Trapped in the Don's Vow novel Chapter 10

Chapter 10

At the end of the year, news of Julian and Summer’s divorce hit the local headlines.

According to reports, after learning she could no longer have children, Summer suffered a mental

breakdown.

She became paranoid, constantly suspecting Julian of cheating.

Julian couldn’t take the constant accusations and outbursts.

After six months of nonstop fighting, they finally signed the divorce papers.

Summer was granted custody. Julian was ordered to pay a substantial amount in child support.

The day the news came out, Ethan watched my reaction closely.

I was watering the pothos by the windowsill.

After reading the article, I calmly closed the page.

“It’s all in the past.”

And it truly was.

The hatred, the pain, the resentment, the bitterness-time had washed them down into nothing more than

background noise.

I didn’t forgive. But I no longer hated either.

Hatred took too much out of me.

I wanted to spend what little strength I had left loving the people who truly mattered, living a life worth living.

The following spring, Ethan and I had a simple wedding.

We invited only our closest friends and held it in our own backyard.

The sunlight was warm, and the flowers were in full bloom.

When we exchanged rings, Ethan’s hands were shaking.

I smiled, held his hand steady, and slipped the ring onto his finger.

He said, “Nina, thank you for choosing me.”

I said, “Ethan, thank you for not giving up on me.”

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Three months after the wedding, I received a letter with no signature.

Inside was Julian’s handwriting, filling the pages with remorse and pain.

He wrote that Summer’s mental state had deteriorated.

She had left the child with his parents and disappeared without a trace.

He wrote that he lived every day drowning in guilt, afraid to close his eyes.

Because whenever he did, all he saw was my desperate expression in the fire.

He wrote that he had finally uncovered the truth about that fire.

Summer had bribed a local thug to lure me to the warehouse, then staged the illusion that Julian was

trapped inside.

She only wanted me to get hurt a little, to make him feel sorry for me.

She hadn’t expected the fire to spiral out of control.

He wrote, [Nina, my greatest mistake in this life was not rejecting Summer clearly from the start, and not

protecting you.]

[I deserve everything that happened.]

At the end of the letter, he wrote, [If I could do it over, I would choose you.]

[Unfortunately, there are no second chances.]

I folded the letter and fed it into the shredder.

The sound of paper being shredded was soft. Like the sound of something finally ending.

Ethan wrapped his arms around me from behind, his chin resting on my shoulder.

“Are you okay?”

I turned around, hugged his waist, and buried my face in his chest.

“I am.”

“I just realized… in life, you really can’t afford to take a wrong step.”

One wrong step led to another. And in the end, everything was lost.

Julian lost. Summer lost.

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And I almost lost too.

Luckily, I met Ethan.

He pulled me out of the mud, cleaned me off bit by bit, and told me, “Nina, you deserve to be loved. You

deserve to live well.”

Outside the window, the sunlight was brilliant. The flowers in the yard were blooming beautifully.

Spring had truly arrived. And I finally believed that some scars never disappear.

They scab over, heal, and become part of who you are. A reminder that you once fought hard to survive.

And then, you keep walking forward. Toward the next spring.

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