Chapter 1: The Day You Vanished
I remember that morning like a scar etched into my soul.
The sun was shining, people outside were laughing, but my world collapsed quietly—without warning, without a sound. You were simply… gone.
No notes, no goodbye. Not even a lie to hold onto.
The bed was cold. Your clothes were gone. Your phone off. Our bank account empty.
And the only thing you left behind… was debt. And a child waiting for his father to come home.
I didn’t cry. Not at first. I just sat there, staring at the door, thinking maybe it was all a mistake. That maybe you went out to buy breakfast. That maybe you would walk back in and say, “Sorry, I forgot the milk.”
But you never did.
Days passed. I kept checking my phone. I kept hoping. I kept lying to our child, saying, “Daddy is busy, he’ll be back soon.”
But even a child can sense when something is wrong.
Then the pain came. Not like a sudden cut. More like drowning slowly in silence. I stopped eating. I stopped sleeping. My body ached, my heart screamed, but I still said nothing to anyone.
Because I blamed myself.
Was I not good enough? Was I too nagging? Too trusting?
I kept asking, “What did I do wrong?”
But the truth is—you were never planning to stay.
You loved the idea of me, but not the weight of me. Not the bills, not the baby’s crying, not the quiet kind of love that needs time to grow.
And yet… I still loved you.
That’s the part that hurt the most.