Elena raised her brow, her lips curling into the faintest smirk. “Good. She was never a suitable match for you. That girl had no class, no refinement. Divorce was inevitable.”
Around her, the murmurs began anew, now louder and bolder.
“She never belonged here,” one relative chimed in. “Nathaniel deserves someone of his caliber, not… her.”
“Exactly,” another added. “Deaf, untalented, and plain. She was holding him back.”
The room buzzed with gossip, each word cutting like a blade. Yet Nathaniel, despite his usual stoic nature, felt something unsettling stir within him. The words grated against him, though he couldn’t say why.
The ceremony ended, and Nathaniel left the manor earlier than usual, a faint unease gnawing at him.
When Nathaniel returned to Daltonia Villa, dusk had already settled. The house was eerily quiet, the kind of silence that felt hollow and unfamiliar. He instinctively tossed his coat onto the entryway chair, waiting for Cecilia to appear and take it, as she always did.
But no one came.
The emptiness felt suffocating. He picked up the coat, muttering under his breath, and threw it into the washing machine. Annoyed, he went to the wine cellar to celebrate her departure with a drink.
The cellar door was locked. He checked his pockets for the key, then searched the drawers and shelves, his irritation mounting. It took him a moment to realize that Cecilia always kept the keys.
In her quiet way, she had managed everything in the house. Every detail, every routine, had been meticulously handled by her.
Nathaniel returned to his room, his movements heavy. He opened the drawers, rifling through them in search of the key, but found only small remnants of her life—a forgotten scarf, a notebook, her favorite book with its corners worn.
The silence pressed against him again, but this time, it felt sharper.
He unlocked his phone, scrolling through his messages. There were no new ones from Cecilia, and there were no frantic apologies or pleas. For the first time, he realized she wasn’t coming back.
Nathaniel stared at the screen, his chest tightening with an unfamiliar weight. It wasn’t anger or frustration. It was something colder, heavier—a loss he hadn’t anticipated.
And in the darkness of that quiet house, for the first time, Nathaniel felt alone.
Last updated on August 20th, 2025 at 11:21 pm
