“Luna, would you finally sign the papers if I got down on my knees?”

Before she could even respond, I was already on the floor. I’d done so many humiliating things over the years—this was just one more to add to the list.

This one gesture, however, pushed Luna over the edge.

Luna yanked me to my feet and dragged me into the study on the first floor. In a flash, she shoved me down, pinned me beneath her, tore off my tie and used it to bind Seth to the leg of the desk.

Seth's clothes hit the floor in an instant. Luna’s heavy breathing came in broken gasps as papers flew everywhere like confetti in a storm.

I looked at their tangled legs before shutting my eyes in anguish. A tear slid down my cheek. How many times had this happened?

I’d lost count. Almost everyone Luna brought home ended up in the same twisted scene. I was always the one left to clean up after.

I didn’t know how long they kept going. My whole body eventually went numb and consciousness slipped away.

It wasn’t until my phone started ringing non-stop that I realized the study was finally empty, left in utter chaos.

“Cyrus? We’ve got your dad. If you don’t bring the money by six, he won’t live to see tomorrow.”

My heart barely reacted. Numb. Just numb. “How much this time?”

“Four hundred fifty thousand.”

That number still made me flinch, no matter how numb I felt inside.

***

I glanced at the clock, it was 3 a.m. Outside, the night was pitch black—like ink that refused to fade.

The door creaked open. Luna stood there, completely naked, a lit cigarette glowing between her fingers.

“Luna, I need four hundred fifty thousand,” I said quietly.

She just laughed, locked the door and didn’t even look at me.

That night, I didn’t sleep—not for a second.

By six, the sun had begun to rise.

Three days later, the police called. “Mr. Gray, we’ve found a male body in the southern outskirts of the town. We believe it’s your father…”

I stared at the photo the kidnappers had sent days earlier. The man who raised me for over twenty years—limbs severed, the scene soaked in blood.

I kept staring until I started laughing. Maybe this was better. Maybe now, we were all finally free.

I slipped out of the house unnoticed. However, just as I turned the corner, a car pulled up and nearly hit me.

The window rolled down and a familiar face appeared. “I’ll give you a ride.”

It was Vega, the girl next door I’d grown up with. She didn’t say anything else and neither did I.

Eventually, she broke the ice and asked quietly, “Cyrus, do you regret choosing Luna?” She hesitated, then added, “If you ever change your mind, there’s always a place beside me.”

Five years ago, the tabloids had caught a photo of me in a scandal. The woman in the picture?

She was the same Vega Crawford.

I remember Luna kept demanding answers from me back then.

“Why did it have to be Vega?” She said it like it would’ve been fine if it were anyone else. As if it wasn’t the betrayal, just who I’d done it with.

I couldn't even say a thing. So, I ignored Vega and left her car without a word. After everything blew up back then, Vega left the country.

I couldn’t reach her no matter how hard I tried. Hundreds of unread emails sat unanswered—each one another crack in the foundation of my marriage, my life.

If my father and brother had been the chains holding me down, then Vega was the final match that burned everything to the ground.

I didn’t want any of them anymore.

The police station was packed. Everyone was busy with their own thing, face mostly darkened like the clouds before rain in the sky.

“Has the victim’s family shown up yet?”

“Seriously? The guy’s been dead for three days and no one in his family even noticed?”

A few officers were chatting nearby. I walked up and gave them my father’s name. They glanced at me sideways, their frowns sharp with quiet judgment.

I handed over the phone number from the ransom call and the photo the kidnappers had sent. I also laid it all out—my father’s gambling, the debts, everything.

The police confirmed it was a murder but said the investigation was ongoing. They told me to go home and wait for updates.

“He’s one cold bastard… got the news and didn’t bother calling the cops or even trying to come up with the ransom…”

The whispers behind me were sharp, but I couldn’t bring myself to care anymore.

Since the case was still under investigation, they wouldn’t release the body for burial. I signed a stack of paperwork and by the time I walked out of the station, night had already fallen.

I took a cab to see my brother.

He’d ended up fully paralyzed after getting beaten over one of Dad’s gambling debts. Aside from being conscious and able to twitch his fingers a little, the rest of his body was useless.

Doctors said his organs were shutting down. There wasn’t much point in keeping him alive.

He lay there in the bed, eyes half-closed, already asleep.

I tucked the blanket around him and sat beside him, speaking softly. I talked about Dad. About myself. About him. All the things we’d been through, all the pain I’d buried—once I started, I couldn’t stop. I stayed there talking until daylight broke and flooded the room.

