Chapter 15

Late that night, after everything had finally ended, Noah returned to his apartment, exhausted. The space felt cold and hollow, stripped of any trace of Calista. He stood by the door for a long moment, letting the silence sink in. A strange disorientation twisted in his chest. Not long ago, he had noticed several of Calista's belongings slowly disappearing. When he asked about it, she had casually said the items were old and she had thrown them out. But now he realized they hadn't been discarded at all. She had been quietly packing herself out of his life, bit by bit. She must have known he would never marry her, so she had already begun preparing to walk away. What he couldn't figure out was when she had realized it. His gaze landed on a wedding invitation lying on the coffee table. The gold lettering caught the light, blinding and final, like a slap he didn't see coming. Before he could react, Patricia strode over, snatched it up with a sneer, and tore it to shreds in one swi