Chapter 99 Choose Wisely

Chapter 99 Choose Wisely
Chapter 99: Choose Wisely 

Ivy 

My last night in Weeping Willow went exactly the way I expected it to.

I sat on the floor of my bedroom surrounded by open suitcases and half-folded clothes, sobbing so hard my ribs hurt. Everything I had brought back with me was going into bags again. The bikinis. The books. The little things I had started to leave on the dresser like I might stay. 

None of it belonged here anymore.

Julia was home. According to Poppy, she had been too afraid of Solomon to spend another night in the hospital. She was convinced that the moment he was released he would find a way to hurt her again. 

Right now he is still in custody. The police were questioning him about the assault. No one knew how long that would last.

A soft knock sounded at the door. Poppy stuck her head in. “Need my help?” Her voice was quiet, the same careful tone she had used since we left the hospital. 

I managed a small smile. “I’m almost done. But I could still use a hand.”

She came in, left the door open, and sat heavily on the edge of the bed. For a long moment she just watched me fold the same shirt for the third time.

“I hate this,” she said. “Do you really have to go? You could find an apartment somewhere far from Leo and Andy but still around here. Going back there just seems so…”

“It’s for the best.” I kept folding. “This town is too small for both of us. He’s leaving too. There’s really nothing left here.”

“What about me?”

The voice came from the doorway.

I looked up. Andy stood there, one hand on the frame, expression already braced for whatever I was about to say.

“Get out.” I stood. “You’ve taken what you wanted, right? I don’t want to see you.”

He sighed like the entire situation exhausted him. “Ivy, let’s talk. Please. You can’t stay mad at me forever. Let me explain—”

I crossed the room in three steps and slapped him across the face hard enough that the sound cracked through the hallway.

“Explain what?” My voice shook with rage. “How you took advantage of me while I was unconscious in your bed? How you let Leo believe I chose that? How you used those photos to destroy the only good thing I had left? I don’t want to hear it.”

His face went white. “Ivy, let me explain—”

I slapped him again. “Get out of my sight.”

He stayed rooted to the spot. “Please just hear me out—”

I hit him a third time with everything I had left and shoved him backward into the hallway.

“Leave me alone!” The scream tore out of my throat. “Get out of here! I will never forgive you, Andy. Not until the day one of us dies.”

He flinched like the words themselves had weight. His expression instantly changed in a second—something raw and almost frightened underneath the confidence.

“You really mean that?”

I wiped my face with the back of my hand. “Yes. I will never forgive you until the day you die, Andy.”

He nodded slowly. A small, sad smile touched his mouth and then disappeared.

“Got it. I’ll stay away from you.” His voice was quiet. “I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

I slammed the door in his face before he could say another word. I didn’t want to look at him. I didn’t want to hear the careful, almost gentle way he could still make an apology sound. 

Everything that was ruined traced back to him. The hospital. The breakup. The way Leo had looked at me when he told me to leave and never come back.

I slid down the door until I was sitting on the floor and sobbed into my hands. “Everything is ruined. Everybody is a mess. I hate you, Andy. I hate you so much.”

Poppy’s arms came around me from the side. She held on tightly. “That’s enough,” she whispered. “Everything will be fine. Everything will be okay.”

It wouldn’t. Nothing about this was going to be okay.

\~~~~~

After the last suitcase was zipped, I went to find Julia. My palms were damp when I knocked on her door. 

“Come in.” Her voice was thin.

She was sitting up against a stack of pillows when I entered. Marcel stood beside the bed with a glass of water. The moment he saw me he set it down on the nightstand.

“I’ll give you two a moment,” he said quietly. “Call me if you need anything.”

He squeezed Julia’s hand once and left, closing the door softly behind him.

I sat at the foot of the bed, too nervous to meet her eyes at first. “I’m leaving tomorrow,” I said.

“Do you want to?” Her question was careful. “You seemed to be doing okay here. For a while you were happy.”

“That changed.” I stared at my hands. “I was. I’m not anymore. I can’t stay. There’s nothing left for me here.” 

“What about Leo?” 

“He broke up with me.” The words still felt unreal. “And I’m not even angry at him. I understand. I’ve only caused him pain. I cheated on him—or at least that’s what he believes. I deserve it.”

“What about Andy? Don’t you love him anymore?”

Anger flared so hot and fast it almost made me dizzy. “No. I hate him. I hate Andy so much.”

Julia was quiet for a moment. “Did something happen? You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” 

Tears blurred my vision again. I blinked them back hard.

“Last night… he took advantage of me while I was in his bed. I was asleep. I didn’t know. Leo saw some photos afterward. He believes I chose it. I didn’t.”

“Did you speak to anyone? Did you report—”

“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t want him to go to jail.”

“Ivy. Look at me.”

I lifted my eyes.

Julia’s face was still swollen and bruised from Solomon’s hands. The marks looked worse under the bedroom light. She looked nothing like the elegant woman I had first met. 

Even so, she managed a small, careful smile.

“This also began because I never wanted to see Solomon in a jail cell,” she said. “I loved him too much.”

I stared at the damage on her face and said nothing.

“When I met him he was the sweetest, most romantic man I had ever known. Naturally I fell for him. I never once believed a day would come when Solomon would raise a hand to me.” Her smile turned sad. “But all it took was a saucer.”

“You broke a saucer?”

“Yes. I wasn’t very good at chores. My family had always had people for that sort of thing. After I married Solomon I tried to learn because that was what I was told wives were supposed to do. That morning everything seemed fine. We had been joking and laughing. Then the saucer slipped while I was washing it.”

She paused, as if the memory still carried physical weight.

“I still don’t know what it was about the sound of the china breaking that set him off so completely. He just snapped. He slapped me so hard I heard ringing in my ear for three days.”

I felt my stomach turn.

“From that day it got worse. His temper. The hitting. The way he could go from calm to violent with almost no warning. He would hurt me when he was angry. Sometimes even when he was happy. It became the language he used when he didn’t know how else to speak.”

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

“I was eight months pregnant with Leo.” Julia’s voice stayed even, but her eyes had gone distant. “Solomon had gotten complaints from his mother—that I was spoiled, that I was lazy. He came home already furious. That night he beat me so badly I thought he might kill me. Or the baby. So I ran. In the pouring rain, in that much pain, the only thing I could think was that I had to get away and keep my baby safe.”

A faint, almost fond smile touched her mouth.

“That was the first time I ever saw Marcel. He found me. He got me to a hospital. He stayed. Leo doesn’t know this yet, but the only reason I was able to bring him into the world safely was because of Marcel’s kindness.”

I sat there absorbing every word. The cycle of it. The way love had once made her stay quiet. The way silence had nearly cost her everything.

Julia reached out and covered my hand with hers. Her fingers were cool and careful.

“You don’t have to protect anyone who hurt you, Ivy. Not at the cost of yourself. I learned that too late. Don’t make the same mistake I did.” 

I nodded, but the tears came anyway. She didn’t try to stop them. She simply held my hand while I cried, the way someone does when they already know that some goodbyes cannot be softened.

When I finally stood to leave, she squeezed my fingers once more.

“Go if you must,” she said. “But remember you are allowed to choose safety. Even when it feels like leaving is the same as losing.”