Chapter Three-I’m Done Fighting
1490 Words
Rain followed me home.
Soft at first.
Then heavier.
Like the sky itself had finally grown tired of holding everything in.
The windshield blurred beneath restless droplets while the city lights smeared into streaks of gold and white ahead of me.
I barely noticed any of it.
My hands rested weakly on the steering wheel.
My mind somewhere else entirely.
Still trapped outside Ethan’s office.
Still hearing his voice.
That thing at home.
I swallowed painfully.
The words kept replaying over and over again like something cruel stitched directly into my skull.
Not wife.
Not Amelia.
Not even a person.
Just a thing.
Something unwanted.
Something tolerated.
A sharp ache spread through my chest again.
I pressed a trembling hand against it briefly.
Breathe.
Just breathe.
But breathing had become difficult lately.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Like existing inside that marriage had slowly filled my lungs with grief instead of air.
Cars passed beside me while rain hammered harder against the glass.
My wipers moved back and forth desperately, but the road still looked distorted.
Or maybe that was just my tears.
I laughed softly at the thought.
Even after deciding I was done crying—
my body still betrayed me.
Pathetic.
The word no longer hurt the way it used to.
Because heartbreak changes eventually.
At first, it burns.
Then it destroys.
Then one day…
it simply exhausts you.
And exhaustion was all I felt now.
A hollow kind of tiredness that reached deep into my bones.
I stopped at a red light and stared blankly ahead.
On the sidewalk nearby, a couple stood beneath a shared umbrella laughing together.
The man brushed rainwater carefully from the woman’s cheek.
Gentle.
Instinctive.
Like loving her was the easiest thing in the world.
My chest tightened violently.
I looked away immediately.
Three years.
Three entire years beside Ethan Vale and I could count on one hand the number of times he touched me gently.
Not because he wanted to.
Because obligation demanded it.
A public event.
A family dinner.
A room full of watching eyes.
That was the cruelest part.
Ethan knew how to pretend.
The perfect husband outside.
The cold stranger inside.
The traffic light turned green.
I drove forward slowly.
The rain worsened.
Thunder echoed faintly in the distance while darkness settled heavily across the city.
I should focus on driving.
I knew that.
But grief is dangerous.
It distracts you.
Pulls you underwater while the world expects you to keep functioning normally.
My fingers tightened around the steering wheel.
Maybe Adrian was right.
Maybe Ethan should divorce me.
Maybe he would finally breathe easier without me chained to his life.
The thought hurt less than it should have.
That scared me.
Because loving Ethan had always hurt.
But today—
today felt different.
Today felt final.
Another memory surfaced suddenly.
Ethan standing in the bathroom doorway last night.
“You should sleep.”
Such empty words.
No concern.
No warmth.
Nothing.
I blinked hard against fresh tears.
Why did I keep loving someone who looked at me like I was already gone?
Why did my heart continue kneeling before a man who had never once reached down to lift me up?
Maybe because I kept hoping.
Humans survive on hope sometimes.
Even poisonous hope.
Especially poisonous hope.
The rain became violent without warning.
Water slammed across the windshield so heavily I could barely see ahead anymore.
Cars slowed around me immediately.
Headlights blurred everywhere.
My breathing became uneven again.
I should pull over.
But home wasn’t far.
And strangely—
I didn’t even know if I wanted to go there anymore.
That mansion didn’t feel like home.
Not when another woman’s perfume still lingered in the hallways.
Not when my husband’s laughter belonged to everyone except me.
A sob rose unexpectedly inside my throat.
I gripped the wheel harder.
Stop.
Stop crying.
You promised yourself.
But promises become fragile when your heart is falling apart.
My vision blurred again.
The road ahead split beneath rain and tears.
And then—
my phone lit up beside me.
ETHAN.
For one horrible second, my heart reacted automatically.
Hope.
Again.
Always hope.
Maybe he realized.
Maybe he regretted it.
Maybe—
The phone stopped ringing.
A message appeared instead.
Don’t wait up tonight.
That was all.
No explanation.
No apology.
No kindness.
Just another casual knife pushed between my ribs.
Something inside me finally collapsed completely.
A broken sound escaped my lips as tears flooded down harder than before.
I couldn’t see properly anymore.
The road became distorted beneath the storm.
My chest hurt.
