“You can’t do this!” he shouted, following me. “Ava, wait!”
I didn’t look back.
Behind me, I heard Linda asking what was going on—and for the first time, Ryan had no answer.
And as I walked out, I knew this was only the beginning.
—
I went straight to Chloe’s apartment. She was a coworker who had never trusted Ryan. When she saw me standing there with a suitcase and a blank expression, she didn’t ask questions.
“I knew he’d break you one day,” she said. “Stay.”
I didn’t sleep. But I didn’t cry either.
Instead, I replayed everything. The lawyer’s call. The meeting with the notary. And the moment that changed everything—when I overheard Ryan on the patio telling his mother that once “that idiot Ava finished paying,” he’d throw me out and move them in.
