The flat in Kensington was small. One bedroom. White walls. A window that looked out over a row of bare trees. I signed the lease on a Tuesday and moved in with a single suitcase and a leather duffel.
I bought sheets. Plain white. I bought a kettle and a box of English Breakfast tea. I unpacked my clothes and hung them in the narrow closet. Everything I owned fit on three hangers.
It felt right.
The office gave me a corner desk on the fourth floor. My supervisor — a sharp woman named Diane who wore excellent shoes and never wasted words — handed me a client portfolio on my second day.
"You've got good instincts," she said. "Use them."
I opened the folder and started reading.
The work was clean. Structured. Every task had a clear beginning and a clear end. I liked that. I needed that.
I worked late most nights. Not because I had to. Because going back to the flat meant sitting alone with the silence, and the silence had too much space in it.
I made tea instead of coffee now. I didn't know when that started.
At 2 a.m. on a Friday — 9 p.m. in New York — I sat on the floor of my empty living room and called Trinity.
She picked up on the first ring. "Hey."
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.
"Anna?" Her voice shifted. "You okay?"
I pressed my hand over my mouth. My chest was shaking. I couldn't stop it.
"Oh, honey," Trinity said softly. "It's okay. Let it out."
I cried. Not loud. Not dramatic. Just steady, silent tears that I couldn't hold back anymore.
I cried for the version of my future I'd believed in. The brownstone. The life we were supposed to build. The man I thought I'd married.
I cried because I was pregnant and alone in a foreign city and I didn't know how to do this.
I cried because I was so tired of being strong.
Trinity didn't tell me it would be okay. She didn't tell me I was better off. She just stayed on the line and let me break.
When I finally stopped, I wiped my face with the sleeve of my sweater and took a breath.
"What do you need?" Trinity asked.
I looked around the empty flat. The white walls. The bare trees outside.
"Just don't tell him where I am," I said.
"Never," Trinity said. "Not in a million years."
I believed her.
---
Zayne stood on the rooftop bar in Tribeca and went down on one knee.
Poppy gasped. Her hands flew to her mouth. The ring — platinum, two carats, bought that morning — caught the light.
"Yes!" she said. "Yes, oh my God, yes!"
The photographer he'd hired captured it all. The embrace. The kiss. The champagne toast with strangers who clapped because that's what people do.
Zayne posted the photos to Instagram within the hour. He chose the best shot — Poppy's face lit up, the ring in focus, the Manhattan skyline glittering behind them.
He typed the caption carefully: *When you know, you know.*
He hit post.
Then he opened Anna's profile.
Blocked.
He tried Facebook.
Blocked.
He tried Twitter, LinkedIn, even the old Tumblr account she hadn't used in years.
Blocked. Blocked. Blocked.
He stared at his phone. The post was live. It was getting likes. Comments. Congratulations from people he barely knew.
But Anna would never see it.
She'd blocked him before she left. Before he'd even thought to check. She'd severed every line of contact and walked away clean.
He refreshed his own post. More likes. More comments.
None of them mattered.
He looked across the rooftop. Poppy was showing the ring to a group of women who'd gathered around her. She was glowing. Performing. Playing the part she'd always wanted.
Zayne felt nothing.
He'd proposed to her in front of the entire internet, and the one person he'd done it for would never know.
He pocketed his phone and ordered another drink.
---
I didn't check social media anymore.
I'd deleted the apps off my phone the night I landed in London. Instagram. Facebook. All of it. Gone.
I didn't need to see what Zayne was doing. I didn't need to see Poppy's carefully curated lies. I didn't need the performance.
I had work. I had my flat. I had the small, quiet life I was building one careful piece at a time.
On Monday, Diane called me into her office.
"You're doing excellent work," she said. "The clients like you. I like you."
I nodded. "Thank you."
"I'm giving you the Rothman account," she said. "It's big. High-profile. You'll be the lead."
I looked at her. "Really?"
"Really." She smiled. "Don't make me regret it."
I walked back to my desk and sat down. The Rothman file was already waiting in my inbox.
I opened it and started reading.
Outside the window, the bare trees swayed in the wind.
I made myself a cup of tea and got to work.
