Part 2Never Look Back

Teaching always consumed me, and I quickly pushed the morning's interruption to the back of my mind.

Back in my office, the heating was on full blast. I took off my coat but left my scarf on. A new professor in the office across from mine pointed it out kindly. "Professor Reed, you forgot to take off your scarf."

I just smiled without a word.

I prepped my lessons, reviewed a thesis, ate lunch, and settled in for a nap. Leo's appearance hadn't disrupted my life. My routine was unshakable.

At least, that’s how it seemed.

I reclined my chair, pulled a thin blanket over myself, and checked that my alarm was set. I closed my eyes, the familiar drowsiness creeping in.

But I had underestimated the psychological toll of Leo's sudden return.

For the first time in years, I dreamt of Adrian and Leo.

My marriage to Adrian was a business arrangement. My father had done a great favor for Adrian's father back in the day and never asked for anything in return. But then my father’s business ran into trouble, and he had no choice but to turn to the Lopezs for help.

Mr. Lopez agreed, on the condition that our families be joined by marriage.

Back then, I had a secret crush on Adrian. But I knew he was in love with a girl named Marilee Sterling, so I never dared to reveal my feelings. In the world we lived in, marriage was rarely about love. When I found out I was going to marry him, I was so ecstatic I couldn't sleep all night.

I thought I could work my way into his heart, slowly, patiently.

But halfway through our wedding ceremony, news broke that the plane Marilee was on had crashed. She had been leaving the country, heartbroken, and the flight went down into the ocean. No survivors, no remains.

Adrian calmly let the wedding proceed.

But I knew a wall had just been erected around his heart. And the eternally young, eternally perfect Marilee was now enshrined within it forever.

I suggested we live as husband and wife in name only.

Instead, he descended on me with a chilling darkness, without a hint of tenderness.

He whispered venomously in my ear, "Does it hurt? Good. Suffer. Marilee is dead because of your family. You all brought this on yourselves."

The night after that, my family's company went bankrupt, and we vanished from the city's high society. My father, in his despair, jumped from his office building. My mother suffered a mental breakdown and was committed to a sanatorium.

I remember the night my father died. Adrian came home, staggering drunk. He stormed into my bedroom and ravaged me like a man possessed.

"Ava," he snarled, "I'm going to make you hurt a hundred, a thousand times more than I do."

I thought about ending it all.

But Adrian saw right through me.

"If you don't want your mother to suffer, you'll stay alive," he threatened. "You know I have my ways."

I was trapped. I couldn't die, but living was agony.