The Ninth Goodbye: My Husband's Cruel Bet

Ellie POV

The ink on the draft settlement papers sitting on my kitchen counter was barely dry when I saw the picture.

Chloe, my best friend and the only person who hadn't treated me like a walking ghost for the last month, slid her phone across the café table.

Her face was a mask of pity warring with rage.

"Look," she said.

It was a Page Six headline. Marcus and Izzy, leaving a jewelry store. His hand was on the small of her back. Possessive. Adoring. The way he used to touch me.

The caption read: Reunited Flames?

I took a sip of my black coffee. It tasted like ash and old regrets.

"I'm meeting them in an hour," I said, my voice surprisingly steady.

Chloe looked like she wanted to flip the table. "You don't have to go. The lawyer can handle it. You shouldn't have to see them."

"I do," I said, setting the cup down with a deliberate clink. "I need to see it end."

The conference room at the law firm was all glass, chrome, and pretension. I sat on one side, my spine fused into a rod of steel, my hands folded in my lap.

The door opened.

Marcus walked in first. He looked tired, yet effortlessly handsome. He always looked handsome. It was his weapon of choice, one he wielded with devastating precision.

Then Izzy walked in.

She was wearing white. A subtle, vicious choice. A lace cocktail dress that mimicked a bridal gown just enough to be a mockery.

She sat down next to him, not in the chair across from me, but pressed against his side. She placed a hand on his forearm, staking her claim.

"Hi, Ellie," she said. Her voice was sweet, like syrup laced with arsenic. "We just wanted to make sure this goes smoothly. Marcus is so stressed."

Marcus didn't look at me. He was fixated on her hand on his arm.

"Let's just sign," Marcus said. His voice was cold. Impatient.

My lawyer pushed the documents toward him.

I watched him pick up the pen. I remembered the day we signed our marriage license. He had smiled then. He had looked at me like I was the only person in the room, the only person in the world.

Now, I was furniture.

I reached into my purse and pulled out the velvet box. I hadn't left the engagement ring in the drawer after all. I needed to return it, to sever the last link.

I slid the box across the polished mahogany. It made a harsh, scraping sound in the quiet room.

He didn't even look up.

"Keep it," he muttered, signing his name with a flourish. "Sell it. I don't care."

Izzy reached out and flipped the box open. The diamond caught the light, fracturing it into a dozen rainbows.

"Oh," she said, pouting slightly. "It's a bit... dated, isn't it? But Marcus promised me something custom."

She tapped her chest.

I looked.

Hanging around her neck, on a gold chain, was a small, faceted crystal bottle.

My breath hitched.

It was the limited edition perfume bottle Marcus had bought me for our first Christmas. The one he said smelled like home.

She had turned it into a trophy. She wore my memories like a spoil of war.

Marcus finally looked up. He saw me staring at her neck.

He didn't look ashamed. He looked annoyed.

"Stop it, Ellie," he said. "Don't start a scene. Izzy liked it. You weren't using it."

I felt a strange sensation in my chest. It wasn't pain. It was the feeling of a heavy weight simply vanishing, evaporating into the sterile air.

I stood up.

I pushed the ring box further toward him until it teetered on the edge of the table.

"I don't want your money, Marcus," I said. "I don't want the apartment. I don't want the ring."

I looked at Izzy.

"And you can have the scent. It smells like desperation on you anyway."

Izzy's eyes widened. She stood up abruptly, her chair scraping violently against the floor.

She turned to leave, and as she passed me, she leaned in.

"He signed the papers," she whispered, her hot breath ghosting against my ear. "But he was never yours to begin with."

I didn't flinch.

She smirked, took a step back, and then threw herself backward.

It was theatrical. It was ridiculous. She flailed her arms and collapsed onto the carpet with a strangled cry.

"Marcus! She pushed me!"

Marcus was out of his chair in a second. He rushed to her, kneeling down, checking her for injuries that didn't exist, blind to the absurdity of it all.

He looked up at me, his eyes blazing with a hatred I had never seen before.

"Get out," he snarled. "You're pathetic, Ellie. Just get out."

I looked at him. Really looked at him.

He was holding the woman who had tormented me for five years, believing a lie so obvious a child could see through it.

He wasn't a god. He was a fool.

I picked up my copy of the signed divorce decree.

I walked to the door.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

I checked it in the elevator. A text from Izzy.

A photo of them hugging in the lawyer's office, taken moments ago.

Caption: He is mine. Forever.

I didn't feel angry. I didn't feel sad. I felt numb. A beautiful, protective numbness.

I opened my contacts.

Marcus Thorne.

Delete.

Isabelle Vance.

Delete.

Block.

I stepped out of the building into the New York sunlight. The air felt thin, sharp against my lungs, but for the first time in a long time, it was mine to breathe.