The house was eerily silent. My breath caught in my throat as I stood frozen, staring at the envelope resting on the kitchen counter. It was out of place. A small, elegant thing, too neat for something that felt so heavy. The kind of envelope that you could never ignore, no matter how much you wanted to.
I hadn’t heard him leave. No keys. No footsteps. Nothing. Just this.
It couldn’t be. He wouldn’t. Not like this.
The room seemed to stretch and warp around me as I walked toward it, the letter seeming to grow larger with every step. My fingers hesitated for a split second before they reached for it. The paper was cold, too cold, and as I pulled it from the counter, I felt a sudden wave of dread wash over me.
I knew it was from him. Even without looking at the writing, I could feel Marco’s presence in the room, in the letter. But he wasn’t here. I was alone.
I turned the envelope over, the handwriting on the front unmistakable: Celia. My name.
A chill ran down my spine. There was no stamp. No return address. Only this.
I tore the flap open and pulled out the crisp, folded sheet of paper. My hands shook as I unfolded it, the words on the page swimming before my eyes. I read them once. Twice. Three times, each time feeling like I was drowning in the reality they revealed.
Celia,
I don’t know how to say this, so I’ll just say it: I’m leaving you.
I’ve made a choice. I’m in love with someone else. Her name is Victoria. I can’t keep doing this anymore. I can’t keep pretending that I’m still the man you fell in love with. That I’m still the man you deserve. I’m sorry. But I have to be with her.
I know this is a shock, and I wish I could explain myself, but it’s complicated. I thought I could keep everything together, keep you and her apart, but I can’t. I can’t lie to you anymore. I can’t keep deceiving myself. You deserve better than this. I’ll always care for you, Celia. I’ll always wish the best for you. But I can’t stay with you.
Goodbye.
Marco.
The letter slipped from my hands and fluttered to the floor. My vision blurred, the edges of the world fraying as my breath came in shallow gasps. My knees buckled, and I sank to the cold tile of the kitchen floor. It felt like the air had been knocked out of me.
My mind screamed in disbelief. I could feel my heart pounding against my ribcage, as if it were trying to escape, to leave this reality.
Was I supposed to be angry? Sad? Betrayed? I didn’t know anymore. All I knew was that Marco—the man I thought I knew, the man I had trusted with everything—was gone.
I stumbled toward the living room, my feet dragging like lead. He wasn’t going to walk through the door. He wasn’t going to apologize or explain. There was no confrontation. No argument. No last moment. Just a letter.
The sound of the doorbell shattered the stillness in the house, its shrill tone pulling me out of the fog I had been slipping into. I stood frozen, staring at the empty space in front of me where Marco’s letter still lay on the coffee table, the cruel words echoing in my mind. He’s leaving for another woman without a trace!
I hadn’t even read the entire thing. I couldn’t bear it. What was there to understand? How could he just walk away like that? The man who had vowed to love me forever, who had promised me the world, had abandoned me for another woman.
And I had no idea where to even begin picking up the pieces of my broken heart.
I couldn’t bring myself to answer the door, not now, not with the pain clawing at me from every direction. But the bell rang again, louder this time, forcing my feet to move, as if some external force was pulling me forward.
I opened the door slowly, expecting perhaps another note, or a business associate, or even one of Marco’s lackeys. But it wasn’t. Standing there was Vito—Marco’s right-hand man, always stoic, always quiet. Today, though, his expression was... different. A hardness in his eyes. A weight in his stance that made my heart drop.
“Vito,” I said, my voice cracked and uneven. “What are you doing here?”
He hesitated for just a moment, his gaze flicking past me to the inside of the house, then back to my face. “I need to talk to you, Celia. We need to have a real conversation. I’m sorry, but… it’s time you knew the truth.”
