Chapter 58 Fifty Eight,

Chapter 58 Fifty Eight,
VALERIE

Some endings don’t arrive with noise. They settle quietly in your chest and refuse to leave.

I didn’t remember the drive home. I only remembered the silence.

The elevator doors opened, I stepped inside, and it shut behind me. With my eyes closed, I leaned against it. A few seconds passed before I opened them again.

The house felt unfamiliar.

I hadn’t cried on the way home. I hadn’t felt much of anything at all. And I was surprisingly calm for someone who had just lost everything.

I supposed this was always how it was going to end.

I had been foolish to have fallen for a man who had told me from the beginning that I was standing in for his wife.
Vanessa.

Foolish to think he would reciprocate at some point. I had convinced myself time would change something.

That maybe it wouldn’t remain one-sided. Every quiet hope I had nurtured collapsed today.

Even with the walls I had built around myself, I had believed something would change.

Sofia had said I should have fought.

But I never learned how to fight for something that wasn’t mine.

And how did you fight for a heart that never turned towards you?

It was humiliating and laughable that I had expected him to brush her off and come to me. Especially when I knew it would always be one-sided.

I pushed myself off the door and walked further inside as though the floor might splinter beneath me.

This house once felt like shelter.

Now it felt like proof. Proof that I had tried too hard. That I had stayed too long. That I had hoped too deeply.

I ran my fingers over the back of the sofa.

I remembered sitting there beside him—not close enough for our skin to touch, but close enough to pretend proximity meant something.

I remembered the rare softness in his voice when he said my name. But then again, one could never fully understand Lucas.

I remembered how my heart reacted to the smallest things.

A pause.
A glance.
The way his tone lowered when he said my name.

How embarrassing.

I had built an entire future out of fragments.

I let out a slow breath and moved toward the dining area. The chair where he usually sat was slightly pulled back.

I stared at it longer than I should have.

Would he sit there tonight and not notice my absence?

Would he think of me?

If he would… would he finally feel relieved?

The thought hollowed me out. I had been a burden.

A reminder of betrayal.

A living consequence of a wedding day that had gone wrong.

I had tried to be careful.

I had told myself I wouldn’t fall.

I had drawn lines. Built walls. Repeated the truth to myself over and over again.

You’re temporary.
You’re standing in.
You’re not the one he chose.

But somewhere between midnight conversations and guarded confessions…

I had stopped protecting myself. I had just hoped things would change.

My throat burned.

Crying felt dramatic.

And I didn’t even know what I was mourning.

Him?

Or the version of him I had created in my head?

Because Lucas had been honest from the beginning.

It was me who had rewritten his honesty into possibility.

I had taken slow steps up the stairs and toward my room to go do the needful.

But I stopped dead in my tracks.

My eyes shifted to the door beside mine.

Not just any door.

His door.

I forced myself to look away and took a step past it.

Then another.

But something inside me resisted. A pull I was too weak to fight.

Before I could reason with myself, I turned back.

My hand reached for the handle.

I twisted it, stepped in, and shut the door softly behind me.

His scent met me instantly.

Clean. Warm. Unmistakably him.

It filled the room, clung to the sheets, lingered in the air like he had just walked out moments ago.

I swept my eyes across the space as I stepped further inside.

Everything was perfectly arranged.

Just like him.

I walked toward his bed slowly.

It was neatly made.

Untouched.

I sat gently on it even though I knew I had no right to.

But then again… that was my comfort.
Sitting near him without ever fully belonging to him.

I lowered my hand to the sheets.

If things were different… would Lucas have chosen me?

Would we have ever crossed paths if Vanessa hadn’t disappeared that day?

Somewhere at the back of my mind, I already knew the answer.

Lucas had always been drawn to vibrant women.

Confident women.

Women who entered a room and owned it.

And that was… Vanessa.

Me?

I had simply been… there.

My chest tightened as my thoughts drifted to that night.

I had given myself to him knowing it was risky.

Knowing it would complicate everything.

But what could I have done when he had been nothing but careful with me?

Despite knowing the risk and knowing I would be the one to bleed if it ended.

The next morning and the few days after had been colder.

“It was a mistake, Valerie.”

Not cruel.

Just factual.

As if he was correcting an error in judgment.

And I had nodded.

As if it didn’t shatter something in me.

Like I hadn’t given him something sacred.

Like it hadn’t been my first time.

He had never brought it up again.

And that told me everything.

I couldn’t even be angry.

Lucas had acted strictly based on the contract.

He had been clear from the beginning.

And Vanessa?

She had finally come to reclaim her place.

So how could I afford to be mad at either of them?

My phone vibrated loudly in my hand, startling me.

I looked down.

Sofia: Valerie, where are you? Are you okay? Why did you run off like that?

As much as I valued her concern, there was only one thing I needed to know.

Where is Lucas? I typed back.

The typing bubble didn’t appear immediately.

My pulse spiked.

Seconds stretched painfully.

Then her reply came.

Sofia: I haven’t seen him since he took Vanessa with him.

My heart dropped.

I released a small smile.

Of course.

A tear slid down anyway.

Just as Sofia began typing again, I locked my phone and set it aside.

I brushed the tear off my cheek and glanced down at the wedding ring encircling my finger.

I stared at it for a long moment.

Then slowly… I took it off and placed it carefully on the bedside table.

Tomorrow, a new life would begin for me.

For the Castillos.

The contract can finally be finalized.

They wouldn't even notice the shift.

That was the irony.

I lay down gently and rested my head on Lucas’ pillow.

It smelled like him.

Another tear slipped fre
e at the thought of him celebrating Vanessa’s return.

He would forgive her.

Because he loved her.

My chest felt hollow.

My eyes grew heavy.

The last thing I felt was the faint dampness of tears against his pillow.

And then—

Darkness.