After He Proposed to Her, I Vanished Forever

I had been with Liam Grasso since I was eighteen.

By day, I was a diligent university student. By night, I was his bedwarmer.

No matter where he was or what I was doing, when he called, I had to drop everything and go to him.

On my twenty-second birthday, I flew halfway across the world with a fever burning through me just to see him.

The moment I stepped through the door, I saw flowers and a diamond ring waiting on the table.

Like a wild beast, he pinned me against the door and kissed me hungrily.

After the storm of passion, he calmly detached himself, rose from the bed and started dressing.

My legs were shaking, but I forced myself to get up and help him with his tie.

As he smoked, his eyes were cold, devoid of any warmth.

"I'm proposing to someone," he said. "Go decorate the place."

My hands trembled as I tied his tie. "I thought you didn’t believe in marriage?"

"I won’t marry because she won’t agree to it. As for you, Anya, you're just a way to kill time."

——

It was as though the ground gave way beneath me, plunging me into a pit of ice.

I thought he remembered my birthday. I thought the flowers and the ring were meant for me.

"Okay." I lowered my head, desperately trying to hide the humiliation that crawled up my throat, but my body couldn’t stop trembling.

Liam didn’t notice. Or perhaps he simply didn’t care. He tossed a handful of birth control pills my way.

"Don’t forget to take them."

"I know."

I didn’t need his reminder. I knew all too well that I didn’t deserve to carry his child.

After all, the last time I found myself pregnant by accident, all he had done was throw money at me and send me off to the clinic.

Whenever Liam looked at me, his gaze was always void of emotion.

Except in bed, there, he was always the cold, distant superior.

"You’re a smart girl. Don’t cause me any more trouble. I’m marrying Salome Amadeo."

"I understand."

My fingernails dug into my palms and I laughed bitterly at myself for ever thinking I might be special; there had never been another woman, yet I’d fooled myself into believing I meant something to him.

Liam went out to the balcony to take a phone call. Even through the glass, I could see the soft, almost affectionate smile tugging at his lips.

My body felt weak and sore, but I forced myself to clean up the mess left by our brief encounter.

As I gathered the trash, tears slipped down my cheeks.

I was discarded by Liam like refuse on my twenty-second birthday.

It had been four long years.

So much time had passed that I’d nearly forgotten how it all started between us.

I had been a university student he’d sponsored, never once daring to dream of anything more.

But fate, as it often did, had other plans.

One night, I found Liam drunk and unconscious at a bar.

When I brought him home, he pinned me beneath him.

He was gentle, so tender in his touch, it felt like he could cast a spell and I couldn’t bring myself to say no.

The truth was, I had fallen for him.

But when he woke, there was nothing but icy indifference in his eyes, as though he hadn’t just shared an intimate moment with me the night before.

"Anya, you’ve got guts. You even dare to scheme against me. How much do you want this time?"

"I..."

I wanted to explain, but I couldn’t find the words.

He was drunk, but I wasn’t. I knew I should’ve stopped him, but I didn’t.

"I’m sorry."

Liam had never dated anyone before; he was like a distant star, untouchable.

And I had tainted him.

He threw money in my face and shoved the birth control pills into my hand.

"Get lost."

I had no dignity left. I took the money and walked away.

But days later, he came looking for me again. I couldn’t resist him, not once.

And so it went on, tangled in this mess for four years. He never cared about my life.

To him, I was just someone sinking willingly into the mire. And I knew I wasn’t worthy of saying anything else.

But after four years, I finally woke from the dream. I didn’t know what I owed Liam, but even when I was sick and preparing for my thesis defense, I still flew thousands of miles to help him just to set up the scene for his proposal.

When I finished, Liam didn’t even glance at me. He simply waved me away, dismissing me like an afterthought.

In front of the mirror, he practiced his proposal, kneeling, then standing again, flustered in ways I had never seen. Every word, every sweet sentence he rehearsed, pierced my heart like a knife.