He Chose Her, So I Chose to Disappear Forever Chapter 10

He Chose Her, So I Chose to Disappear Forever Chapter 10

Five days until the wedding.

I dealt with the last of the assets under my name. After setting aside enough to start my new life, I transferred everything else into the anonymous trust.

Once the final payment cleared, Elena Reed had nothing left in Seattle but a house that was never truly hers and a wedding that would never happen.

I had grown up in the foster system, shuffled from one home

to the next. I knew what it felt like to have no one.

When I became Luca’s fiancée, I experienced a kind of safety that felt almost extravagant. Restaurants held tables for me. Cars were always waiting to pick me up. Anyone who thought

of crossing me had to first consider the name Moretti.

But that power was never mine.

It was a shield Luca could lower at any time.

After my “death,” I could never return to Seattle.

I went to the mall and bought winter clothes in a range of children’s sizes, along with feminine hygiene products, books, and candy. I rented a truck and delivered everything to a series of local shelters.

I didn’t go inside myself.

Kids who grow up in the system remember a hug. They wait for the person who gave it to come back.

I couldn’t make a promise I couldn’t keep.

As I watched the truck drive away, a familiar wave of dizziness washed over me. I braced myself against a wall and slowly sank to the curb, pulling a piece of candy from my bag. In my lightheaded state, my phone’s emergency call feature activated.

Luca was my only emergency contact.

By the time I got home, he was calling back.

“Elena, sorry. The wind was so loud I didn’t hear my phone.

What happened?”

“My phone glitched and dialed you by mistake.”

“I’ll have a new one sent over in the morning.”

His concern still sounded so real.

After I hung up, I opened Instagram.

Bianca had posted again two minutes earlier.

[Countdown: 5 days. He took me out on the water to see the

whales. Out on the endless ocean, it felt like we were the only two people in the world.]

In the video, Luca sat beside her at the bow of a boat.

Over the sound of the wind and sea, I could hear his phone

ringing, again and again.

It was the custom ringtone I had set for myself.

There was no noisy crowd on that boat.

He was just looking at the screen.

And letting it ring.