My Husband's Affair My Anniversary Gift (Lily and David) novel Chapter 53

Lily stood in the middle of her room, staring at the half-zipped suitcase lying on the bed. The silence was heavy, almost suffocating, yet her mind felt strangely blank, as though all the anger, humiliation, and grief of the past days had burned her hollow.

Her hands moved mechanically—folding clothes, slipping documents into the side compartment, checking her wallet and phone charger. Every click of the suitcase zipper echoed louder than her own heartbeat.

When the bag was packed, she stood still, gazing at it for a long time. It looked so small, pitiful even, compared to the years she had spent in this house.

A house she had once believed could be her home. A house she had decorated, cleaned, laughed and cried in. But now, it was nothing more than a gilded cage, one where her pride and dignity had been trampled over and over again.

She feels that pain again. She shouldn't have returned back in first place. It is just three day and she was leaving this house again.

Her hand trembled slightly as she gripped the suitcase handle. She took one step toward the door, and then another, dragging the wheels across the polished floor. Each roll felt like a drumbeat announcing her departure.

When she reached the doorway, Lily paused. Her fingers tightened around the handle until her knuckles turned white. Something inside her compelled her to look back.

Her eyes swept over the familiar furniture, the framed photographs, the curtains she had once chosen with care. All of it looked lifeless now, like props on a stage where she had played the role of a dutiful wife, a submissive woman, a silent shadow.

Her chest tightened, but this time it wasn’t grief. It was fury.

The last time she had left this house, she had been weak, scared, and threatened forced to come back because of David’s words and because her mother’s keepsakes were still trapped. She had swallowed her pride and endured humiliation just to protect what little she had left of her mother.

But things were different now.

The keepsakes were with her. Safe. David or her father no longer had any hold over her. And the slap he had given her, the insult of parading Marina’s pregnancy in her face, had stripped away the last thread tying her to him.

Her lips curved into a bitter smile.

“This ends here,” she whispered under her breath.

This was not a random promise, not some impulsive outburst. This was her vow—to herself, to her dignity as a woman, to her self-respect that David had tried to bury beneath his arrogance. She would never return to this house again. Never.

With one last hard glare at the walls that had witnessed her pain, Lily pulled the suitcase forward. The wheels rattled against the floor, dragging her past the hallway, past the living room, past the heavy front door that had always felt like a barrier.

As the massive gates loomed ahead, she lifted her chin. Every step felt like she was shaking off invisible chains.

Freedom.

Her heart pounded faster as she stepped out through the gate. The evening breeze brushed against her face, cool and liberating. Just as she set her foot on the street, a yellow cab slowed to a stop in front of her. She had booked it earlier.

The driver, a middle-aged man with kind eyes, stepped out and opened the trunk. “Let me help you with that, miss.”

“Thank you,” Lily murmured.

He hoisted the suitcase into the trunk with ease. Lily slid into the back seat, the leather cool beneath her palms. The cab door shut with a firm thud, and she exhaled slowly, as if releasing the last of her shackles.

As the cab pulled away, the mansion shrank in the rearview mirror. Her lips trembled, but she didn’t let a single tear fall. She wasn’t going to cry anymore.

Not for David. Not for her father. Not for anyone who had treated her like she was disposable.

She leaned her head against the window, watching the streetlights flicker past. For the first time in years, her heart didn’t ache with fear of what David might do. He couldn’t force her back anymore. He had no leverage.

Noah’s face flashed briefly in her mind. But Lily shook her head. She couldn’t run to her now, not like this. She didn’t want to burden Noah with her mess.

No. She would stand on her own two feet.

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