TheParisTimes
TW abuse, domestic violence, hints at sexual assault
When a long-dreaded proposal finally arrives, she knows she should feel happy. Instead, the ring on her finger feels heavier than the bruises she hides beneath her clothes. What follows is four sleepless nights filled with avoidance, hope, denial, and the slowly dawning truth: she can't stay, not another minute, not another day.
Leaving everything behind, she slips out of the apartment with nothing but a small shoulder bag and the kind of courage that comes only after years of being broken down. But freedom doesn't feel like relief. It feels like trembling hands, unfamiliar train stations, and an empty phone left behind on purpose.
As she moves from city to city searching for anonymity, she begins to face what three years of loving the wrong person has done to her and what it might take to build a life she has never allowed herself to imagine.