Chapter 8: The Last Call

A week passed.

The internet found a new scandal.

People slowly forgot my name.

Just as they forgot Daisy.

Life moved on.

For everyone except Evelyn.

She stood outside my empty office.

The receptionist looked at her awkwardly.

"Mr. Hale resigned."

"I know."

"He cleared out everything himself."

Evelyn looked through the glass walls.

The desk where I had once worked was empty.

Not a single photograph remained.

Not even the coffee mug she had bought me during our first year together.

She remembered laughing as she handed it to me.

"Now you'll think of me every morning."

I had.

Until Marcus arrived.

She drove to the old apartment where we had lived after getting married.

Another family lived there now.

A little girl was drawing flowers on the sidewalk.

"Daisy."

The name slipped from Evelyn's lips before she realized it.

The little girl looked up.

"I'm not Daisy."

Her mother quickly pulled her away.

Evelyn stood there alone.

She finally understood.

No matter how hard she searched...

She would never find her daughter again.

That night...

Her phone rang.

Future Evelyn.

She answered immediately.

"Tell me you've found him."

The older woman laughed softly.

It wasn't happiness.

It was defeat.

[No.]

[But I found something else.]

"What?"

[Your divorce certificate.]

Evelyn's heartbeat stopped.

"What are you talking about?"

[Five years from now... Ryan divorced us.]

"Our?"

Future Evelyn corrected herself with a bitter smile.

[Divorced you.]

"He... stayed with you."

[No.]

[He stayed because I trapped him.]

[His heart left long before his body did.]

Evelyn slowly sat down on the bedroom floor.

She remembered every time I had asked for a divorce.

Every single time...

She had refused.

Not because she loved me enough to change.

But because she believed I would never leave.

Future Evelyn continued.

[Do you know what happened after he disappeared?]

Evelyn couldn't answer.

[I spent five years trying to find the man I had already destroyed.]

Silence filled both ends of the call.

Then Future Evelyn whispered,

[Don't become me.]

The line went dead.

The next morning...

Evelyn walked into Marcus's apartment.

Marcus smiled.

"I made breakfast."

She looked around quietly.

Every corner of the apartment held traces of him.

His jacket.

His slippers.

His coffee cup.

Suddenly...

She remembered my words.

"Nearly ten years of love had all been a lie."

Marcus noticed something was wrong.

"Evelyn?"

She looked straight into his eyes.

"When did you start loving me?"

Marcus smiled gently.

"I always have."

She shook her head.

"No."

"I asked when."

Marcus hesitated.

Then...

"After we met again."

"And before that?"

He remained silent.

Evelyn closed her eyes.

She finally understood.

Marcus had entered her life when she was already married.

He knew.

He never stepped back.

Neither had she.

She turned toward the door.

"Evelyn."

Marcus reached for her wrist.

She quietly pulled away.

"I'm tired."

Without looking back...

She walked out.

For the first time...

Marcus watched someone choose to leave him.

Exactly as she had once watched Ryan walk away.

Only now...

There was no future left that could change it.