Goodbye, My Lost Love

Chapter 13

William stumbled out of the house, his mind spinning, his heart racing. He needed answers. He had to find her. In his panic, he grabbed a junior by the arm, desperation lacing his voice.

"Where's Victoria?" he demanded, his voice cracking with urgency.

The junior shot him a look of disdain, as if his very presence disgusted her.

"She left. Don't you know?"

"Left?" His heart skipped a beat. "Where did she go?"

The junior didn't answer, her eyes growing cold as she yanked her arm away from his grip, as though his touch burned her.

William's chest tightened. Her silence cut deeper than any words could.

"Please... just tell me where she went," he pleaded, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Did she go to some exchange program? A school transfer?" His mind raced, trying to make sense of it. Victoria wouldn't just leave for something like that. Not without a reason.

The junior scoffed, her voice dripping with anger and bitterness.

"Really? You're asking me that now? When you've been too busy with that 'green tea' girl to care about Victoria?"

The words hit him like a punch to the gut. He froze, feeling his stomach churn with guilt.

The junior continued, her voice trembling with hurt.

"If you'd actually done right by her, she wouldn't have disappeared like this. A year ago, she turned down a professor's offer because you proposed to her. But after a year of your lies and betrayals, she's cutting ties with everyone for ten years."

Her voice cracked at the end. "She's my role model. She's the best person I know. Smart, talented, and kind. She deserves so much more than you."

William stood there, stunned, his mind struggling to process what she had just said.

"Ten years?" he whispered, barely believing the words. "She... she wants to cut ties with everyone for ten years?"

The junior wiped a tear from her cheek, her anger turning to sorrow. "Yes. And don't even think about regretting it now. She's better off without you."

The venom in her words made his blood run cold. "Disgusting," she spat, before turning on her heel and walking away.

William stood there, motionless. He couldn't remember how he left, his mind fogged by the sting of her words. Ten years. She was really gone.

He was lost in confusion, but one thought cut through the fog: She knows. Victoria knew everything. And she had made her choice.

The realization hit him like a wave. He was standing in the very place they had planned to call their home, the one they had been preparing for their future together. The agents and movers were packing it up, turning what should have been their dream home into someone else's reality. He felt his blood turn to ice.

"What the hell is going on?" he demanded, storming up to the movers.

The agent was unfazed, almost bored. "The contract's been signed. It's been transferred. The place is no longer needed by the previous owner."

Another punch to the gut. Victoria had made her decision. And it was clear now, she wasn't coming back.

He looked around the space they had once imagined filling with laughter and memories, now stripped of everything they'd planned.

The house was gone. She was gone.

How could he have let this happen? He had built this future, only for it to be taken away, leaving him empty-handed. It was like watching someone else take what had always been meant for them.

And then it hit him, the house, the life they'd planned... all of it was being handed over to Ava. The woman he'd never even seen as anything more than a favor to a family.

How had he let this happen? How had he become so blind, so self-absorbed that he let everything slip away?

His heart pounded as he tried to imagine what Victoria must have felt, seeing this place now, filled with someone else's belongings. How could she ever walk through these doors again?

And yet, she hadn't said a word. No confrontation, no tearful farewell. Just nothing.

"She lost faith in me," he realized, the bitter truth crashing down on him. She hadn't left out of anger or spite. She had simply given up.

"That's why she was so calm," he thought bitterly. "She knew. She knew I'd never be enough."

As everything he'd ignored for so long fell into place, William was left with the weight of all his mistakes.

"Where did I go wrong?" he thought, his chest tightening.

Maybe it was that moment a year ago when he'd kept secrets about meeting Ava at the airport, hiding it from her while she found Ava's heels in the backseat. Or when, just six months ago, Ava had barged into their private moment and Victoria had questioned him, only to be snapped at for being possessive.

Or was it all those promises he'd broken, all those times he'd taken her for granted, thinking there was always more time to fix it?

The truth was, he had never truly seen Victoria for who she was, never realized her worth until it was too late.