Chapter 12
må dhe kome hed mordered the baby she prayed for, sacrificed for, bled for?
Well she ever be able to forgive him when she found on the truth?
The Enge and self haired with nowhere to go, Mile drove his fist straight through the glass display case. Blood gushed from his torn knuckles ||
for blood dripped onto the medical report, staining the damming words. Suddenly remembering something, he stumbled like a drunk man toward the nursery.
soh light filed the room, nuking the absolute devastation even more brutal to witnes.
The cherrid wallpaper with dancing teddy bears was splattered with black pant, turning innocent cartoon faces into something out of a horror movie. A crystal snow globe lay in a thousand glittering, pieces across the hardwood floor. The white crib they’d assembled together was overturned and splintered, stuffed animal torn apart with their stuffling scattered everywhere. In the coll fireplace, chatred semain of tiny onesies and blankets still smoldered_||
g the nursery they’d lovingly prepared together destroyed like this. Min felt like something was eating him alive from the inside out. Every breath was agony.
He couldn’t fucking believe Ellann had been strong enough–or broken enough–to tear apart every trace of their dreams with her own hands.
“It’s fine,” he whispered to the destroyed room, his voice cracking, “It’s all gonna be fine. We’ll try again. Elana and I will have another baby.”
But even as he said the words, they felt like lies. Every breath just brought more crushing guilt about what he’d done to Eliana and their child.||
He had only one thought now–find her. Find her and somehow make this right||
With trembling bands, be grabbed his phone and called her number.
The number you have dialed is no longer in service…
The cold, robotic voice echoed through the empty mansion like a death sentence. Panicking, he tried testing tried Instagram, tried everything–only to discover Elanı had blocked him on every single platform |
The harsh reality hit him like a freight train. She was really gone. Actually gone.]
Elana’s parents were dead. Their childhood hone had been bulldozed for a shopping mall years ago. She had no siblings, and he’d never bothered learning about her friends because be’d been too wrapped up in his own world.
In that moment, Milo realized with crushing horror that he didn’t know his man wife at all||
He didn’t know who she turned to when she was hurting. Didn’t know her favorite places to bade. Bidart know anything real about the woman who’d loved him with her wour heart for three years!
The only thing he could remember was her mentioning wanting to get back into fashion design
But that could puran anywhere–New York, LA, Park, Milan The world was enormholes, and she con
For the first time in life, Milo tell completely, utterly helpless
As for spiraled deeper eno panic, he spotted something on his study desk that made his heart skip.||
anywhere in It
office was completely off limits to everyone–except Eliana, who quietly organized his chans every week without being asked. Maybe–God, please–maybe she’d left some kind of dign, some way to find her.
Milo rushed cover, hope blazing in his chest. But a gut closer, that fragile hope shattered completely ||
Two documents lay on the mahogany surface. One was that fucking scorecard bed dined months ago. The other was their divorce papers, already signed in ElanY
orful handwenig
His hands shooŭ as he picked up the card. He remembered glancing at it before, rolling has eyes at what he’d thought was petty worekeeping about Harper. Hię d laughed off because everyone käyw Ellana worshipped the ground he walked un–no way would she actually leave him over sine stupat kat
But now, trading each entry with the clarity of devastating hindsight, every style deduction fell like a blade twisting in his
“Missed our anniversary
rsary dinner for Harper’s art show openg. 10 points
He remembered that night. Fina had worn that borderss he loved, had made reservations at this special place. He canceled last minute because sharper had bee nervuys shinji her gallery debut
“Called Harper’s name during our anniversary dinuies. 15 points-||
(ack. He’d actually done that. Eliana had gune seun for the rest of the meal but he’d been to dotarted to notice |
“Tat pat ney birthday but remembered Harpers was the next day 10 points-
fingers trembled as he traced each lime. Every negative symbol represented another moment he’d chosen Harper over his wife. Another time he’d broken Ellana’y heart and been too arish to care
Lach entry was like watching a timelapse of a woman slowly dying inside |
Every minus sign was another knife in his gut, reminding him exactly how catastrophically he’d fucked up. How completely he’d destroyed the one person who’d loved him nditionally.
The Coal entry made his vision bbar:]
Close Harper over our baby. -5 points“]]
The pr had torn straight through the paper from the free of her
This wasn’t
her writing. He could practically feel her anguish bleeding through the words.
scorecard. It was a roadmap of how he’d systematically inrdered his wife’s soul, one devastating choice at a time.
And now the was gone, and he had no fucking idea how to fed her.]
As he struggled to breathe through the crushing weight of his own guilt, the study door suddenly swing open. Milo’s head jerked up, desperate hope flaring-
