---- Chapter 7 Olivia POV: The new driver's license arrives in a plain white envelope. The face is mine, but the name is a stranger's. Olivia Carter. | am no longer property of the Reed family. | am my own person My phone rings. It's Ethan. "Ava," he says, his voice thick with fake emotion. "I... | think I'm starting to remember things. Us. Can we have dinner tonight?" He's starting his show. The grand performance of his miraculous recovery. "No, Ethan," | say, my voice calm and even. "I'm busy." | hang up before he can respond. The small, satisfying disruption to his carefully laid plans feels like my first real breath of free air. | pack my life into two suitcases. Clothes, my laptop, my new legal documents. | leave behind everything he ever gave me. The jewelry, the designer bags, the expensive coats. Nothing in these bags is tied to him or his family's blood money. | walk through our apartment one last time. It feels like a stranger's home now, a cold, impersonal space. On the polished granite of the kitchen island, | leave the keys to the ---- apartment. Next to them, | place the massive diamond engagement ring, a symbol of a broken political alliance. And beside the ring, a small, white card. In my neatest handwriting, I've written: *Dear Ethan,* *| remember everything. Me too.* 1 *Goodbye.* AY As | wait for the cab to the bus station, | see them-two of Ethan's Associates, Mark and Dave, parked in a black sedan across the street. He sent them to watch me, to make sure his property didn't wander off before his big performance. My cab arrives just in time. | slide into the back seat, keeping my head down. We pull away from the curb, and they don't follow. They're expecting me to stay put like a good little doll. As we turn the corner, | catch one last glimpse of my old life. Ethan's car is pulling up to the building. Chloe is in the passenger seat. They are kissing, a final, ugly portrait of his betrayal. A single tear tracks its way down my cheek. The last tear Ava Miller will ever shed. | pull my old driver's license from my wallet. With a surge of ---- liberation, | snap the plastic card in two and drop the pieces into my purse. Ava is gone. Olivia is on her way to Portland.