His Betrayal, Her Unveiling

life had been a cycle of hotel rooms, construction sites, and video calls across time zones. She had just closed the biggest deal of her architectural career in Tokyo, a skyscraper p

r and Liam, taken on their first anniversary. His smile in the photo was wide and genuine, the kind that had made her fall in love with him f

pure joy. She imagined him lifting her up, spinning her around in the foyer of their apartment, the home she had bought and meticulously designed two years before he even moved in. They would have cake, a s

e happiness tighten in her chest. This was it. The end of the distance, the end of the late-night calls where h

her heart thrumming with a happy rhythm. She stood before the solid oak door of her apartment, her sanc

ed, and the lock emitte

ni

er fingers were clumsy from the long flight. She took a deep b

red light. The

mber so deeply ingrained in their relationship that forgetting it would be like forgetting her own name. She thought, maybe Liam had changed

ne, pushing aside the warm anticipation.

Red

, the one she was

Red

silent, impassive barrier to her own life. The warm glow of her homecoming was gone, replaced by a growing sense of dread