Chapter 11
Those who truly wanted to leave would never make a grand farewell. They would simply put on a coat on an ordinary morning, push open the door, and never come back—like a withered leaf carried away by the wind.
There would be no goodbyes and not even a single “see you later” as even that would be a waste.
Ezra covered his face and broke into gut–wrenching sobs. He should have known. He had felt it coming. The moment he saw Gianna burn all their photos, he should have realized.
That day, she had sat in the courtyard like always, but her eyes were empty and devoid of light. If only he had talked to her then, really talked to her–maybe things wouldn’t have come to this.
No… Perhaps the moment he stood by and let the Ramsey family force Gianna to give up her patent, the moment he became complicit in her suffering, her heart had already died.
This wasn’t a spur–of–the–moment escape. This was the result of disappointment after disappointment until there was nothing left to feel.
“No. I have to find her.”
Ezra staggered to his feet. Even his reflection in the glass looked fractured and broken, Even as the sharp tree branches tore at his skin, he felt nothing.
Rushing back into the house, he collided with the returning Ramsey family. Upon learning of Gianna’s departure, Christopher merely snorted.
“Ran away from home? Hah, she’s really putting on a show, isn’t she? Just ignore her. Let her starve for a bit, and she’ll come crawling back for scraps soon enough.”
“She should’ve left ages ago!” Gabriel clapped in approval. “She’s the reason Maya’s condition got worse!”
Maya stepped forward eagerly. “Ezra, I’ll go with you to look for…”
The moment her fingers brushed against his hand, she froze. His eyes were ice–cold. Meanwhile, Ezra said nothing, and he merely turned and walked out of the Ramsey residence without a single word.
As his car roared to life, the mansion shrank in his rearview mirror. Its distorted reflection twisted into a grotesque, snarling beast. Its scarlet tongue was flicking out, mocking his desperation.
Ezra soon arrived at the airport, his eyes burning as he stared at the ever–scrolling electronic flight boards. He scanned every face, searching, hoping, and praying.
He counted the flight numbers, but all he saw flashing across each screen were fragments of the past–their memories playing on repeat like a cruel joke.
It wasn’t until a security guard stopped him that he realized he had been screaming her name in the terminal. His voice was now raw and jagged, like a rusted blade scraping against glass.
He found nothing. Still clinging to one last shred of hope, he searched every place Gianna might have gone.
He wandered the streets, desperately wishing to catch a glimpse of her in the crowd. If only he could see her, he would run to her, hold her tight, apologize, and swear that he would always be on her side from now on.
But as the evening settled over the city, he found himself with nowhere left to go. In the end, he curled up against the rusted iron gates of an abandoned observatory on the outskirts of town–the place where she had once brought him to watch a meteor shower as kids.
Now, it was nothing but a wasteland, where only crows remained, picking apart the remnants of forgotten memories. Just then, his phone buzzed relentlessly in his pocket, where its vibrations scorched against his skin.
Christopher’s voice was pleading through the phone. “Ezra, Maya’s condition has worsened since you left. She just tried to slit her wrists. We barely managed to stop her. You need to come back…”
“She wants to die? Then let her go ahead.”
He hurled the phone against the iron gate, the shattered battery sending a flock of crows screeching into the sky.
Then, he buried his face in his hands and sobbed helplessly. Cold wind howled through his collar, seeping into his bones.
Somewhere in the distance, through the haze of grief and exhaustion, a memory whispered back to him.
“Did you know? When Betelgeuse explodes, it’ll take 642 years for its light to reach Earth. Turns out, the distance between us was even longer than that.”
