Natalie's Pov.
I didn't sleep. How could I? There were divorce papers laid on the kitchen counter, taunting me, reminding me of the fact that all that I thought to know was a lie. I had passed the night staring at the ceiling, my head doing somersaults, playing over and over again in my mind all the moments of our marriage, every sign that I missed, every time telling myself that things would get better. I want to scream. To cry. To make him understand what he was doing to me. But when morning came, all I felt was numb.
Ethan was sitting in the living room when I finally dragged myself out of bed. He was seated on the couch, burrowing his face into his phone, scrolling aimlessly as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn't shattered my whole world just hours before.
I stood in the doorway, watching him. How could he be so composed? How could he sit there, absolutely unbothered, when it felt like I was dying inside? My heart pounded in my chest, an unhealthy mixture of anger and desperation building in my gut. I needed to speak with him; I needed to understand. Maybe there still was a chance for this to be fixed-for us to be fixed.
Ethan," I said, my voice trembling. He didn't raise his head. "Ethan, we need to talk."
Finally, with a deep sigh, he put his phone down and faced me. His eyes were icy, distant-no resemblance to the man I had come to know.
"What is it, Natalie?" he asked flatly.
I swallowed hard; my chest tightened as I tried to keep my emotions in check. "I just… I don't understand. How can you do this? How can you just throw everything away like this? We've been together for so long. We've been through so much."
He leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. "I've already explained it. There's nothing left to talk about.
"But there is!" I took a step forward, my voice rising. "You owe me more than this, Ethan. You can't just leave me with divorce papers and walk away. You owe me an explanation."
"I don't owe you anything," he snapped. His eyes glinted menacingly. "I told you, it's over. I'm done."
I stared at him, my heart breaking all over again. How in the world did this happen? How did I become so negligible to him?
All those years," I whispered, my voice barely audible. "All those years, I thought I was building something with you. I thought we were building a life together. But it turns out, I was wrong. It was never us, was it? It was always just you. I was just… background noise.
Ethan's face did not betray him. He did not look guilty or saddened; he did not appear to be the least inconvenienced by all this. He just looked at me as though I was some new kind of jammed mosquito that had flown into his life.
That's not fair," he said coldly. "You made your own choices, Natalie. Don't you act like this is all on me. You chose to give up your career, you chose to put everything into this marriage. I never asked you to do that.
These words punched me right in my face. I buckled at the knees and grabbed onto the back of a chair to hold myself up. "I gave up everything for you," I managed to whisper, shaking. "My dreams, my career, everything. I gave up everything because I thought it was what we were building together. But you-" My voice caught in my throat and I held back a sob. "You didn't even care.
He stood up then, his features clouding. "I'm not responsible for your choices, Natalie. You made those decisions. I didn't force you to."
I couldn't even breathe; my chest was closing in with every word from his mouth. Cruel, he could be so cruel. How could he just stand there and act like none of it mattered?
"And now what?" I asked the questions, my voice breaking. "You're going to just walk away? You're going to leave me with nothing?"
Ethan shrugged, reaching for his keys on the coffee table. "I've moved on, Natalie. I suggest you do the same."
Moved on. The words still rang in my head, a constant slogan until I just couldn't think straight anymore. He had moved on. And am trying to save us, trying to hold onto whatever was left of us, he had long ago let go.
I watched him walk to the door, my heart beating in my chest. "Ethan, please—"
I started to say, but one look from him silenced me.
"Don't make it any more difficult than what it is,"
he concluded, and with that, he was gone. The door softly closed behind him, and I just stood there in the now-empty room, utterly alone.
For long, condemning minutes, I didn't move. I couldn't. My legs seemed to buckle beneath me at any instant, and my chest was so constricted that every breath brought only agony. How had my life come completely unraveled in so little time? Just yesterday, I was hanging onto the hope that somehow we might work it out, find our way back. And now… now I had nothing.
I fell back against the couch, wrapping my arms around my face as the dam finally burst. My body wracked with great heaving sobs, and I couldn't stem the tide of emotions threatening to engulf me. Anger, sorrow, regret, despair-it all came crashing down on me in waves, and it smothered me, drowned me.
I had sacrificed so much for Ethan, I had given up my dreams, my career, my independence-just because I had thought we were building a life together. And I did all that was humanly possible to be the perfect wife: to make him happy, to keep our marriage strong. But somehow, it was never enough. And somehow, I was never enough.
Without him, I felt an empty shell, like nothing had remained of myself.
I don't know how long I sat and cried, but by the time I could finally lift my head, the room was dark. There was this deafening silence; loneliness crawled right into my chest, like some dead weight which pressed upon me. I couldn't breathe, think, or feel anything other than that crushing despair that threatened to consume me whole.
I got up, my legs weak, my brain numb, and walked towards the window. The city beckoned before me with its lights flickering in the distance, but nothing was to be seen out there. I saw only the void, the emptiness inside of me, the nothingness my life had turned into.
Nothing was left behind, nothing was left to hold on to-nothing to live for.
I moved closer to the window, my fingers trembling against cold glass. The thought burrowed its way into my mind, slow at first, then louder, more insistent.
What was the point of going on? What was left for me now? Ethan was gone. My marriage was over. Everything I had sacrificed, everything I had given up-it was all for nothing.
I had nothing. Without him, I was nothing.
It was the idea of an end to it all that was the relief-finally being out of the pain, being out of the void. I wouldn't hurt anymore, I just simply wouldn't have this crushing weight upon my chest, this smothering despair that made one not be in a state to breathe.
I opened the window, the cool night air rushing in, and stepped onto the ledge. The ground seemed so far below, yet at the same time it felt so close. One step, and it would all be over. One step, and the pain would be gone.
I took a deep breath, closing my eyes as the wind whipped through my hair. This was it. This was how it would end.
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