He Ignored My Grief, I Chose Duty

Chapter 7

A flicker of surprise crossed Dominic's face at her words. He'd been about to suggest she try something else, but then it hit him... he didn't have a clue what she actually liked.

"From now on, tell me everything you enjoy. I'll remember it," he said, his voice carrying a rare note of sincerity.

Linnea didn't respond. "Let's just eat."

A person who cares doesn't need to be taught; a person who doesn't will never learn. Anyway, she'd be gone the day after tomorrow.

After the meal, Dominic lit the candles again, urging her to make a wish. But before she could even make a wish, Sonya's phone call came through. No one knew what she said, but it was enough to make him spring to his feet.

"Linnea, I've got something to handle. You—"

"Go."

She sounded surprisingly generous. He shot her a searching glance, making sure she wasn't upset, and then he was gone.

After he left, Linnea made her wish alone, the candles flickering softly before her.

She drew a breath and whispered into the silence, "I hope to never cross paths with Dominic Calder again. I want to be nothing more than an ordinary, honest police officer."

She blew out the candles and ate the cake, all by herself.

*****

The next day, September 28th. Dominic still hadn't come back.

Her former supervisor, Clara, called, "Linnea, you're leaving tomorrow. Let's grab a meal today."

"Sounds good," Linnea agreed.

That afternoon, as they sat together in a restaurant, the TV mounted on the wall blared the latest celebrity gossip. "Reporters caught top Formula 1 driver Phantom and his ex-girlfriend Sonya Nichols entering the Four Seasons Hotel last night, one after the other. Sparks of a reunion?"

The screen showed footage of Dominic and Sonya walking into the hotel, barely a few steps apart.

Clara's gaze snapped at Linnea, full of sympathy. "Linnea, are you okay?"

Linnea shook her head, calm. "I'm fine." She'd stopped caring about Dominic a long time ago.

But from a nearby table, two girls were chattering away.

"Didn't Dominic Calder have some plain, ordinary girlfriend? He's cheating before they even broke up?"

The other scoffed. "So what if they haven't broken up? They're not married. And it's not really cheating... more like a little fling. Our racing god is too gorgeous for some nobody to deserve him."

Their moral compass was clearly powered by pretty faces.

Clara couldn't hold back. She turned to the girl. "So if your own boyfriend started messing around with his ex, you'd just hand him over with a smile?"

The girl's face flushed crimson.

Clara opened her mouth to say more, but Linnea grabbed her arm.

"Forget it. Let's go."

They walked out of the restaurant.

Clara's voice brimmed with righteous fury as she leaped to her defense. "After everything you poured into him, he turns around and betrays you. That's absolutely despicable."

"It's all in the past now," Linnea replied, her tone steady.

Growing up, she had watched her parents' love burn bright and fiercely. She had always believed that love should mirror theirs... a wholehearted, unreserved offering. Giving, she felt, brought deeper peace than receiving ever could. But now, she had finally learned to put herself first.

Clara looked at her friend, heart aching. "If Dominic hadn't cleared out his old feelings, he had no right to come and wreck you like this."

At the memory, Linnea's lashes dipped low. "Three years ago, I stood beside him on the racetrack. We swore to each other we'd always be there. I kept my promise. He broke his. My conscience is clean, so I don't feel a shred of sorrow."

A new light kindled in her voice, full of yearning for the life ahead. "When I go back, I'm going to start over... really live."

Clara couldn't help pressing further. "What if one day Dominic wakes up full of regret? Would you ever go back to him?"

Linnea shook her head without a moment's hesitation. "Away from him, my life holds a thousand possibilities. But staying with him, it's locked into just one.

"So, no. I won't."