SHATTERED HEART: Because every love story has an ending

**Chapter 11: The Ring and the Report**

**Chapter 11: The Ring and the Report**

Yuvan walked into the apartment the next morning, the weight of everything that had transpired the night before pulling him down like lead. His heart, once so full of love, now felt hollow, like a shell of what it once was. There was no warmth, no spark of hope left inside him. Only a deep, consuming emptiness.

He had been up all night, sitting on a bench in the cold, the engagement ring he had planned to give Irish clutched tightly in his hand. He had imagined this moment for months—getting down on one knee, Irish’s face lighting up with joy and surprise, the two of them embracing the life they had always dreamed of. It was supposed to be a moment of pure happiness, a culmination of eighteen years of love and commitment.

But now, the ring felt like a cruel joke, a reminder of a future that would never be.

As Yuvan entered the living room, Irish was sitting on the couch, her eyes red and swollen from crying. She looked up at him with desperate hope, as if she believed that maybe, just maybe, he had come back to forgive her, that things could still be mended.

But there was no warmth in Yuvan’s gaze. He moved slowly, deliberately, as if every step he took was weighed down by the burden of his shattered heart. Without saying a word, he pulled the engagement ring from his pocket and placed it gently into her trembling hand.

Irish’s eyes widened in shock, her breath catching in her throat as she looked down at the ring—the symbol of the future they had once shared. A future that now felt distant, unreachable. But before she could speak, Yuvan placed something else in her hand.

The medical report.

The cold, clinical words written on that piece of paper had been the final nail in the coffin of their relationship, the undeniable proof of her betrayal.

“Thank you,” Yuvan said, his voice hollow, devoid of emotion. “Thank you for destroying everything.”

Irish’s breath hitched. She stared at the paper in her hand, her heart pounding in her chest. She wanted to scream, to tear it up, to deny everything, but she knew that no matter what she did, nothing could erase what was written there.

“I didn’t mean for it to happen,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Yuvan, please, you have to believe me—it was a mistake.”

Yuvan’s eyes flickered for a moment, the slightest hint of emotion flashing across his face, but it was quickly replaced by cold, steely resolve. He shook his head, his jaw clenched, and for the first time in his life, he felt a deep hatred boiling within him. Not just for Irish, but for himself—for loving her so completely, so blindly.

“A mistake?” he repeated bitterly, his voice rising with anger. “Irish, you didn’t trip and fall into someone else’s bed. You made a choice. A choice to betray me, to lie to me for months. Was it a mistake every time you lied to my face? Was it a mistake every time you let me think everything was fine while you were with him?”

Irish’s sobs grew louder, her whole body trembling as she tried to find the words that would make it better, that would make him stay. But no words came.

Yuvan’s voice softened, but not with forgiveness. It softened with resignation. “The marks on your neck—are those a mistake too?”

Irish froze. Her hand flew to her neck, her fingers brushing over the bruises left behind by Joseph. The evidence of her betrayal, the marks she hadn’t even bothered to hide. She looked at Yuvan, her eyes wide with panic, but her mouth was dry. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t explain it away, not anymore.

Her silence said everything.

Yuvan let out a bitter laugh, though it was devoid of any real humor. “I loved you, Irish,” he whispered, his voice cracking under the weight of his grief. “I loved you more than I thought it was possible to love someone. I trusted you with my entire heart, with my entire life. And you’ve destroyed me. You’ve taken everything I ever believed in, everything I ever wanted, and you’ve turned it to ashes.”