Erasing Him, Saving Me

ull my arm from his grip. His fingers were digging into my skin, and

staken for someone else? Ava, we were engaged. We were going t

t sounds, disconnected from any emotion or memory in my mind. T

tly as he searched my eyes for any sign of recognition, any flick

ing erratically. This was not the reaction he had expected. He had anticipated tears,

action, an unpleasant and confusing one. I turned and walked away, my footsteps steady on the pavement. I didn't loo

s voice laced with a frustration that was quickly tu

part of the city's noise. He was left standing on the

was only just beginning to realize it. His self-assurance began to cr

of my architectural models when Ethan cam

engaged," I told him, wrapping a delic

mpled tech magazine on my coffee table. On the cover was the same man, hailed as a "Tech Visio

st a clinical observation. "So that's the man I chose to forget." A small, humor

etter than I could have imagined. I was free. The pain he had caused

n had been the right one, a necessary act of self-preservation. I felt a quiet

ecting my personal drafting tools, when a young woman approached me. She w

bling. "How could you? After ev

from the magazi

you're talking abou

sick about you, and you treat him like a stranger? You're cruel!" She held up her hand, which was wr

he took a step back, her eyes wide with fake terror, and deliberately sl

kward. Blood began to seep throug

t that exact moment, Liam burst through

aw Chloe on the floor, crying and holding her bleeding hand, and he saw me

because you can't accept that I'm with her now? You're pathetic." He shoved me backward, sending me stumbling into a rack of blueprints, which crashed to the floor around me. He didn'