The cliff
Ember's pov
I heard everything!!!
The wind was the only thing screaming when liam stopped walking.
We had been arguing the entire drive not to come to the country side for our date but he insist, Then he went out of the car to answer a call, that was when i heard somethi.... he is calm to the point of cruelty. He said I was imagining things, was I really imagining things? I clear heard " to push her off the cliff" if they wasn't talking about me then who? I was afraid but kept my cool
He suggested the cliff the way someone suggests coffee.
“Let’s talk somewhere quiet,” he said while getting of the car and walked off to the cliff, i was stunned for a while before gathering the courage to follow him. “You’re emotional.”
That should have been my warning but I still held hope of nothing will happen to me if I'm with my fiance.
The cliff overlooked the city lights, distant and small, like they belonged to another life. The sea below was black, swallowing sound. I hugged my coat tighter as the wind whipped my hair across my face.
“Liam,” I said. “Please.”
He stood a few steps away from the edge, not close enough to be dangerous. He was always careful like that.
“I heard everything,” I said. “The call, the threats.... they said if I didn’t disappear, you’d die.”
His jaw tightened.
“You shouldn’t have listened,” he replied.
“So it’s true,” I whispered. “They want me gone.”
“Yes.”
The word landed heavier than any blow
I took a step back, heart hammering. “You wouldn’t let that happen, you love me right??.”
Liam sighed, not the sigh of a man facing tragedy but the sigh of someone tired of explaining something obvious.
“Ember,” he said gently, “don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
The night felt colder.
“They said if you died, everything would collapse,” I continued, feeling heartbroken. “But if I disappear, the deal is clean, is that what this is? A deal?”
He looked at me then smiled, looking relieved
“I didn’t think you’d understand this quickly,” he said. “But yes, You dying solves everything.”
My knees went weak, this was the man the loved with everything I had, I thought to my self.
“You brought me here to kill me,” I said.
“No,” he corrected calmly. “I brought you here so I could live.”
The words split something inside my chest like a knife went through my heart, without me knowing a drop of tears falling from my eyes
I laughed, sharp and broken. “You can’t even say it. You won’t even admit you’re choosing yourself.”
Liam stepped closer to me, the wind tugged at his coat and his eyes were steady.
“I didn’t choose,” he said. “There was never a choice.”
I reached for him, fingers brushing his sleeve. “Liam, I loved you. I would’ve disappeared, I would’ve left everything behind.” I was looking for an opportunity to get him distracted so that I can run away and call for help.
“That’s the problem,” he replied. “You’d still be alive.”
My breath caught, He moved fast then, one hand and a firm push. I saw my self falling down the cliff, there was no remorse or struggle in his eyes at all, as if he just throw a bag of dirt off the cliff.
I remember the skywide and indifferent, I remember the city lights blurring as I fell. I remember realizing Liam hadn’t shouted my name not even once.
The air tore from my lungs. My body slammed against rock, pain exploding everywhere at once. I tried to scream, but the wind stole it. I hit again, harder this time, and something inside me snapped. My bones were breaking, I felt pain that I wish like dying but I still held a little hope.
As I tumbled, I thought absurdly of my wedding dress Emma, my step sister had admired earlier that day, yes I was getting married to liam this weekend but life happens. You look beautiful, she’d said. He’s lucky to have you.
I landed on a narrow ledge, the impact knocking the world black but not completely.
Through the ringing in my ears, I heard footsteps above.
Liam!!!!
I forced my eyes open. Blood blurred my vision, warm and sticky. I tried to move but my body didn’t listen.
“Liam,” I whispered.
He stepped to the edge and looked down at me.
For a brief moment, I thought maybe he would feel guity and maybe love would remember my name.
But Liam only frowned, annoyed
“You survived,” he said softly.
I tried to speak. My mouth filled with blood.
He checked his watch.
“I don’t have time for this,” he muttered.
And then this is the part that will haunt me forever
He stepped back, he did not reach for me, did not call for help and did not hesitate.
He simply turned away.
I lay there, broken and fading, listening to his footsteps retreat, each one carrying him farther from me and closer to his life.
The pain grew unbearable, the cold crept in. The ledge crumbled beneath my fingers.
As I slipped, I stared at the stars and understood something terrible
Leon wasn’t a monster, he is worse than a monster
He was a man who felt nothing at all.
The sea rose to meet me, roaring now, furious where he had been calm.
The last thing I thought before the darkness swallowed me was that I died because I loved the wrong man.
And far above, Liam Hartmann walked away.
