The Love I Choose Was Me

### Chapter 6

Arthur drove them back to his apartment, the place she had once thought of as their future home.

Now, it felt like a museum of her pain.

He tried to make small talk, asking about her recovery, commenting on the traffic, but his words were just noise, failing to bridge the vast, silent canyon between them.

Chloe offered only one-word answers, her gaze fixed on the city blurring past the window.

When they arrived, the first thing she saw was that Isabella's things were everywhere.

A silk robe was draped over a chair, a pair of her heeled shoes lay carelessly by the door, and the air was thick with her cloying lily-scented perfume.

Isabella wasn't here—she was still in the hospital, recovering—but her presence had colonized the space, erasing every trace of Chloe.

"I'll have my assistant clear this out," Arthur said quickly, noticing the direction of Chloe's cold stare.

"She was only staying here temporarily, after the accident. You know, for her son, Leo."

As if summoned, the boy, Leo, padded into the living room, rubbing his eyes.

He looked at Chloe with a child's open curiosity, then ran to Arthur.

"Uncle Arthur, is Mommy coming home soon?" he asked, his little voice filled with a genuine sadness that twisted something in Chloe's gut.

This child was an innocent pawn in his mother's vicious game.

"Soon, buddy," Arthur said, ruffling the boy's hair.

"She just needs to rest and get better."

Leo then looked at Chloe, his expression shifting.

His mother's coaching was evident.

He clung to Arthur's leg.

"Don't let the mean lady stay," he whispered, loud enough for Chloe to hear.

"Mommy said she pushed her and made her fall."

Chloe's blood ran cold.

The lie was now being passed to the next generation, poisoning an innocent child.

Arthur's face tightened.

He shot Chloe an apologetic look, but he didn't correct his nephew.

He just knelt and whispered something to the boy, sending him back to his room with a nanny.

"He's just a kid, he doesn't understand," Arthur said, his voice strained.

"Isabella... she's confused after the accident. She thinks you're pregnant too. She's saying all sorts of crazy things."

Chloe looked at him, a spark of suspicion igniting.

Was Isabella faking a pregnancy to manipulate him?

It seemed entirely possible.

"Pregnant?" Chloe asked, her voice flat.

"Why would she think that?"

"I don't know," Arthur lied, avoiding her eyes.

"Like I said, she's not thinking straight. I'll send her and Leo to one of my other properties as soon as she's discharged. This place will be ours again, Chloe. I promise."

It was another empty promise, another attempt to placate her.

He tried to pull her into an embrace, to close the physical distance between them, but Chloe stiffened and stepped away.

The thought of his touch made her skin crawl.

"If you want me to stay," she said, her voice devoid of all warmth, "I want a million dollars. Transferred to my account by tomorrow."

It wasn't about the money.

It was a test.

A way to reduce their shattered relationship to what it had become: a transaction.

Arthur didn't even hesitate.

"Done," he said, relief flooding his features.

He thought this was something he could fix with money.

He thought he could buy her forgiveness, buy her silence.

"Anything you want, Chloe. Just stay."

The ease with which he agreed only confirmed how little he understood.

He saw her as an object, a problem to be managed.

The next evening, Isabella was discharged and returned to the apartment, despite Arthur's promises.

She claimed she was too weak to be moved, that she needed to be close to Arthur to feel safe.

She paraded around the apartment in her sling, a martyr in her own fabricated drama.

She found Chloe in the studio, sketching.

"Still here?" Isabella said, a mocking smile on her lips.

"I'm surprised. But I guess a million dollars buys a lot of pride."

Before Chloe could respond, Isabella let out a sharp cry and stumbled, knocking over a heavy jar of turpentine.

It shattered on the floor, splashing the caustic liquid onto Chloe's leg.

The burning was instant and sharp.

Isabella screamed.

"She pushed me! She tried to hurt me!"

Leo came running in, his eyes wide.

"The mean lady pushed Mommy!" he cried, repeating the lines he had been so carefully taught.

Arthur rushed in, his face a thundercloud of fury.

He saw Isabella on the floor, crying, and Chloe standing over her, a dark stain spreading on her pants.

He didn't ask what happened.

He didn't look at Chloe's leg.

He didn't see the shattered glass at Isabella's feet.

He only saw what he was programmed to see: his fragile Izzy, under attack.

"What did you do?" he roared at Chloe, his voice shaking with rage.

He pointed a trembling finger at the door.

"Get out. I want you out of my house. Now."

The words hung in the air, final and absolute.

He had chosen.

He had cast her out, based on the lie of the woman he loved and her brainwashed child.

The burning on her leg was nothing compared to the cold, barren emptiness that settled in her soul.

She had been thrown away.