Holden Wolf POV:
I didn't go home. Not to the silent, empty house that used to be filled with Chelsea' s quiet presence, her soft classical music drifting from her room, the scent of her art supplies. Instead, I drove to my office, the concrete and glass tower a monument to my carefully constructed, now crumbling, life.
I sat in my leather chair, the city lights twinkling far below, and stared at my phone. It was past midnight. My birthday was officially over. And still, nothing. Not a single message from Chelsea. No call, no text, no emoji. Just absolute, terrifying silence.
My phone buzzed, a flurry of notifications. Birthday wishes. From colleagues, clients, distant relatives. Hundreds of them. Each one a painful reminder of the one message that wasn't there.
"Happy birthday, Holden!" "Hope you have a great day!" "Cheers to another year!"
I scrolled through them, a bitter laugh escaping my lips. They all thought I was celebrating. They all thought my life was perfect. They didn' t know the gaping hole that had opened in my chest, sucking out all the joy, all the light.
She forgot, a voice whispered in my head. She finally forgot you.
No, another voice, desperate and clinging, countered. She wouldn't. She couldn't. This is all a test. She' s waiting. Waiting for me to reach out.
But I hadn't. My pride, my stubbornness, my infuriating need to be in control, had kept me silent. I had convinced myself she would eventually resurface, like a boomerang, always returning to the hand that threw it.
But Chelsea wasn't a boomerang. She was a bird that had finally flown, and I had clipped her wings so many times, I never thought she' d be able to soar.
A wave of irrational fury washed over me. I slammed my phone down on the desk. The screen cracked, spiderwebbing outwards from the impact. A pathetic, childish outburst.
I wanted to smash it, to throw it against the wall, to destroy this insidious device that held the key to her silence. But then, if I destroyed it, how would I know if she ever messaged? How would I know if she ever came back?
I hated this digital tether, this constant, agonizing hope. I hated that I was reduced to checking my phone like a lovesick teenager.
I grabbed a bottle of scotch from the mini-fridge in my office, pouring myself a generous measure. The amber liquid burned going down, a welcome heat that momentarily numbed the cold ache in my chest.
She's just being dramatic, I told myself, swirling the scotch in my glass. She always was. She'll realize she needs me. She always does.
But the words felt hollow, even to me. They were lies I' d been telling myself for years. Lies that had kept me in control, kept her close, kept her dependent.
I picked up the cracked phone again, my fingers trembling. The screen flickered, but the images were still there. My gallery. Hundreds of photos. Most of them with Chelsea.
Chelsea, a gangly teenager, beaming proudly next to her first completed dress design. Chelsea, her face smeared with paint, laughing as I tried to sketch her. Chelsea, her platinum hair now, a defiant streak against the backdrop of our old house.
I scrolled, my thumb tracing her image. Her smile, her eyes, her quiet strength that I had so carelessly taken for granted. I remembered her telling me about Parsons, her dreams of New York. I had scoffed, dismissed it as a phase, another one of her fanciful notions. Another way to keep her tethered to me.
This is sick, Chelsea! I'm your brother! My own words, echoing in my head, a cruel, mocking refrain. The way I had torn her designs, her heart. The way I had pushed her away, time and time again, always expecting her to rebound, to return, to orbit my life.
My eyes landed on a photo of her and me, taken years ago. She was maybe sixteen, leaning against me, her head on my shoulder, a shy, happy smile on her face. I had my arm around her, a protective gesture. She had looked up at me then, her eyes full of adoration. Full of love. The kind of love I had so casually rejected, so brutally trampled.
A wave of nausea washed over me. I couldn't delete these photos. I couldn't. They were all I had left.
I fell asleep in my office chair, the empty scotch bottle clutched in my hand, the cracked phone lying uselessly beside me.
My dreams were a torment. Chelsea. She was walking away, her platinum hair shining under a brilliant sun. I called her name, desperate, pleading. But she didn't turn. She just kept walking, further and further, until she was a tiny speck on the horizon, then gone. I ran, my legs heavy, unable to catch her. The harder I ran, the further she seemed to get.
I woke with a gasp, my heart hammering against my ribs. The office was dark, the city lights blurred through the window. The cold reality crashed over me. She was gone. Not just from the house, but from my life.
I drove home, the streets eerily empty. The house was dark, silent. Kamryn must have stayed at her parents'. Or perhaps, she was simply gone too. It didn't matter. The only absence that truly mattered was Chelsea's.
I walked into her room. Empty. Stripped bare. No fabric, no sketches, no scent of her art. Just bare walls, a lingering echo of silence. She had truly erased herself.
Then, on her bed, I saw it. A small, neatly folded note. My name, "Holden," scrawled across the front in her familiar handwriting.
My fingers trembled as I picked it up, my eyes scanning the short, brutal message.
"I'm gone. Don't look for me. Live your lives. I'll live mine."
The words hit me like a physical blow, knocking the air from my lungs. Gone. Don't look for me. Live your lives.
Panic, cold and sharp, seized me. My head reeled. She hadn't just left. She had vanished. Erased herself completely.
I tried calling her. The number was disconnected. I tried texting. The messages failed to deliver. I desperately searched for her on social media. Her accounts were gone. Wiped clean.
She was gone. And it was my fault. All of it.
A profound, agonizing realization settled over me. I had driven her away. My contempt, my possessiveness, my cruel dismissals. I had pushed her to the edge, and she had finally jumped.
And now, for the first time, I felt it. Not just her absence. But the terrifying, blinding pain of losing her forever.
