmare. But instantly, as I crossed the threshold, a cold shiver went down my spine at Noah's presence right behind me.The door clicked shut behind me; the apartment became silent. I wanted to scream, to cry out for help even, but I knew it would just be fruitless. Noah had forever been one up on me, forever in control. My conscious struggles against him, my attempts to form some kind of plan out of the situation, now lay as limp as the wall around my body, allowing hopeless despair to choke me."Christie," Noah's voice carried through the hush like a knife, and my heart jumped. With slow dread, I turned until my gaze landed on him. His eyes were t
I looked down at my plate, the food untouched and fast getting cold. The idea of eating turned my stomach over with nausea; appetite was a thing then unfelt. All I wanted was to be left alone, burrow into that tiny corner of my mind where peace still lingered. Noah's presence was impossible to ignore with his eyes, always on me as he sat across the table, waiting—waiting for what?.The only sound in the room was the ticking of a clock somewhere in the distance, detailing by seconds exactly how long I could stand relentlessly in my nightmare. I wouldn't look at him—refused to turn my attention to the man who once held so much importance in my life yet now stood as the reason behind my deepest despair. My eyes rested on a table, beckoning for strength to hold myself together."Christie," Noah's voice cut through the silence, low but penetrating, forcing my unwilling attention. I could feel the confusion, the frustration in the tone, as though he couldn't understand why I wasn't playing a
The morning sunbeams were streaming through the bedroom windows, warm and golden, that covered everything with a soft glow. I slept in a bit later than usual, enjoying the serenity that had become a constant in my life. Life had changed in so many ways, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I was finally happy.I turned to my side and smiled at Seth, still sleeping beside me. His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, his face relaxed, and his hand rested near mine as if he unconsciously sought me even in his dreams. This was my life now—this love, this stability, this sense of belonging.A soft flutter in my stomach made me smile even wider. The secret I had been carrying for weeks was growing stronger, more real, and soon I would share it with Seth. This thought filled my heart with equal parts of excitement and nervousness, but mostly joy.I slipped out of bed without waking him, padding into the kitchen. The house was quiet, the silent kind that makes you feel at home
~Noah’s pov~The walk back to my apartment seemed to stretch endlessly. My feet moved in a mechanical sequence, one in front of the other, but my mind went round and round, reenacting the scene at Christie and Seth's house. Her words echoed louder than the traffic, louder than the distant hum of the city."I don't belong to you. I never did."I had been so sure—so certain—that if I just showed up, if I just made her see what we had, she would remember. That she would feel the same pull, the same ache that I had carried with me since the day we parted. But she hadn't. Her gaze had been steady, her voice firm, as she told me that she had moved on. That the new Christie didn't need me. Didn't want me.When I finally reached my apartment, I sank onto the couch without bothering to turn on the lights. The dim glow of the streetlamp outside cast long shadows across the room, fitting for how I felt inside.It was the first time in years that I allowed myself to think—really think—about every
I heard a knock. It was sharp and insistent against the quiet rhythm of our morning. I was at the sink, washing dishes, while Seth worked on something at the table. The sound jarred me, and for an instant, I hesitated. Something about it—urgent, almost aggressive—put me on guard."I will get that," Seth said, already standing up from his seat.I quickly dried my hands and trailed after him, wondering and afraid. He opened the door, and I was to confront the last person I could have expected to meet- Noa.He looked exactly as I recalled him: tall, broad-shouldered, blonde hair tousled. There was something in his eyes, though, that I had never seen before: desperation.Christie, he whispered aloud, his voice low but fervent, his eyes fixed hard on mine.I froze as if my breath was physically caught in my throat. It was to see a ghost, a fragment of a life that no longer exists for me. Seth tensed up beside me, his grip on the door's edge tightening."Finally, Noah," I said, my voice cra
The restaurant was warm and dimly lit. A faint aroma of garlic and freshly baked bread clung to the air. Seth sat across from me, as calm and steady as always, his fingers lightly tapping against the base of his wine glass. I studied him discreetly: a sharp line of his jaw, a slight crease between his brows when he was lost in deep thought. He looked utterly, amazingly tired, as if he wanted tonight different, better.I also wanted it.The past weeks were turbulent, and therefore a jumbled mass of feelings that I couldn't make sense of.Memories I thought I'd long since buried—the evanescent meetings with Noah, leftovers from a life that had belonged to someone else—emerged now to haunt me at odd moments. So long I had harbored these memories, allowing them a slice of myself. Now sitting here with Seth, I see just how much they took.Christie?" Seth broke into my thoughts, his voice soft but tinged with angst.I blinked, realizing that I had silently stared at him. "Sorry," I said qui
