Chapter 8

EVA'S POV

It feels like the walls are closing in on me. Every breath is a struggle. My heart? It's in pieces. Everywhere I look, there are headlines, whispers, and comments. They're like knives, cutting into wounds I thought had healed.

But the pain never really went away. It was just hiding, waiting to come back worse than ever.

But the pain, the agony, never truly left. It just hides until something rips it open again. And now it’s laid bare for the entire world to see.

It started with the whispers, the suspicious glances from the staff, and the awkward silences when I entered a room. But then, the headlines came. They were everywhere, splashed across every tabloid and news site, turning my

private pain into public show.

The news people are all over my misery, spreading it like wildfire. The headlines keep flashing in my mind:

*"Max Graves Dumps Wife for Her Sister"*

*"Eva Brown Left Out in the Cold"*

*"Heartbroken Eva: Rejected and Alone"*

*"Everyone Loves Max and Sara's Love Story - Poor Eva"*

*"The Wife Nobody Wants: Eva's Sad Life in Max's Shadow"*

*"Forgotten Eva: Max Cozies Up to Sara"*

I can't stop reading them over and over. I keep hoping it'll hurt less if I read them enough. But it doesn't. It just makes the pain worse until I can barely breathe.

They think I'm a joke. A woman who couldn't keep her husband. A wife left for someone prettier, sexier, better, desirable.

Pathetic. Humiliated. Weak. That’s how they see me. That’s how I see me.

I buried my face in my hands as the tears come again. They come too easily these days, like I’ve lost all control. I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t know how I let things get this bad, how I became this.

My hands shake as I hold my phone. It's always the same. Every article. Every comment.

*"She should've known Max would never love her."*

*"Look at her. No wonder he left."*

*"Sara and Max are perfect together. Eva was just in the way."*

I can't stop reading, even though every word hurts. I keep torturing myself, falling deeper into sadness. My heart breaks over and over with every mean comment. I wonder how much more I can take before I completely fall apart.

I set the phone down, my hands shaking uncontrollably now. I try to breathe, but it feels like the air won’t fill my lungs, like my body is betraying me just as much as my mind. How did I get here? How did I become this broken, this… defeated?

I stand up from the couch, but my legs are weak. The room spins a little, and I have to lean against the wall to stay up. I close my eyes, trying to hold myself together, but everything feels so heavy.

Max doesn't care. He never cared. Not about me, not about my feelings, not about how much it hurts to see him with her. He left me here all alone in this house while everyone makes fun of me. I'm nothing to him. I never was.

I walk to the window and look out at the city. Everyone's going about their day like nothing's wrong. They have no idea my life is falling apart. I wonder what they'd think if they could see me now standing here, lost and broken, trying to hold onto whatever dignity I have left.

But dignity is a fragile thing, isn’t it? Easily shattered, easily taken. Just like love. Just like hope.

I press my forehead against the glass, the coolness soothing the burning in my skin. I close my eyes, trying to block out the world, trying to forget the cruel headlines, the comments, the images of Max and Sara together. But I can’t. The hurt is always there, just beneath the surface, waiting to swallow me whole

A sob escapes my throat, the sound startling me in the quiet of the room. I don’t recognize it this broken, desperate noise that I didn’t even know I was capable of making. I press my hand to my mouth, trying to stop the flood of tears, but it’s too late. The dam has broken, and the tears pour out uncontrollably, like a river that’s been held back for far too long.

I sink to the floor, curling into myself as the sobs wrack my body. The pain is unbearable, a deep, gnawing ache that refuses to be silenced. My chest feels like it’s being crushed, my heart pounding so hard I’m afraid it might break for good this time.

Why does this hurt so much?

I already knew he didn’t love me. I already knew he was in love with Sara. But seeing it all so publicly, seeing the world cheering for them, seeing the pitying looks and the cruel laughter it’s too much. It’s more than I can bear.

I wipe at my tears, but they keep coming, blurring my vision, making it hard to think, to breathe. I’ve never felt so alone, so utterly abandoned in my life. The silence of this house is deafening, the emptiness echoing the hollow feeling in my chest.

I gave everything to this marriage, to Max. I sacrificed my own happiness, my own dignity, to be the wife he never wanted. And now I have nothing left. No pride, no hope, no love.

I think back to the day we got married, how naive I was to believe that maybe, just maybe, he would learn to care for me. How foolish I was to think that if I loved him enough, if I endured enough, I could break through that wall he’d built around himself. But I was wrong.

I’ve always been wrong.

Max was never really mine. His heart always belonged to Sara. I was just there to make his grandfather happy. Realizing this hurts more than I ever thought it could.

I cry into my hands, letting the sadness take over. The room feels cold and empty, just like me. I think about running away, leaving all this behind. But where would I go? What would I do? I don't even know who I am anymore. The woman I used to be strong, hopeful, full of dreams she's gone. She's buried under this loveless marriage and all the rejection.

I don't know how long I sit there crying. Eventually, I run out of tears. The pain is still there, sharp and raw, but I'm too tired to cry anymore. All that's left is emptiness , a hollow ache that never goes away.

I look at my phone one last time, at the cruel headlines that keep making fun of me. I can't read them anymore. I can't stand to see my life, my pain, turned into entertainment for everyone else.

I turn off the screen and let the darkness surround me. For a moment, I imagine what it would be like to disappear, to escape this nightmare. But there's no escape, not for me. This is my life now full of rejection, abandonment, and heartache.

And the worst part? I'm all alone.