He Chose Her, So I Chose to Disappear Forever Chapter 14

He Chose Her, So I Chose to Disappear Forever Chapter 14

At one in the morning, Luca sent me a text.

[Elena, I’m at the airport. I land at 11:30 tomorrow. It’ll be

tight, but I’m coming straight to the venue. I’m finally going to marry you. Wait for me.]

I didn’t see it until the next morning.

I didn’t reply.

I got up, made myself breakfast, and changed into warm,

practical clothes. Then I drove to the marina on Lake Union.

The sailboat I had rented was waiting for me.

Before boarding, I dropped my car keys into a trash can on

the dock. The metal hit the bottom with a short, final clink.

I started the engine and steered the boat out toward the deep waters of Puget Sound. The wind whipped my hair loose as Seattle’s skyline shrank behind the gray chop of the

water.

I twisted the engagement ring off my finger.

For five years, that ring had represented Luca’s choice. It had also symbolized the Moretti family’s conditional protection. As long as it was on my hand, I was a woman living within their order, waiting to be formally accepted.

I set the ring on the cockpit table.

Beside it, I placed my old phone. I took off the necklace Luca had given me and left my wallet with my old IDs there, too.

When the metal left my skin, I felt impossibly light.

I was shedding a name, a shield, and a web of relationships I

could never return to.

I stepped onto the deck and took one last look at the city where I had spent five years of my life.

Then I dove into the freezing water.

The cold was a physical blow, piercing through my clothes

instantly.

As I sank, I activated the small underwater scooter strapped to my side and swam toward my destination. As a navigation systems engineer, I had personally plotted the boat’s course and calculated the currents. On a hidden stretch of shore

miles away, a car was waiting for me, stocked with dry clothes and my new identity.

Behind me, the empty sailboat would motor on until someone found it.