He Broke His Vow, I Vanished Forever

I never doubted a true heart. But true hearts can change in the blink of an eye. After Elestria updated her social media status with that line, she booked a 3 a.m. flight to Norway for the very next morning. Then, she wiped her timeline clean. She swapped her profile picture, the one of her and Kyran Valtor, back to the silhouette of herself, walking away. And she sent a message to her agent, Vespera Lorian. Elestria: I'm making a comeback! Tonight was New Year's Eve. It was also her tenth wedding anniversary with Kyran. But once the clock struck midnight, she resolved to leave him forever, to vanish from his life without a trace. On the TV, the countdown blared. "3, 2, 1! Happy New Year!" Elestria switched off her phone and sat alone in the sprawling mansion atop Victoria Peak. The regional dishes she'd slaved over had long gone ice-cold. At that moment, the door swung open. Kyran finally pushed it open, reeking of whiskey, his suit still crisp. "This is for you. Tenth anniversary." He strode forward, his expression cold, and casually handed her a luxury box. "Thanks." Elestria's eyes dropped. Her fingertips traced the gilded emblem. After three years of dating and a decade of marriage, Kyran keenly sensed that Elestria was in a foul mood tonight. "Not going to open it?" he asked. Elestria opened the box. Inside was a backless, emerald-green satin gown. The masterpiece of the Paris flagship, a close match to the dress Keira Knightley wore in Atonement. All color drained from Elestria's face. Thirteen years together. From global film queen to Mrs. Valtor, he'd showered her with gifts, a private island at the edge of the world, jewels fit for royalty, but this… this was the first time he'd ever given her a green dress. "Don't you like it?" Kyran's sharp brows knitted together. "I like it." She forced out the words, barely a whisper. Kyran stared at her lifeless expression, and his stomach turned. He went to the upstairs bathroom but Elestria caught his hand. "Kyran, aren't you forgetting something?" "What else besides our anniversary?" Kyran pulled his hand away smoothly, impatience burning in his eyes. Elestria heard the ice in his voice and didn't push. She turned, grabbed a thick stack of photos, and shoved them in front of him. "I bought these from the paparazzi." They were shots of Kyran sliding in and out of hotels with different women. For ten years of marriage, scandals had swirled around him, and Elestria had always turned a blind eye. Instead, she always tried to remember the Kyran who loved her. The one who, in a car crash, would instantly shield her in his arms. The one who, when they were dirt poor, would spend his last penny on a necklace for her. The one who, after becoming a multinational tycoon, bought an island and declared to the world, "My one true love in this life is Elestria Valtor." One true love... but this year, among the paparazzi photos, she spotted a familiar face—Zyrelle Viora, her junior from the film academy, who was practically a little sister to her. Elestria could no longer pretend everything was fine. "Just a fling. All for show," Kyran said, flicking through the photos half-heartedly, his tone utterly dismissive. "And this one?" Elestria pulled out Zyrelle Viora's photo. Kyran's expression flickered. "Exactly the same." Elestria's heart dropped like a stone. "Kyran Valtor, you can lie to me, but don't lie to yourself." The moment she used his full name, Kyran knew she was furious. But he was no longer the Kyran of his teens or twenties, the one who would spoil her unconditionally. "Nowadays, which wealthy man doesn't have a few women on the side? I've only got Zyrelle Viora out there, and your position as Mrs. Valtor is forever unshakable. Isn't that enough?" he demanded. With those two sentences, he erased the sixteen-year-old girl who had followed him alone from a quiet coastal village all the way to the city. In her place, the thirty-year-old Elestria stood rooted to the spot, unable to utter a single word. Bang! Kyran slammed the door and stormed out. Then came the roar of an engine firing up in the garden. Elestria sat there alone, a bitter sense of irony washing over her. How absurd it all seemed. At sixteen, she had won the Triple Crown for Best Actress for her performance in The Crimson Reckoning. At seventeen, the Golden Laurel Award for Best Television Actress was hers. At eighteen, barely an adult, she set her sights on Hollywood and won the Palme d'Or for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. At nineteen, she lived up to all expectations, seizing the Academy Award and becoming the youngest global film queen. A future so bright it could have lit up the heavens... and yet, at twenty, she chose to dim her own light. She retired from the silver screen and became a bride in a small chapel in the Southern Hemisphere, binding herself to Kyran Valtor. She kept laughing, a hollow, broken sound, until she realized her cheeks were soaked. Tears streamed down, unstoppable. She wasn't crying for Kyran. She was mourning the girl she used to be, the one who loved with reckless abandon, throwing herself headfirst into love without a second thought. The last home-cooked meal she had meticulously prepared for him was finally dumped into the trash. Her gaze drifted back to the coffee table, to the gift lying there, the backless, emerald-green satin dress. He had forgotten. That green dress was the stuff of her nightmares. As a child, she had watched her father and his mistress behave shamelessly together in their home. The woman's go-to outfit had always been a green dress. She had told Kyran this once, "If you ever stop loving me, don't say a word. Just give me a green dress. I'll know."