Chapter 17

Each morning, Sasha would find some new way to press Alex into marriage–nagging him, guilt-tripping him, reminding him that Lindsey had left and wasn’t coming back. At first, he didn’t answer. He just drank his coffee in silence, eyes vacant. But as the weeks turned into months, his silence turned into bitterness, and bitterness into rage.

“You need to let her go,” Sasha said again one morning, blocking the hallway as he tried to leave for work. “I’m the one still here, Alex. Not her.”

“She’s gone,” Paula added later that afternoon, walking into his office with her arms folded across her chest. “She’s probably with some guy already. You can stop sulking like a broken puppy.”

Alex snapped.

“Shut up,” he growled.

Sasha flinched. “Excuse me?”

But he had had enough. “You think I don’t know that Lindsey’s gone? You think I don’t feel that every time I walk into that house and she’s not there?” His voice cracked. “You want a wedding? Fine. Go plan it yourself. I’m done pretending.”

He shoved Sasha’s shoulder as he passed, harder than he meant to.

“Alex!” she cried out, staggering back. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

After that day, Alex stopped answering her calls, stopped responding to her texts, stopped acknowledging her entirely.

Sasha tried everything–waiting by his office door, showing up unannounced at the estate, begging the staff to let her in. But Alex had made it clear: she wasn’t welcome anymore.

He changed the locks. He told security she was no longer permitted on the property. Even Paula was shocked by the cold finality of it all.

Each day that passed, Sasha became more frantic. She tried sweet messages, then angry ones, then desperate ones.

“I didn’t mean to push you,” she whispered through voicemails. “I just… I want us back.”

But Alex wasn’t listening.

He spent his days at work and his nights alone, sitting in the dark, replaying every moment with Lindsey. The house was filled with silence now–no more clinking glasses, no more laughter down the hall. Her photos were still gone. Her scent had long faded from the sheets. But he couldn’t bring himself to rearrange anything. Everything remained exactly where she’d left it, as if she might walk back in at any moment.

Sasha, on the other hand, became a ghost in his periphery. When he passed her on the street one afternoon, he didn’t even blink, just walked past as if she never existed.

She screamed after him, cried in front of his car, even camped outside his building–but nothing moved him.

She wasn’t Lindsey.

And Alex knew now: he had thrown away the only woman who ever truly loved him.

It wasn’t long before the silence turned to desperation.

A week later, he got a call from Paula.

“She tried to kill herself!” she screamed into the phone. “Sasha’s in the hospital, Alex, because of you. Because you left her!”

Alex didn’t move. Didn’t answer.

“I said she’s dying and you don’t even care?!”

But he didn’t go.

When Paula showed up at his place, red-eyed and furious, she slapped his chest and screamed at him until her throat went raw.

“She was everything to you! And now what? You’re mourning that perfect little housewife again? That gold-digging traitor?!”

Alex’s eyes darkened, and then–he slapped her.

The room went still.

Paula touched her cheek, trembling, eyes wide in disbelief. But Alex didn’t apologize.

“She wasn’t a traitor,” he said coldly. “She was the only person who ever gave a damn about this family.”

Paula fled the room in tears, but she didn’t go to their mother–not this time. Mrs. Hale hadn’t spoken to either of them since Lindsey left.

Not until now.

When Mrs. Hale found out about Sasha’s hospital stunt, she was livid.

At first, it was quiet–still. She said nothing. No one knew what she was planning. But behind her locked door, she made a call.

“I need something taken care of,” she said flatly. “No names. No trail. Just silence.”

Two days later, Sasha disappeared.

Sasha woke up blindfolded, bound to a chair in what smelled like an abandoned cellar. Panic choked her. She screamed until her throat ached, but no one came. At least not right away.

Eventually, a woman’s voice echoed in the darkness.

“I thought I raised my children better than this,” the voice said. “But then again… maybe that’s what happens when rats sneak in.”

The blindfold was yanked off.

Sasha blinked through the dim light.

“Mrs. Hale?” she whispered. “What… what is this?”

Mrs. Hale looked elegant, cruel in her stillness. She didn’t shout. She didn’t need to.

“You hurt her, lied to her, humiliated her in front of the world. And now you’re crying for sympathy?”

“I didn’t-”

“Shut up.” The words were quiet, ice cold. “If Lindsey won’t take revenge, then I will.”

Sasha paled. “Please… I didn’t mean-”

“Oh, you meant every word. Every plan. I know everything.”

Mrs. Hale stepped closer, pressing something into Sasha’s hand–a bank slip, wired with enough money to start a new life.

“Take it, and disappear. Never contact my son again. Never contact Paula. If I ever hear your name near my family…” she bent close, whispering in her ear, “you won’t wake up next time.”

Sasha sobbed. “Please…”

But Mrs. Hale was already walking away.

When Sasha tried to call Alex later, her number was blocked.

And that’s when she realized...

She was truly alone.