Broken Man, Unbreakable Spirit

d ceramic mug she bought me that said 'World's Best Boyfriend'-was a monument to my own foolishness. I moved through the small space with a cold, methodical purpose. I grabb

into the trash can. I was erasing her, one memory at a time. My passport was in the desk drawer, along with the few hundred dollars I had saved for e

My heart hammered against my ribs, but my face remained a mask

ed," she said, her voice dripping with fa

ffel bag on the floor. A flicker

y pocket and pulled out the thick wad of cash. I

uite conceal. She reached for the money, her f

the bills to her chest. "You've saved me. I d

he duffel bag again and quickly added, "I'm just... going to stay at my friend's place for a couple

ple, emotional fool. "Of course, baby," she cooed. "You do what you

ought she had won. As she scrolled through her contacts, probably to text Mark and their friends, her

the video of him crying at the studio.

y wanted to destroy me publicly. They wanted to turn my deepest moment of pain and sacrifice into a spectacl

, replaced by a sharp, clear determination. They

"I'm feeling really drained. Could yo

miling at her phone. She set it face down on

er gallery, my stomach churning at the sight of the video. There I was, on a small screen, my face contorted in grief as I handed o

one. While she was out of the room, I had started a recording.

. I took their video-the one of me crying-and I replaced the audio track. I stripped out my own broken voice and

masterpiece of poetic justice. I saved the new version, deleted the original from her phone, and then, for good measure, I found the file I'd just sent from her phone t

holding a glass of water. S

s. I didn't drink it. I just held

she said, the words

tasting like ash in my mouth. It wa

closed the door softly behind me, the click of the latch sounding lik

but a bag of clothes, a plane ticket, and a video file that was about to burn their world to the gr

a new, anonymous social media account. I scheduled the post for 9:55 PM, five minutes before Mark's planned release. Th

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