Part 3By the Same Moonlight

Landon didn’t come home that night.

I lay awake, staring into the darkness. Sean was beside me, his small hand gripping my fingers tightly, not letting go even in his sleep. I looked at his little face, a perfect blend of my features and Landon’s, and my heart was a raging sea.

I sent Landon a text: We’re over.

He didn’t reply. He didn’t show up.

He was gone for a whole week.

I finally went to his agency to find him, only to be told he’d flown to Utah for a film festival.

“He went with Sophia, his agent. They travel together for work all the time,” the young woman at the front desk added, her eyes holding a faint, unmistakable glint of pity.

Landon was a workaholic. Vanishing for a week like this wasn’t unheard of.

I turned to Sean. “Every time he disappears, he’s with Sophia, isn’t he?”

Sean’s eyes darkened as he nodded. “I found a travel album in Dad’s safe, in his study.”

“It was full of pictures of him and Sophia from all over the world… the Northern Lights in Iceland, the snow in Hokkaido, a gondola in Venice…”

A bitter laugh escaped my lips as I fought back the stinging in my nose.

Landon hated when I visited him at the office, hated being disturbed while he was working. Over time, we’d developed a ridiculous, unspoken agreement. When he was off the grid, I wouldn’t send a single text, wouldn’t make a single call. I wouldn’t try to find out where he was through anyone else.

He knew this. He counted on it.

And while I was at home, worrying if he was eating properly or getting enough rest, he was with Sophia, watching the aurora in Iceland, relaxing in hot springs in Japan, floating through the canals of Venice.

I trusted him.

And he took that trust and sharpened it into the deadliest of blades, using it to slice me apart, piece by piece.

I turned to leave, my steps unsteady. From behind me, I heard the hushed chatter of a few employees.

“Tsk, she really acts like she’s the First Lady, coming here to check up on him.”

“Everyone knows Landon and Sophia are the real power couple. Some people will use a little family history to force a marriage. It’s disgusting.”

“I heard her parents died saving Landon, right? Isn’t that just emotional blackmail?”

I froze.

Suddenly, the entire situation felt absurdly twisted.

If Landon hadn’t allowed this version of the story to circulate, if he and Sophia hadn’t paraded around the office like a couple, how could his own employees possibly think that I was the other woman, the one breaking them up?