After His Engagement, I Deleted Ten Years of Secret Love

After His Engagement, I Deleted Ten Years of Secret Love

Olivia

5.0
Comment(s)
12.8K
View
30
Chapters

For ten years, I lived in my guardian Ethan Hayes's home, loving him in secret. He was the sun I revolved around. Then, he announced his engagement, introducing the woman he loved as my future female guardian, and spent an entire year showing me I meant nothing to him. The night he came home drunk, he pulled me into his arms, murmuring another woman's name as his lips crashed down on mine. The next morning, his eyes filled with disgust as he accused me of climbing into his bed. "I never thought you would stoop this low," he said. His fiancée cornered me, calling me shameless and threatening to throw me onto the street. In that moment, a decade of devotion turned to ash. The love carved into my bones was finally scraped away. On the day of his birthday, I packed one small suitcase and walked out of the house that had been my prison. I left a final drawing on his desk with a simple note: "Goodbye, Ethan."

Chapter 1

For ten years, I lived in my guardian Ethan Hayes's home, loving him in secret. He was the sun I revolved around.

Then, he announced his engagement, introducing the woman he loved as my future female guardian, and spent an entire year showing me I meant nothing to him.

The night he came home drunk, he pulled me into his arms, murmuring another woman's name as his lips crashed down on mine.

The next morning, his eyes filled with disgust as he accused me of climbing into his bed.

"I never thought you would stoop this low," he said.

His fiancée cornered me, calling me shameless and threatening to throw me onto the street.

In that moment, a decade of devotion turned to ash. The love carved into my bones was finally scraped away.

On the day of his birthday, I packed one small suitcase and walked out of the house that had been my prison. I left a final drawing on his desk with a simple note: "Goodbye, Ethan."

Chapter 1

The day Ethan Hayes announced his engagement, I deleted the secret folder on my computer named "My Sun."

It contained ten years of my life. Every sketch I'd ever drawn of him, from the first time I saw him at eight years old, to the man he was now at twenty-eight.

The mouse hovered over the delete button. My finger felt heavy, but when I clicked, it was with a strange sense of release. A ten-gigabyte folder vanished in a blink. Just like the ten years of my devotion.

Wiped clean.

I picked up my phone and dialed my father's number.

The call connected instantly. "Ava."

"Dad, I got in."

A moment of silence, then his voice, filled with relief. "To NYU?"

"Yes," I said, my voice steady. "The art department."

"Good, that's very good," he said, the sound of a chair scraping in the background. "I'll have the funds transferred to your account tomorrow. The apartment is ready whenever you are. Just tell me when."

"Thank you, Dad."

"Don't thank me. This is what I should have done long ago." His voice was tinged with regret. "Are you leaving because of Ethan's engagement?"

I looked out the window at the manicured lawn of the Hayes estate. A place I had called home for a decade.

"He's getting engaged, Dad. I can't stay here forever."

A heavy sigh came through the phone. "He watched you grow up... I thought he... never mind. Leaving is for the best. Boston has been nothing but a cage for you."

I hung up and walked to the full-length mirror. The girl in the reflection had pale skin and eyes that were slightly red, but her gaze was calm. Chillingly calm.

I had loved Ethan Hayes for ten years. A love so deep it was carved into my bones.

Now, I was going to scrape it out, piece by piece, even if it meant flaying myself alive.

With the acceptance letter in hand, I walked to his study. The door was ajar. He was on a video call, his brow furrowed in concentration. He was always like this when he worked-impossibly handsome, focused, and exuding an aura that kept everyone at a distance.

He was my legal guardian. The man who took me in after my family went bankrupt and my parents divorced.

He had given me a home, but he had also built me a beautiful prison.

As if sensing my presence, he looked up. His gaze was cold, impatient. "What is it?"

Before I could speak, his phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID, and the ice in his eyes melted instantly, replaced by a tenderness I hadn't seen in a very long time.

He answered, his voice dropping to a low, gentle murmur. "Amelia."

Amelia. The name felt like a shard of glass in my throat.

"I'm still at the office," he said, a faint smile on his lips. "Yes, I'll be there. I miss you too."

I stood there, frozen, the acceptance letter in my hand turning into a worthless piece of paper. He had never once said he missed me. Not when he was on business trips, not even when I was sick in the hospital.

I remembered my eighteenth birthday, when I gathered all my courage to confess to him, handing him a drawing I had spent a month on.

He had taken one look at it, his face hardening. He tore the drawing in two, the sound ripping through my heart.

"Ava," he had said, his voice devoid of any warmth. "You are my ward. I am your guardian. Do not cross this line. You need to understand your place."

Then, a year ago, Amelia returned from abroad. He started spending more and more time away from home.

Just last week, he sat me down in this very study.

He looked at me with the same cold eyes as now and said, "Ava, Amelia and I are getting engaged. She will be your guardian's wife. I expect you to respect her."

He introduced the woman he loved as my future female guardian.

