Mei Ling stood frozen in the bathroom, staring at her reflection in the mirror. The cool water on her face failed to calm the storm inside her chest. Her heart hammered relentlessly, and her thoughts were tangled in a web of guilt and fear. How had everything gone so wrong?
She glanced back at the towel draped around her body, her hand instinctively clutching it tighter as if it could offer her some protection from the world she had just shattered. She wanted to scream, to release the unbearable weight on her shoulders, but instead, she took in a shaky breath and steeled herself for what needed to be done.
She could no longer stay here.
The thought repeated itself over and over in her mind like a mantra—she had to leave. But how? How could she vanish without leaving a trace, without explaining herself, without breaking her sister's heart even more than it already would be? She couldn't risk facing Mei Hua or anyone else. Wei Jun's presence here—his peaceful, unaware sleep—only added to the growing suffocation around her.
With a trembling hand, Mei Ling grabbed her phone from the countertop. She stared at the screen for a moment, her thumb hovering over her sister's contact. The words she wanted to say—I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I never meant for this to happen—seemed utterly inadequate. There was no message that could undo this. No phone call that could explain away the betrayal.
Swallowing her emotions, she locked her phone and slid it into her bag. She looked at herself one last time in the mirror, her eyes bloodshot and empty. It was no longer her face she saw, but the reflection of someone who had lost herself in a moment of weakness.
Quietly, she opened the bathroom door, glancing at the bed where Wei Jun lay, still unaware of the turmoil that had unfolded in the night. For a fleeting second, she wanted to reach out to him—to ask him for answers, to understand how it had happened, to know if he felt as lost as she did. But she quickly turned away, unable to face the man who had unwittingly become part of the devastating mess she had created.
The apartment felt too small now, as if the walls themselves were closing in on her. Mei Ling grabbed a small bag, hastily packing clothes she could fit into a single overnight case. The more she moved, the more her chest tightened, the guilt and the fear of discovery making each action feel like a thousand-pound burden. She couldn't think straight; she couldn't focus. All she could do was run.
When everything was packed, she hesitated by the door. A whisper of doubt lingered in her mind. Could she really just disappear? Could she leave everything behind and let her sister believe she had vanished without a trace?
Her heart twisted at the thought of leaving Mei Hua with no explanation, but the image of her sister's heartbroken face—the moment the truth would come crashing down—was more than Mei Ling could bear.
With a final, desperate glance around the room, Mei Ling opened the door and stepped into the hallway, closing it softly behind her. She moved quickly down the stairs, her footsteps barely making a sound, as if even the apartment building might betray her secret.
She didn't look back.
Her escape was almost too easy, as if the world itself was letting her slip away into the night. Mei Ling took the first cab she could find and directed the driver to a small, quiet hotel on the outskirts of the city. It wasn't much, but it would be enough. She just needed somewhere to breathe, to think, to figure out what to do next.
Once inside the small hotel room, Mei Ling collapsed onto the bed, her body too exhausted to continue. The tears she had been holding back finally fell, quietly at first, then in an uncontrollable flood. There was no one here to see her. No one to judge her. But the weight of her actions pressed heavily on her heart, and she knew that even in this faraway room, she couldn't escape herself.
Mei Ling had vanished into the shadows—fleeing from her sister, from the man who had once been her future brother-in-law, and from the truth that she could no longer hide.
But as the days passed, a feeling of dread would settle over her. The truth was always waiting to find its way back to the light, and no matter how far she ran, it would one day come for her—and for everyone she had tried to protect.