CHAPTER FIVE
944 Words
Anita sat by the lake close to the fish garden. A week ago, she had finally made the decision to let go.
The city moved around her as though nothing had happened, while memories came rushing back all at once, threatening to drown her.
She missed her best friend, Williams. He had left because she had been too blinded by love to see what she was doing to herself.
She thought of her parents. They still called from time to time, but over the years their conversations had become shorter. She was always busy. Always with Stefan. He had always looked down on them, believing people from the countryside were beneath him, and somehow she had allowed his opinions to create a distance between her and the people who loved her most.
Anita sat there for a long time, staring at the calm water before her — a sharp contrast to the storm raging in her heart.
She had no one to turn to.
She had nowhere to go.
And sooner or later, Stefan would find her.
That realization came quietly.
For ten years, every path she had taken had somehow led back to him. Her apartment, her studio, her work, everything had been built around Stefan's world.
Now, she had finally drifted out of his orbit.
She took a deep breath and reached for her phone.
The only people she could think of calling were her parents.
Her fingers hesitated above the screen before she pressed the call button. A lump formed in her throat as the ringing sound echoed in her ears.
On the second ring, a familiar voice answered.
“Hello?”
Anita froze.
Just hearing that voice tied a knot deep inside her chest.
“Mom…”
She spoke softly.
There was a brief silence before confusion filled her mother’s voice.
“Xiaoyu? Is everything okay? Why are you calling at this time?”
Those simple words broke something inside her.
Not:“Where is Stefan?”
Not:“What did you do this time?”
Just concern.
Real, genuine concern.
“I… I just wanted to hear your voice, Mom. It’s been a while.”
The other end became quiet.
For a moment, Anita was lost in thought.
Xiaoyu.
Only her parents called her that.
It had been so long since she had heard that name.
She really had been a terrible daughter.
Then her mother’s gentle voice came through again.
“You’ve been working too hard again, haven’t you?”
Anita closed her eyes, allowing the cool breeze to brush against her pale face.
If only it was just work.
“I’ll come and visit soon, Mother. And this time, both you and Father are coming back with me.”
There was a pause.
Then she heard her father’s voice in the background.
“Tell her to stop skipping meals first.”
A small laugh escaped Anita’s lips.
They talked for a while longer about simple things.
Her father asking if she was eating properly.
Her mother reminding her to rest.
No drama.
No expectations.
Just a kind of love she had not allowed herself to receive in a very long time.
And somehow, that hurt the most.
Because this was what she had neglected for ten whole years.
When the call ended, Anita stood there for a while with a small smile on her face.
Then she whispered into the wind,
“I’m sorry.”
And for the first time in a decade, those words were not meant for Stefan.
The next day, Anita sat alone in a quiet café, staring at the golden card lying on the table before her.
The Smith family.
She did not know who they were.
She did not know why they had helped her.
They owed her nothing, yet they had saved her.
Something even the man she gave ten years of her life to could not do.
A bitter smile crossed her lips.
She picked up her phone and dialed the number on the card.
It rang only once.
Then a calm, controlled voice answered.
“I was wondering when you would call.”
Anita’s brows furrowed.
“Who are you?”
A brief silence followed.
“You may not know me yet, Miss Wilson. But I know exactly who you are.”
Her grip on the phone tightened.
“What do you mean?”
A faint exhale came through the line.
“Let’s just say I have been interested in your work for a very long time.”
“My work?”
“Yes.”
There was a pause.
Then the voice added,
“The designs that helped Stefan Neil rise to where he is today. I know you created them.”
Anita’s eyes widened.
No one had ever acknowledged that.
Not publicly.
Not even Stefan.
“Come meet me.”
An address followed.
Then the line went dead.
Anita stared at her phone for a long time.
She wondered if she should be afraid.
Confused.
Suspicious.
But strangely, she wasn’t.
Because for the first time in years, someone had looked beyond what she could sacrifice and saw what she was truly worth.
She picked up the golden card and slipped it into her bag.
Then she stood up and walked out of the café.
Not as Stefan Neil’s shadow.
Not as the woman waiting to be chosen.
Not as someone willing to break herself apart just to be loved.
But as Anita.
The woman who was finally ready to find herself again.
And for the first time in ten years, she was walking toward a future that did not have Stefan in it.
She did not look back.
- Writer