Everything hurt.
And suddenly—
headlights appeared too fast ahead.
Bright.
Blinding.
My eyes widened instantly.
A horn blared loudly.
My hands jerked the steering wheel violently.
Tires screeched against wet pavement.
The world spun.
Then—
impact.
A deafening crash exploded around me.
Metal twisted violently.
Glass shattered everywhere.
Pain tore through my body so suddenly I couldn’t even scream properly.
The car slammed sideways again before stopping brutally against something hard.
Silence followed.
Terrible silence.
For a moment, I couldn’t move.
Couldn’t breathe.
Rain poured through broken glass onto my skin while distant voices echoed somewhere far away.
My ears rang painfully.
Warmth trickled down the side of my face slowly.
Blood.
I blinked weakly.
Everything looked blurry.
The steering wheel crushed painfully against my chest.
My fingers twitched slightly.
Pain spread everywhere now.
Sharp.
Burning.
Endless.
Outside, people shouted.
“Oh my God!”
“Call an ambulance!”
“She’s bleeding!”
Footsteps splashed through puddles toward the car.
But their voices sounded distant.
Like I was already sinking somewhere too deep to reach.
My head lolled weakly sideways.
And strangely—
all I could think about was Ethan.
Would he care?
Would he finally look at me if I disappeared?
Or would my absence simply make his life easier?
The thought should’ve broken me.
Instead—
I just felt tired.
So unbelievably tired.
Rain touched my face through the shattered window softly now.
Cold against burning skin.
My breathing became shallow.
Uneven.
A woman’s voice trembled nearby.
“Stay with us, please!”
Hands tried opening the damaged car door.
Metal groaned loudly.
Someone kept talking urgently.
But the sounds drifted further away with every passing second.
My eyes fluttered slowly.
And memories began surfacing one after another.
Ethan loosening his tie after work.
Ethan drinking coffee silently at the dining table.
Ethan pausing outside my guest room door late at night.
Ethan saying my pain was nothing without ever realizing he was the reason for it.
God.
I had loved him so much.
Enough to lose myself completely.
Enough to disappear inside someone else’s indifference.
The realization hurt more than the accident itself.
Because somewhere along the way—
I stopped being a person.
And became someone whose entire existence revolved around waiting to be loved back.
A sharp cough shook my body suddenly.
Pain exploded through my chest.
I gasped weakly.
The taste of blood filled my mouth faintly.
People finally pulled the car door open.
Cold air rushed inside immediately.
“Careful!”
“She’s injured badly!”
“Miss, can you hear me?”
I tried to answer.
But my lips barely moved.
Everything felt heavier now.
Even keeping my eyes open.
Sirens echoed somewhere nearby.
Getting closer.
Red and blue lights flashed against the rain-covered streets.
An ambulance.
Someone touched my shoulder gently.
“It’s okay,” a man’s voice said urgently. “Stay awake for me.”
Stay awake.
I almost laughed.
I’d spent three years emotionally dying beside Ethan Vale.
Maybe this was simply my body catching up.
Tears mixed with rainwater across my face.
Not from pain.
Not anymore.
Just grief.
Grief for the woman I used to be before loving Ethan destroyed her softness.
Before silence became survival.
Before humiliation became routine.
The paramedics carefully pulled me from the wreckage.
Pain shot violently through my body again.
I cried out weakly this time.
The world tilted around me.
Lights.
Rain.
Voices.
Everything blurred together.
They placed me onto a stretcher quickly.
“Pulse dropping!”
“She’s losing consciousness!”
“Get oxygen now!”
Their panic should’ve frightened me.
Instead—
peace settled over me slowly.
A dangerous kind of peace.
The kind that comes when someone has suffered for too long.
My eyes drifted toward the dark sky above.
Rain touched my skin gently.
And suddenly…
I didn’t want to fight anymore.
Not for Ethan.
Not for love.
Not for a marriage that had already buried me alive.
I was tired of begging silently for affection.
Tired of hoping.
Tired of surviving crumbs.
My lips parted weakly.
One of the paramedics leaned closer immediately.
“What did she say?”
I used the last strength inside me to whisper the truth I had carried alone for years.
“I’m done fighting.”
Three words.
Soft.
Broken.
Final.
Then darkness swallowed me whole.
- Writer