Seth had come down with a fever recently. Illness had washed the colour from his cheeks and put shadows under his eyes. More than his look, though, the silence that crept in during those days seemed to live in my head: distance, but not out of malice. More out of fear.I hovered by the door of our bedroom, hesitant to step inside. Seth had asked me to come in, his voice steady but with an edge of something I couldn’t quite place. Resignation, perhaps? Pain? I couldn’t tell. The thought sent a shiver down my spine. This was the man who had been my anchor, my unwavering support, and now he seemed so… tired.I entered at last, and he sat on the edge of the bed. His shoulders were slumped, heavy with a weight I didn't understand yet. He looked at me then, his dark eyes softer than usual but unmistakably determined. My stomach tightened at the look."Christie," he said, his voice calm but strained. "We need to talk."My heart sank. Those words—they were never good. They heralded endings, s
Walking home with Noah, I felt a lightness in my chest that I hadn't felt in so long. It was as if a weight had been placed upon one shoulder and then, in effect, had flipped to the other, if only for a fleeting moment. I laughed at something he said; in this case, not really listening to what he said, but to the comfort enfolding us. It was a cool evening air, adorned with a soft breeze that brushed my cheeks, and streetlights softly lit the path before us. I knew I should not have agreed to walk with him. I knew this was wrong. But Noah had this strange pull on me, something that was beyond explanation and resistant to stopping.His presence felt familiar and cozy, and at this moment I cleared all the mess and madness from my mind. I let myself enjoy it, let myself pretend everything was easy and matter-of-fact, despite knowing deep inside of me that it wasn't.I should have stepped back when approaching that house. Reality was slowly sinking in: where and what I was doing stood rig
The air was crisp in the afternoon, and I had to leave the workplace, my mind buzzing with routine as it has just completed. It was an ordinary day in all aspects, yet it felt off about it somehow. I don't know if it was the heavy clouds that hung low in the sky, threatening to break and pour rain anytime, or maybe it was the strange heaviness that I had been carrying with me these past few days—the weight that I couldn't explain. Seth has been so patient and loving, but I still felt. unsettled about something.I wasn't expecting to see him again-Noah. It had been unsettling enough the last time we met, but there he was, literally standing by the aisle of the same departmental store I wandered into, tossing items into a basket as if this were something absolutely normal in his world. My heart skipped a beat the moment I recognized him. It had resulted in betraying my body with a flush of heat that I couldn't ignore. I tried to calm my breathing, try and remind myself of everything Set
As we walked into that house that night, my brain would still glisten with the words spewed by Seth. All that weight, all that heaviness - Noah and those lies, manipulation, twisted web which life has become. My chest felt like it was stuck in some heavy fog, where nothing could be distinguished clearly, nothing trusted as what was thought to be known. Even Seth, the man who had been there for me, seemed at a distance somehow. The puzzle he'd given me, it seemed, was not pieced back together either; no matter how very hard I tried, those pieces wouldn't mesh.Seth treated me gently when he brought me home, like fragile glass that might break if one breathed too hard on it. And in his eyes, I saw the worry, the sadness, the hope that maybe, just maybe, this was the night that might change things between us. I had seen him trying everything to make me feel special, make me smile, and a part of me wanted to give him what he so desperately needed: a sign that I was coming back to him. Tha
I thought Seth was taking a leave from work for spending the day with me, which rather seemed to be a sweet gesture, but deep inside, upset me. We had been so tensed against each other lately without either of us being able fully to articulate what was nagging; it would always hang there in mid-air like an invisible barrier. While I would have liked to dissuade him from leaving, at the same time, I could not reject him. Seth had tried hard to make things be normal by bending over backward and doing all in his power; the least I could do was try to meet him halfway.We went out to a great little restaurant. It had a warm, cozy atmosphere. The low illuminations were rich in earth tones. After all, there isn't a setting more perfect for anyone who ever wanted to feel at ease. Couples were scattered all over the room, some laughing, some whispering low over glasses of wine, and it was one of those scenes-the kind of atmosphere which usually lulled me into a state of peace, but tonight mad