Twenty-Six receipts of betrayal Novel novel Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Elara sat alone in the living room for hours. When darkness finally fell, she wheeled herself to the study and knocked.

Nicholas yanked the door open, still fumbling to hang up his phone.

“Babe, look–I fucked up your birthday. But our three–year anniversary’s right around the corner. Why don’t we do something big for that instead? Your call. Wherever you wanna go, I’m in.”

Elara looked at him, her voice soft.

“Switzerland. I wanna see the first snow.”

Something flickered in Nicholas’s eyes. Surprise, maybe.

“First snow? If we wait another month, we’ll get snow right here in upstate New York. We could just stay home, do something cozy. I mean, with your legs and everything… that’s a hell of a trip, babe.”

Elara shook her head. For once, she pushed back.

She only had fifteen days left. She wouldn’t make it to next month.

Seeing how insistent she was, Nicholas didn’t argue. He pulled out his phone and booked two tickets to Switzerland for Christmas Day.

Elara knew he’d say yes.

She’d read it in his journal–every time he came home from seeing Valentina, the guilt ate at him a little more. He’d try to make it up to her however he could.

She opened her phone and set a timer. Labeled it:

DEATH COUNTDOWN

After booking the flights, Nicholas looked at her with that tender expression, his voice dripping with indulgence.

“All set. Christmas Day to Switzerland.”

ཧཌ་ཧ་ཌ ༤༤་རྒུ་ཞ་རེ ཥཾ་ཕ

Elara watched his eyes glance at her phone screen, then slide right past it. She nodded quietly.

Satisfied, he headed into the bathroom.

Watching him walk away, Elara smiled to herself.

Back in the day, no matter what she was doing, he’d sidle up next to her, peek over her shoulder, ask a million questions just to get her attention.

Now her phone literally screamed DEATH COUNTDOWN in bold letters, and his eyes had swept right past it.

Didn’t even notice.

So this was what it looked like when love died.

When both people couldn’t stand each other anymore.

But perhaps it was for the best.

Fifteen more days. She could make it fifteen more days.

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Chapter 2

And it would all be over.

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