The Goodbye
398 Words
Part IV: The Goodbye
She didn’t eat. Didn’t speak. Filed a personal leave.
Nights passed in silence. Days blurred into one another. The apartment felt colder, as if the warmth had left with him.
What did Susane have that she didn’t?
She remembered the nights she stayed up finishing Noel’s reports while he slept. The meals she cooked. The deadlines she took bullets for. The shared laughter, the whispered promises, the tender goodnights.
“I gave you everything,” she whispered into the empty apartment. “And you gave it away like it was nothing.”
But tears, like rain, don’t fall forever. Eventually, they stop.
And in the quiet after the storm, came clarity.
They weren’t married. He didn’t own her soul. He only borrowed her time.
She’d loved him with her whole heart, but he was never worthy of it.
She stood before the mirror one morning and said aloud, “You were loyal. You were kind. And you were enough.”
That day, she returned to work.
She walked into Mr. Granger’s office, spine straight and eyes clear. “I’d like to request a transfer. A new site. New team.”
He looked up, surprised. “You’re sure?”
“I’m ready to rebuild,” she replied.
By afternoon, it was approved. She had one more week to finish and turn over her ongoing projects.
Every day of that week, Noel and Susane flaunted their affection in the office. A brush of hands in the hallway. Shared laughter was too loud to ignore. Beatrice clenched her jaw and focused on her work, telling herself: "Only a few more days."
One day, she caught her reflection in a glass pane—still strong, still composed. That strength fueled her.
On her final day, the company hosted a farewell dinner. Beatrice wore a soft blue dress and a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She spoke kindly to everyone, accepted their well-wishes, and held her head high.
Noel and Susane attended, unbothered and brazen.
Beatrice met them with silence. There was no more fire left to give them.
To others, it looked like any other goodbye. But to her, it was a farewell to a chapter of her life she would never return to.
Tomorrow, she would step into a new place, a new beginning.
And this time, she would be building something just for herself.
- Writer
