---- Chapter 13 Haylie Camacho POV: The black sedan carrying me toward my new life was a bubble of silence, a stark contrast to the chaos | had just left behind. But in the rearview mirror, a familiar shape grew larger, more aggressive. Jeremy' s car. He was following me, his face a mask of desperate fury behind the windshield. A bitter laugh escaped me. He hadn' t chased me like this when | was his wife. He hadn' t fought for me when his father and my sister were erasing me from his life. He only wanted me now that | was gone, now that | was another man' s property. He wasn' t chasing love; he was chasing a possession he had lost. Nausea rolled in my stomach. "Driver," | said, my voice steady, "can you go faster?" The driver nodded, his foot pressing down on the accelerator. Jeremy' s car fell further and further behind. | took a deep breath, the air in my lungs feeling clean for the first time in a year. | reached up and unclasped the simple gold band from my finger. The wedding ring Jeremy had given me. It had felt like a part of me for so long, a symbol of a promise | had believed in with my whole soul. Now, it was just a piece of metal. A ---- shackle. | lowered the window, the wind whipping my hair around my face. | didn't hesitate. | opened my hand and let the ring fly, a tiny glint of gold disappearing into the blur of the highway. | didn' t look back. The Meyers estate was nothing like the cold, imposing mansion of the Glass family. It was sprawling and modern, with walls of glass that looked out onto a breathtaking ocean view. It felt open, full of light. An elegant, silver-haired woman greeted me at the door. | recognized her from photos as Eleanor Meyers, Elliot' s mother. Her eyes, the same piercing blue as her son' s, were filled with a gentle, weary sadness. "Haylie," she said, taking both of my hands in hers. Her touch was surprisingly warm. "Thank you for coming. Thank you for doing this." "It's no trouble," | said, the polite lie feeling strange on my tongue. "l know what the doctors say," she continued, her voice trembling slightly. "That he might not wake up. But you... you are a miracle. You are our last hope." | looked at this woman, a mother clinging to the desperate hope of her son' s recovery, and | felt a pang of something | hadn't felt in a long time: empathy. She wasn' t using me as ---- a pawn; she was looking to me for a miracle. We were two women trapped by circumstances, both just trying to survive. | gave her a small, genuine smile and nodded. She led me upstairs, to a large, airy bedroom. The room was filled with medical equipment, its rhythmic beeps and whirs a painfully familiar soundtrack. In the center of the room, in a large hospital bed, lay Dr. Elliot Meyers. He looked peaceful. Younger than | remembered from the hospital hallways. His dark hair fell across his forehead, his long lashes resting on his pale cheeks. Even in this state, there was a kindness to his face, a gentleness that the arrogant, handsome features of Jeremy Glass had never possessed. "I' Il leave you two alone," Eleanor whispered, squeezing my hand before she left, closing the door softly behind her. | walked over to the bed and sat in the chair beside it. | reached out and, hesitantly, took his hand. It was warm, his skin soft. A strange sense of calm settled over me. "Hello, Dr. Meyers," | said, my voice quiet in the still room. "My name is Haylie. | guess... | guess I'm your wife now." | told him everything. About Jeremy, about Joselin, about the year | had lost. | told him about the locket and the dog and the fake charm. The words poured out of me, a confession to a silent priest. "| know what it' s like," | whispered, my fingers tracing the ---- back of his hand. "To be trapped in here. To hear everything but not be able to move, to speak. It' s lonely." | squeezed his hand. "But you're not alone anymore. |' m here." As | sat there, holding his hand, | felt a strange sense of peace. For the first time in a long, long time, | didn't feel like a victim or a pawn. In this quiet room, with this silent man, | felt ... Safe. | felt like | was finally home.