---- Chapter 24 | focused on the gravestones, tracing the engraved letters of their names with my fingertips. | spoke to them in a low whisper, telling them about Daniel, about the wedding, about the new life | was building. | ignored Ethan completely, treating him as if he were nothing more than a statue, a part of the cemetery's landscape. His presence was a heavy weight behind me. | could feel his frustration, his wounded pride. He had orchestrated this grand gesture, this delivery of my tormentor, and | had refused to play my part. | had denied him the catharsis he craved. "Why won't you look at me?" he finally burst out, his voice tight with anger. "I did this for you!" | finally stood and turned to face him. "You did this for you, Ethan," | said, my voice calm and even. "This has always been about you. Your pride, your ego, your needs. You're a black hole, and you suck the life out of everyone around you." | took a step closer, my eyes locking with his. "I'm not afraid of you anymore," | said. "But | will never not be terrified of what you are capable of. Your love is a punishment. Your protection is a prison. Please, just leave them in peace. They've suffered enough because of you." "| won't have a new love," he whispered, his voice cracking. ---- "There will never be anyone else. | just... | want to make it up to you. Come back to the city. I'll give you anything." | just shook my head and walked away, towards the cemetery gates where Daniel was waiting for me. | didn't look back. | heard him take a step to follow, but Daniel's quiet voice stopped him. "The police are on their way, Mr. Vance. For her." He gestured to the cackling Olivia. "I'd advise you to stay put." Ethan was trapped. He could only watch as | walked into Daniel's arms, as Daniel wrapped his coat around my shoulders and led me away. The sight of our simple, easy affection was a dagger in his heart. A wave of dizziness washed over him. The world tilted, the gravestones blurring. As the police led a screaming Olivia away, she looked back at Ethan, her eyes full of venomous triumph. "She chose him!" she shrieked with laughter. "The little nobody from the mountains chose a servant over you! This is your karma, Ethan! This is your punishment!" Her words were like acid, eating away at the last of his composure. He watched as | got into Daniel's car, as we drove away, leaving him alone in the graveyard with the ghosts of his past. "Are you going to go to the hospital to see him?" Daniel asked gently as we drove. "He collapsed after we left." ---- "No," | said, my voice firm. "He is no longer my concern." My eyes were fixed on the road ahead. "I'm hungry. Let's go get some of that spicy fish you like." In the ambulance, Ethan heard my words echo in his mind, relayed to him by his ever-present assistant. He is no longer my concern. The finality of it, the cold, dismissive tone, was the final blow. He had lost. Completely. Utterly. He closed his eyes, and the world went black. That night, there was a frantic pounding on my door. | thought something had happened to Daniel. | threw the door open, my heart in my throat. It was Ethan's friends, their faces a mixture of anger and desperation. "You have to come to the hospital," one of them demanded. "He's in a coma. The doctors say he's lost the will to live. He's calling your name." "His family is in chaos," another one said, trying to appeal to my sense of duty. "The company is in freefall. Only you can save him." "After everything he did for you," the first one said, his voice dripping with accusation. "He loved you. How can you be so cold?" | looked at their frantic, entitled faces, and | laughed. A cold, bitter sound. ---- "His love was a curse," | said, my voice like ice. "And | am finally free of it. He can save himself." | closed the door in their shocked faces, the sound echoing the final closing of a chapter in my life.