A Long Road, A Quiet Goodbye

I knew George didn’t believe me. No matter what I said, he would never stand on my side. When he saw my emotionless face, he just assumed I was just angry with him. At the nurse’s urging, he eventually left the ward.

Arianne’s room was close to mine. Apparently, she had thrown a tantrum and threatened to take her own life. As always, she did it just to get attention. It caused such a stir that my mother-in-law came rushing to the hospital.

I was still half asleep when she stormed into my room, grabbed me by the hair and dragged me to Arianne’s bedside.

George was nowhere to be found.

“Don’t think I won’t lay a finger on you just because you're carrying my grandson!” she yelled.

“You’d better take care of that baby! You owe us a grandson!”

She shoved me hard. My forehead slammed against the corner of a table and everything went blurry. Blood seeped into my eyes, turning my vision red.

“Arianne,” Arianne called me with a sickly sweet tone that was full of pretention.

“This child means everything to me. I just want to carry on the Ratcliffe Family name. What’s so wrong with that?”

Her words struck a chord in my mother-in-law’s heart. The old woman’s face turned beet red with anger, so she scolded me even more mercilessly.

Then, came the needle. Mrs. Ratcliffe stabbed it straight into my arm and carved off a small piece of flesh like I wasn’t even human. The door was finally burst open.

George ran in, immediately wrapping me in his arms.

When he saw my bleeding arm, his eyes went red.

“Mom! I told you I would handle this! Why are you doing this now?!”

He let out a long sigh, then turned to me. His gaze was filled with pity and guilt.

For a moment, I dared to hope. Perhaps, just perhaps, he was finally on my side.

But instead, he said, “Selena, don’t be so stubborn. Everyone makes mistakes. I forgive you.”

I felt nothing but cold. The pain in my body was nothing compared to the ache in my heart. After that came the moment I truly understood.

The man who once treated me like I was his world … no longer existed.

“So if I apologize, you’ll let me go?” I asked quietly.

George hesitated, then nodded. He said I could return to the mansion. In his eyes, I was no longer a partner. I was a prisoner begging for release.

I bit back tears and whispered, “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.”

But deep down, I knew what my real mistake was. It was loving him in the first place. And I would regret it for the rest of my life.

George looked stunned at my calm tone. A flicker of confusion crossed his face. He reached out to hug me, but I avoided his arms. Even his touch made my skin crawl now.

I stood up and left the hospital without another word.

The streets blurred past me on the ride back to the mansion. Once I arrived, I began packing. Without further ado, I sorted through the final remnants of our so-called love.

Not only that, I took the printed couple photos and burned every last one of them. At the peak of our happy marriage phase, George had traveled across continents just to find the purest South African diamond to craft me a ring.

We swore eternal love under the sky of Johannesburg.

This time, I prepared myself to leave all those memories behind. I placed the ring gently on the nightstand. This way, it would become a gift for him to remember what he destroyed.

Before I could finish packing, George called. He said Arianne was hungry and wanted the sausages I used to make. They had to be handmade, just like I used to do. Otherwise, the taste wouldn’t be the same.

When I didn’t respond, he softened his tone.

“You haven’t been cooking for a while now. Just do it yourself. Practice more.”

“Selena, this is what you owe her. You need to make it right.”

I was speechless.

Memories flashed through my mind. When we were madly in love, I had once told him I couldn’t cook well. The only thing I could cook well was sausages.

At the time, he would just laugh and say, “That’s what cooks are for. Don’t lift a finger. I’ll take care of you.”

And now … he blamed me for everything.

I asked quietly, “George, did you ever really love me? Or has Arianne completely taken over your heart?”

The other end of the line went quiet for a second, then I heard footsteps. It was hurried, like he was trying to get away from Arianne.

After that, George's voice came through, full of frustration and said, “Selena, stop overthinking things. If you hadn’t hurt her child, would I have cleared my entire schedule just to look after her? You need to understand what really matters right now.”

His tone sharpened.

“You’ve never given me a child, so you don’t understand how fragile a woman is after giving birth. Handmade sausages are better for her. Don’t you get that?”

Every word pushed the blame onto me like it was my cross to bear. I didn’t respond. There was nothing left to say.

We just stared at each other through the silence of the phone.

“Fine,” I said at last.

“I’ll send them.”

After hanging up, I quietly packed my small bag and walked out of the mansion.

Back at the hospital, George returned to the ward with a helpless sigh. He waited. Minutes passed. Then, an hour.

To his surprise, I never showed up.

His guilt slowly turned into impatience.

When no one answered his calls, Arianne began sobbing beside him.

“Maybe Selena’s mad at me ... It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have embarrassed you...”

Her crying tugged at him. He clenched his fists. Not long after, my mother-in-law stormed into the room. The moment she heard I hadn’t come, she exploded.

“She’s lucky to get a privilege of getting married into the Ratcliffe Family! How dare she act so ungrateful? Does she think she’s above us now?”

George frowned and called his secretary.

“Go check the mansion. Report back to me immediately.”

Half an hour later, the secretary finally called. But his voice shook with fear.

“Mr. Ratcliffe ... something terrible has happened … ”

“What do you mean?” George demanded, his expression tightening.

“Miss Selena ... she fell off a cliff on the way to the hospital. She didn’t make it.”