Chapter 55 To Disappear

Chapter 55 To Disappear
I didn’t sleep.
I don’t even know if I blinked for more than a second the entire night. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that video—Nina’s smirk—those foreclosure documents—my father’s pale face in that hospital bed—Kevin walking away from me.

Everything twisted together until my brain felt like it was being wrung out.

And somewhere around dawn, when I couldn’t hold myself upright anymore, when my hands wouldn’t stop shaking no matter how tightly I clasped them together, a thought finally anchored itself in me:

I have to disappear.

Not because Nina deserved to win.
Not because I was giving up.
Not because I was weak.

But because I had run out of options.

I had run out of time.
And I refused—absolutely refused—to be the reason my father lost his company, or Kevin lost his life, or everything collapsed under the weight of a secret that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

If someone had to take the fall, it would be me.
It was always going to be me.

By the time I walked to Nina’s study, I felt like a ghost—silent, hollow, dragging the last scraps of myself behind me. Her door was slightly open, and the sound of papers shifting came from inside. She was already working, already controlling, already ten steps ahead like she always was.

I stepped in without knocking.

Her head lifted.
Her eyes narrowed—cold, pleased.
She knew already why I was there.

“I will do it,” I said before she could speak. My voice wasn’t loud, but it didn’t shake either. “I’ll disappear.”

For a moment, something flickered across her face—victory, satisfaction, maybe even relief—but she masked it immediately with a smug smile.

“Good,” she said, and then slammed a stack of papers onto the desk in front of me. The sound was sharp enough to make me flinch. “Your travel papers. One-way tickets, instructions, a new identity. Everything you’ll need.”

My gaze stuck to the papers.
A new name.
A new life.
A new existence that wasn’t mine.

I swallowed hard. “In turn,” I said slowly, “if anything happens to my father… or the company… or even Kevin…”

My fingers curled into fists.

“I’ll make you pay,” I whispered.

Nina scoffed—actually scoffed—like I was a child making empty threats.

“Sure,” she said with fake sweetness. “Your father and his company will be perfectly safe.”

I didn’t believe her, not fully. But I had to cling to something, and right now, clinging to a lie was the only way to breathe.

Then Nina tilted her head, studying me the way someone might examine a bug pinned to a board.

“It’s actually quite adorable,” she said, “how willing you are to sacrifice anything for the people you care about. Especially Kevin.”

My pulse stuttered.
She wasn’t done.

“But tell me, Abby…” Nina smirked, leaning forward. “Do you really think Kevin loves you enough to do the same for you?”

Her words sliced through me.
Sharp.
Calculated.
Intentional.

But somehow, beneath all my fear and exhaustion, something inside me steadied. Something stubborn. Something real.

“Yes,” I muttered, meeting her gaze. “He does.”

Nina laughed—not loudly, but viciously. The kind of laugh that said she knew something I didn’t. The kind of laugh that made my stomach twist all over again.

“Well,” she said, leaning back into her chair like she’d just settled in to watch a good show, “we’ll see about that.”

I stood there, staring at her, and for the first time all day… I felt the weight of what disappearing really meant.

Kevin wouldn’t know the truth.
My father wouldn’t know why I left.
The world would think whatever Nina wanted them to think.

But I would walk away.
Alone.
Carrying everything in silence.

Because loving them meant giving them up.

And that realization hurt more than anything Nina could ever threaten me with.

I was processing every damn thing in my head when Nina spoke—cold, bored, like she was repeating weather updates and not ripping apart my entire world.

“You leave in twenty-four hours.”

My heart actually stopped for a second.
Not figuratively—literally.
It felt like something inside my chest misfired, then lurched painfully back to life.

“What?” I breathed. “That soon?”

I reached for the papers on the table with trembling fingers, but it felt like I was moving underwater—slow, reluctant, terrified of touching the thing that would make all of this real. The documents were already clipped together, the airline ticket on top. A date. A time. My new name.

Everything was stamped in black ink, final and uncaring.

I flipped through the pages like maybe—maybe—there’d be some kind of loophole, a mistake, anything that proved she was bluffing.

But every line was concrete.
Every detail was already arranged.

My throat closed.

“It’s real,” I whispered to myself. “She actually—”

“How could you be so cruel?” The words flew out before I could stop them. My voice cracked mid-sentence, thin and breathless.

But Nina just lifted her shoulders in this lazy, dismissive shrug that made bile rise in my throat.

“The earlier the better,” she said, as though she was advising me on packing light for a vacation.

I stared at her, unable to make my mouth work for a few seconds. Then I choked out,

“Don’t I deserve to spend a little more time with my sick father before leaving?”

The way she smiled—God, I’ll never forget it.
Like she was amused.
Like my pain was a minor inconvenience.

“I thought you had a swell time with him earlier at the hospital,” she said. “You have to keep our little agreement a secret. Because one slip from you…” She tapped her finger on the desk. “Everything turns to ashes.”

My lips trembled so violently that I bit down on them just to stop the shaking. I tasted blood. I didn’t even care.

A part of me—this weak, aching part—wanted to beg.
For more time.
For mercy.
For anything.

But I knew begging would only feed her ego. Nina wasn’t interested in compassion. She wanted control. She wanted victory. And she wanted me crawling.

So instead, I whispered, “For how long… how long are you expecting me to hide away?”

She didn’t even look up from adjusting the bracelets on her wrist.

“Probably as long as I have the power,” she said casually. “To change your fate with a snap of my fingers.”

My whole body went cold.

My knees actually wobbled.
I gripped the papers so tightly the edges bent under my fingers.

She meant it.
She wasn’t just pushing me out—she was making sure I never had the chance to come home again. She was severing everything—my family, my identity, my safety, Kevin—without blinking.

“I swear,” I hissed, my voice cracking like glass, “you’ll regret this.”

I didn’t wait to see her reaction. I didn’t want to hear her chuckle or her snide remark or her smugness dripping off her lips like venom.

I turned and dashed out of her study—almost stumbling past the doorway as air finally rushed back into my lungs. My heart hammered painfully against my ribs. My hands were shaking with rage, fear, devastation—everything mixing together until I couldn’t tell which feeling belonged where.

I didn’t know where I was running to.
I just knew I had to get away from her before something inside me shattered completely.

Twenty-four hours.

That was all the time I had left.