Chapter 3
Sheridan pressed his lips together, eyes fixed on Seren. Her expression was unreadable, cool and distant, as she turned to leave, back straight and unyielding.
She didn’t look back-not once. He watched her retreating figure disappear around the bend of the stairs, her posture resolute from beginning to end p>
Sheridan couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off about her tonight. Time and again over those three years, he had faced Seren with his utmost coldness and told her bluntly to leave Fairview Manor.
She hated hearing it. Every time, without fail, she’d explode-arguing, shouting, tears shining in her eyes.
Then she’d storm upstairs and start packing with as much noise as she could manage, making sure he knew just how determined she was to leave.
But at the end of it all, Seren was always the one to back down. She’d come back, talking real low, saying she wanted to patch things up.
Tonight, though, Seren didn’t shout. She didn’t even argue. She just answered quietly, her tone unnervingly calm, and walked away.
Had she truly decided to leave this time? Or was she just changing her approach with him?
Sheridan found himself climbing the stairs behind her, unsettled by how out of character Seren seemed tonight.
Her bedroom door was already closed, sealed tight. No sounds of packing, no angry banging of drawers or luggage-just an eerie, heavy silence.
Only a thin sliver of light slipped out from under the door, as if the room beyond was empty.
A chill prickled down Sheridan’s spine. Suddenly, he remembered something he’d once read online:
All those loud, dramatic departures are just bluffs. The real goodbyes happen quietly, without a sound.
He lifted his hand to knock, hesitating in the silence.
Just then, his phone rang.
His hand dropped away. He fished the phone from his pocket and relaxed a little when he saw the familiar number on the screen.
“Willa? What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Sheridan, the power’s out in my room. It’s so dark, and there’s a thunderstorm outside. I’m really scared p>
Her voice trembled on the other end, tears barely held back. The vulnerability in her tone tugged at something in Sheridan’s chest.
He glanced once at Seren’s closed door, then without a second thought, strode quickly away.
“Don’t be scared. I’ll be right there p>
Sheridan told himself Seren was just in a mood. She needed a night to cool off, that was all.
But Willa was different. She was alone and vulnerable out there, and she needed him.
Inside her room, Seren quietly folded her clothes into a suitcase. From outside, she heard the sound of a car starting up and speeding away. She didn’t need, to look she knew Sheridan was the one driving off p>
She paused, thinking back. Every time she’d packed her things and tried todeave, Sheridan had always acted like it meant nothing to him like letting her go didn’t cost him a thing.
Even if Aggy tried to stop her, Sheridan would curse him out.
“Why are you in the way? If she wants to leave, let her! This place isn’t her home p>
“Just go. It’s not like I need you, Seren p>
“Don’t bother coming back-no one here will miss you p>
He’d always been so sure she wouldn’t really leave, so every word was meant to wound.
He never once stopped to think how his words made her feel.
The truth was, if she left Fairview Manor, Seren had nowhere to go.
She’d married Sheridan and moved far from home-her family and friends were
all back in Harborview, a city a thousand miles away.
So these past three years, even if she’d wanted to walk away from Fairview Manor, Riverbend wasn’t a city where she had anywhere else turn.
For Seren, her choices were painfully clear.
The first: do as she always had-bow her head, apologize, pretend nothing had
happened, and go on living with Sheridan.
She’d gotten used to life at Fairview Manor after three years. Leaving would mean stepping far out of her comfort zone.
Besides, after three years of caring for Sheridan, she’d lost touch with the world outside these gates.
Leaving Sheridan was far from a good option for her.