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    36


    Liam’s POV


    I lifted my head, almost ready to respond, but that sentence hit me harder than any scream ever could-


    because it was true.


    Silence hung in the air. Only the sound of Noah happily chewing his chicken filled the space, as if everything


    was fine. But between me and my mother, the tension thickened the room like smoke.


    “Didn’t Sienna say anything to you?” my mother asked quietly.


    I looked at her, confused. “What do you mean, Mom?”


    She stepped closer. Her face didn’t carry anger this time. Just… sadness. Or maybe regret?


    “Sienna’s gone, Liam,” she said softly. “She left… this house. Noah. Your life.”


    My heart stopped for a few seconds.


    “What do you mean, Mom?” I asked.


    She didn’t answer right away. She stared at me with a hollow look for a moment, then took a deep breath before saying, “Your marriage contract ended. Two days ago. She left… right when it was over.


    My body went numb. The world shifted one inch out of ce.


    “Sienna gave you full custody of Noah,” she continued. “She left without saying goodbye… because she knew you wouldn’t let her go if she told you the truth.”


    My legs gave way beneath me. I stared nkly at the door to Sienna’s room, tightly shut for the past two days. I’d never opened it-too angry, too stubborn, too proud to admit that deep down, I was afraid… afraid she


    wouldn’te back.


    “But… why?” I whispered, my voice hoarse. “Why would she leave like that?”


    My mother moved closer, cing her hand on my shoulder. “Because her heart was already too broken, Liam. You left her in silence too many times. Ignored her too often. Even when she asked you to see her, you chose to look away.”


    I shook my head. “No… Sienna wouldn’t just leave. She… she loves Noah.”


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    “She does,” my mother said quickly. “And that’s why she gave you custody. Because she knew Noah would still be cared for. She believed you could be a good father… even if you were never a good husband.”


    I said nothing. Pain stabbed from deep inside my


    chest.


    “She’s noting back, Liam,” my mother added. “Don’t go looking for her. Move on… with Emily. The woman you chose.”


    I wanted to shout, to yell that it wasn’t true. That I never really chose Emily. But I knew… this was the consequence of my own choices.


    Two days ago, maybe Sienna stood by that door, waiting for me to stop her. But I was too busy with Emily. With the g. With my pride and ambition. I let her walk away-without so much as trying to understand her.


    “No way…” I muttered weakly, almost inaudibly.


    I looked at my mother, standing before me with a calm but wounded expression. “Sienna wouldn’t just leave. She… she never even left when I tried to push her away.”


    My voice sounded more like a plea than a conviction. And truthfully, even I didn’t fully believe my own words. But I needed something to hold on to. Something to help me deny everything I’d just heard.


    “Sienna is stubborn, Mom. She always stayed. Even when she knew I… even when she knew I was with Emily.”


    Mom just looked at me in silence, as if there were no more words left that could get through my thick skull.


    My hands clenched at my sides. I looked down, unable to meet my mother’s eyes-eyes full of disappointment. The image of Sienna shed in my mind-her once warm eyes now blurred. Her smile, which used to feel like home, now just a distant memory I couldn’t touch anymore.


    She stayed for so long. In silence. In pain. In a role she never truly chose. My wife… but never really my wife. The mother of my child… but never part of my life. I put her in the wrong ce, bound her with a contract I thought would keep her by my side, when in truth, I was the one slowly eroding her reasons to stay.


    Only now did I realize how empty this house was without Sienna. Not just because of the dirty dishes or the sticky floors. But because there were no more footsteps in the morning. No more softughter while she fed Noah. No more silent nces she used to hide behind her calm demeanor whenever I came homete with


    Emily.


    Now, everything was still. Hollow.


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    36


    I turned slowly, walking toward the room at the end of the hall. The room I hadn’t opened in two days. I’d passed it every time, resisting the urge to turn the knob because… because I was afraid. Afraid that she truly


    wasn’t in there anymore.


    But this time, my fingers trembled against the handle.


    With ragged breath, I pressed it down gently.


    The door creaked open. And as I stepped inside… the world seemed to copse in silence.


    The room was empty.


    Not empty as in unupied. But empty… as in abandoned.


    The closet doors stood wide open. Only a few empty hangers swayed slowly in the breeze from the slightly open


    window. The vanity was bare-not a single bottle of perfume, nob, no lipstick scattered like usual. Even the


    bed was made. Too neatly. Not like it was when she still lived here.


    I stood frozen in the doorway, eyes wide as I looked around.


    All this time, I’d never really paid attention to her room. Never cared whether she was still filling it with her


    presence or not. I just… ignored it.


    And now, as I truly looked-everything of Sienna was gone.


    Then my eyes caught something.


    A piece of paper. Resting on the small desk in the corner of the room.


    My steps were heavy as I approached it. My fingers reached for the paper slowly, like someone opening an old


    wound.


    There was only one sentence. Written in Sienna’s soft, neat handwriting.


    “Goodbye.”


    One word.


    One word that pierced deeper than a thousand curses.


    One word that shattered the walls I’d built from ego.


    The paper trembled in my hand.


    11:13 AM


    Tue 2 Sep