The Rose He Showed Off Is Putting Down Roots in a Garden of Her Own novel Chapter 8

Dawn broke.

When her phone remained entirely silent, Elara finally powered the device off.

She stared blankly at the hotel wall, forcing herself to confront the terrifying reality of a divorce and the logistical nightmare of breaking the news to her parents.

It was an agonizing decision.

He held the best years of her youth, and every beautiful memory she had was anchored to him.

Remembering the intense, burning love of their early twenties made her conviction waver.

She found herself slipping into old habits, desperately trying to invent excuses for his unforgivable behavior.

Then, a jolt of raw clarity snapped her out of it.

She was doing it again. She was willingly crawling back into the exact same trap she had just clawed her way out of.

Tears of furious self-loathing spilled down her cheeks.

Trapped in a sprawling, opulent suite, she let the daylight slip away, paralyzed by indecision.

She wasn't entirely sure what she was waiting for. Perhaps she was just waiting for the courage to pull the trigger.

But no matter how much she agonized, fate eventually stepped in with a single, devastating stroke and made the choice for her.

She powered her phone back on and opened her text thread, nursing a pathetic, dying hope that he had reached out.

The screen was brutally barren. Their last exchange was still a logistical argument over the catering list for his grandfather's birthday gala.

She let out a dry, broken laugh.

It was the absolute truth—expectations were just premeditated resentments.

Forget it.

This was for the best.

It was the only way forward.

A notification flashed across the top of her screen.

Elara opened it. It was an anonymous photograph.

A man and a woman were tangled in the sheets of a hotel bed. Neither of their faces was visible.

The woman's skin was flushed and marked with fresh bruises of passion, while the man held her intimately against his chest.

On the man's right shoulder blade was a very distinct, dark mole. It was identical to Julian's.

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