Every happy memory was a lie. The realization hit Rose Harrison with a brutal, suffocating force, and she finally snapped. She hurled her pillow and quilt across the room, her voice tearing through the sterile silence of the private clinic. "Get out, Maximus! I don’t want to see you! Just leave me alone!"

Maximus flinched, his heart plummeting as the sudden exertion caused the stitches on Rose’s hands to tear open. Bright red blood bloomed across the bandages like a fresh wound. He knew he couldn't push her any further. Swallowing his grief, he choked out, "Rose, I’m sorry. I’m leaving. Let’s both just... take some time to breathe."

He stood up, his dark eyes brimming with a hollow, crushing despair. He had a thousand apologies burning on his tongue, a desperate need to explain, but one look at the sheer wall of rejection in her eyes froze him. He turned away, his movements heavy and reluctant, going to fetch the medical staff to tend to her bleeding hands.

Every drop of that blood felt like a jagged blade, carving another trench into his heart.

The staff arrived within moments, the doctors and nurses moving with practiced, cold efficiency to stem the bleeding and calm her down. The wreckage of the room was quickly cleared, the chaos scrubbed away until the room looked pristine again. But Rose knew the truth: the deep, jagged tears inside her heart were a carnage that no doctor could ever repair. She had already made up her mind. The moment she was discharged, she would move back to the Harrison Estate and finally put a period at the end of this miserable chapter of her life.

A week later, Caspian and Lily Hughes arrived to take her home.

The weight of her past despair still clung to her, but she masked it with a forced smile.

"Rose, are you really sure you don't want to come stay at my place?" Lily teased, her eyes bright. "My house is huge, and the garden is absolutely gorgeous right now." Lily was moving into a new place with Kellen Nelson; rumors of their upcoming wedding were already swirling through their social circle.

Rose offered a soft, gentle smile. "No, thank you, sweetie. You and Kellen should enjoy your time together. I just need to go home and rest for a while. Oh, and promise me you’ll keep it a secret? Don't mention the kidnapping to anyone—I don't want them worrying about me."

"Yes, yes, I know! You’ve already told me a dozen times!" Lily pouted, feigning annoyance.

Caspian stood to the side, a small smile playing on his lips as he watched his sister tease Rose into laughter. He had never told Lily the truth about Rose’s marriage to Maximus. If there were things Rose wasn't ready to speak of, he wasn't about to force them out into the light.

He had made a silent vow to protect her. Maximus had spent years tearing Rose down; Caspian was determined that he would never be allowed to have her back.

In the middle of the lighthearted banter, Rose suddenly stiffened. Her gaze locked onto a familiar silhouette approaching them: Maximus.

She went cold. She watched him walk closer, his appearance disheveled, his face drawn and gaunt. But what did any of that matter to her now? They had both agreed to let each other go. So be it.

Rose turned her back on him, shielding her eyes from the memories, and climbed into the car with Lily.

Caspian saw him too. He shot Maximus a look of pure, icy warning, shielding Rose from his view, before hopping into the driver's seat and pulling away without a backward glance.

Maximus dragged his feet, slowly coming to a stop exactly where Rose had been standing moments before. He stared at the spot where she had been, his heart aching with such intensity he could barely draw breath. He lowered his head, catching a faint, lingering scent of her perfume in the air—the smell that used to intoxicate him.

Was it true? Had he wandered so far off the path, losing the woman who once loved him with such reckless abandon, that fate had finally come to collect its debt?

The past was a ghost that haunted him, but he was the only one trapped in the graveyard of what used to be. Maximus closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, trying to memorize the ghost of the air she had just breathed, clinging to the only trace left of her departure.