No Longer His Villainess

The last thing I saw before everything went black was Duncan, holding Charlotte like she was home. Like he'd finally stopped pretending he ever belonged to me. His arms were around her like gravity, and I guess I was the one floating, lost, weightless, forgotten. Duncan. My ex-fiancé. The boy I once pictured building forever with. Burnt toast in the mornings, dancing barefoot in the kitchen, falling asleep to the sound of his laugh. But love, real love? It's not supposed to make you feel like you're always reaching, always asking to stay. And me? I WAS LEFT OVER. The extra. The afterthought. The girl who fought too hard for something is already gone. My childhood friends, Niko, Callen and Calix? The boys who swore they'd always protect me? They just stood there like strangers wearing the faces I used to trust. Not one of them moved. Not one of them stopped it. NO ONE SAVED ME. And the worst part? I didn't scream, didn't cry and didn't even flinch. Because deep down, I already knew that this wasn't betrayal. This was karma. The kind that whispers, 'you did this to yourself.' I loved him too hard, too desperately. I clawed at his attention like it was air, and I was drowning. I made myself small, bitter and ugly. I lied, I pushed people away and I hurt Charlotte. It's not because she deserved it, but because I didn't want to be the only one bleeding. It wasn't dramatic or tragic. It wasn't some poetic heartbreak. It was just survival. An ugly, desperate survival. But if I ever get another shot at this life? I wouldn't run to him, I wouldn't beg for scraps of love that were never mine. Instead, I'd walk away at the first sign of losing myself. I'd stop trying to fix someone who never saw me as worth saving. I'd choose something softer. A life where I plant herbs in coffee tins and name the birds on my windowsill. Where mornings are quiet, and I learn to love the silence. Where I don't need to be someone's first choice, because I finally chose myself.