He had spent an entire year teaching me, with his actions, that I was nothing to him.

I finally learned my lesson.

He ended the call and looked at me, his patience clearly gone. "What did you want?"

I lowered my gaze, hiding the desolation in my eyes.

"It's nothing," I said softly. "I just wanted to say... congratulations on your engagement, Ethan."

I would grant him his wish. I would disappear from his world completely.

Continue Reading

Other books by Olivia

More
Not Vanished: A Mother's Return

Not Vanished: A Mother's Return

Fantasy

5.0

I was Ava, a revered River Guardian, brimming with vibrant life. I found Marcus, a broken Stone Breaker, and poured my essence into saving him. I healed his wounds and shared my lineage's lore, empowering him to become the Apex he yearned to be. He swore eternal love. But my selfless devotion was repaid with chilling betrayal by his new partner, Chloe. They conspired, stripping me of influence and then, brutally, my life. I didn' t vanish; I died, murdered by their ambition. My Heart Spring dissolved, merging with my infant son Liam' s life current to save him. For ten agonizing years, I remained a helpless spirit, haunting my preserved body and watching Liam suffer. Gaunt and scarred, he bore Marcus's cruelty. Now Marcus, the cruel Apex, returned, demanding my Heart Spring for Chloe' s child. He taunted Liam, then bound him to a pyre, lighting the Breaker' s Fire. He aimed to force me, a spectral memory, to reveal myself or watch our son burn. How could the man I empowered, the father of our son, be capable of such chilling depravity? He sought to burn away the last vestige of my existence. But as unnatural flames licked Liam' s feet, a transformation began. His muted life current exploded into a radiant emerald glow. The true power of the Grove Heart I passed to him shimmered. Liam, no longer a wilting fern, but a powerful sapling, rose from the pyre unharmed. He stood ready to unveil all hidden truths and challenge the Apex who thought he had triumphed.

You'll also like

The Sterling Scandal: Married To The Uncle

The Sterling Scandal: Married To The Uncle

C.D
5.0

I was at my own engagement party at the Sterling estate when the world started tilting. Victoria Sterling, my future mother-in-law, smiled coldly as she watched me struggle with a cup of tea that had been drugged to ruin me. Before I could find my fiancé, Ryan, a waiter dragged me into the forbidden West Wing and locked me in a room with Julian Sterling, the family’s "fallen titan" who had been confined to a wheelchair for years. The door burst open to a frenzy of camera flashes and theatrical screams. Victoria framed me as a seductress caught in the act, and Ryan didn't even try to listen to my pleas, calling me "cheap leftovers" before walking away with his pregnant mistress. When I turned to my own family for help, my father signed a document severing our relationship for a five-million-dollar payout from Julian. They traded me like a commodity without a second thought. I didn't understand why my own parents were so eager to sell me, or how Ryan could look at me with such disgust after promising me forever. I was a sacrifice, a pawn used to protect the family's offshore accounts, and I couldn't fathom how every person I loved had a price tag for my destruction. With nowhere left to go, I married Julian in a bleak ceremony at City Hall. He slid a heavy diamond onto my finger and whispered, "We have a war to start." That night, inside his secret penthouse, I watched the paralyzed man stand up from his wheelchair and activate a screen filled with the Sterling family's darkest secrets. The execution had officially begun.

Rising From Wreckage: Starfall's Epic Comeback

Rising From Wreckage: Starfall's Epic Comeback

Huo Wuer
4.5

Rain hammered against the asphalt as my sedan spun violently into the guardrail on the I-95. Blood trickled down my temple, stinging my eyes, while the rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers mocked my panic. Trembling, I dialed my husband, Clive. His executive assistant answered instead, his voice professional and utterly cold. "Mr. Wilson says to stop the theatrics. He said, and I quote, 'Hang up. Tell her I don’t have time for her emotional blackmail tonight.'" The line went dead while I was still trapped in the wreckage. At the hospital, I watched the news footage of Clive wrapping his jacket around his "fragile" ex-girlfriend, Angelena, shielding her from the storm I was currently bleeding in. When I returned to our penthouse, I found a prenatal ultrasound in his suit pocket, dated the day he claimed to be on a business trip. Instead of an apology, Clive met me with a sneer. He told me I was nothing but an "expensive decoration" his father bought to make him look stable. He froze my bank accounts and cut off my cards, waiting for the hunger to drive me back to his feet. I stared at the man I had loved for four years, realizing he didn't just want a wife; he wanted a prop he could switch off. He thought he could starve me into submission while he played father to another woman's child. But Clive forgot one thing. Before I was his trophy wife, I was Starfall—the legendary voice actress who vanished at the height of her fame. "I'm not jealous, Clive. I'm done." I grabbed my old microphone and walked out. I’m not just leaving him; I’m taking the lead role in the biggest saga in Hollywood—the one Angelena is desperate for. This time, the "decoration" is going to burn his world down.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book