God, I was exhausted.

A whole day and night—and Luna hadn’t even bothered to call.

When I got home, she was in the living room, laughing with a group of her students, casually discussing their upcoming business trip. The atmosphere was light and carefree.

I pulled the divorce papers from behind my back and slammed them on the table. The laughter stopped instantly.

Luna’s eyes snapped to me, blazing like fire through steel. “You disappear for a full day and this is what you come home with?”

She sneered. “What now? How exactly did you manage to get that four hundred fifty thousand dollars yesterday? Sell yourself to some rich man?”

Luna’s words were sharp and brutal—each syllable like a hooked blade. I didn’t even have the strength to argue anymore.

“I saw Cyrus get into a woman’s car yesterday morning,” Seth chimed in, resting his chin in his hand with a grin. “Looked like Professor Crawford—you know, the one who just got back from overseas?”

He glanced between me and Luna, eyes dancing with amusement.

The next second, Luna shot to her feet and slapped me hard across the face.

“This is why you want a divorce?”

“Vega comes back to town and suddenly you can’t keep it in your pants? That night at the gala—was that it? You saw her and couldn’t wait to throw divorce papers in my face, right!?”

I hadn’t slept in over 24 hours. Add that slap to the mix and my head was swimming. Her words barely registered. My heart, long dead, just felt… numb.

“I even saw him kiss Professor Crawford,” Seth added casually, like he was commenting on the weather—but every word hit like a dagger.

I clenched my teeth, holding myself back. I truly tried to stay grounded, but something finally snapped. Without thinking, I grabbed the nearest chair and slammed it crashing down toward Seth’s head.

Everything went still.

“Professor Luna... Help me…”

Blood rushed to my eyes as I stared at Luna, her arms wrapped protectively around Seth, glaring at me like I was a monster.

Everyone else in the room huddled together, eyes wide with horror. They looked at me like I’d lost my mind.

“Cyrus, you’ve completely lost it!”

I sat motionless in the living room, numb and hollow, until Luna came back and stood over me.

“You think you can just sit at home after attacking someone? Seth says either you serve him while he recovers—or he presses charges.”

I stared at the blood still drying on the floor. My throat tightened.

“Let him,” I said flatly. “I don’t care if they sentence me to death.”

That pushed Luna over the edge. She dragged me out of the house and shoved me into the car, taking me straight to Seth’s hospital room.

And so began the next few days—me, playing caretaker to the man I hated most.

“This apple tastes like crap. Go buy new ones.”

“I want lotus cream broth—only from Maison Verdant and it better be slow-cooked for two hours.”

“What’s wrong with you? Can’t even slice a damn pear properly?”

I lost count on the slaps landing on my cheeks. I didn’t flinch every time. I didn’t fight back.

I had no idea when days like this would finally end.

After stepping out to get some water that night, I returned to my brother’s hospital room. I was surprised, knowing Seth was standing inside.

It was the only place I had left for a bit of peace.

“So this is where you disappear to at night?” Seth sneered. “Didn’t realize you had a helpless wreck waiting for you here.” He scrunched his face in disgust, pointing at the bed. “Ugh, gross. He pissed himself.”

“If I were him, I’d rather be dead.”

My brother’s eyes were wide open, face flushed red with shame as he let out muffled, broken sobs.

I dropped the basin of water and shoved Seth hard, trying to force him out. He managed to break free and leaned down toward my brother with that mocking smile still plastered on his face.

“You know why your brother won’t divorce his wife?” he said, laughing. “Because of you. Meanwhile, she’s out every night screwing around with whoever she pleases.”

“You’re just dead weight, you know that?”

I snapped. I stormed forward and smacked his face, hard. Seth lost his balance and fell straight onto the soaked bedsheets my brother had just soiled.

The boy screamed, flailing like a madman. In turn, he shoved my brother off the bed. Everything crashed at once—monitors, wires, machines. I saw the oxygen tube rip out.

A moment later, the beeping turned into a steady flatline.

Seth froze.

Luna walked in just then and he immediately scrambled behind her like a scared little boy, clutching her arm.

“Professor Luna… Cyrus hit me again…”

I stared at the chaos in front of me, my mind buzzing. I’d thought about letting go so many times, but I never imagined it would happen like this.

I looked down at my brother’s lifeless body and something on his right hand caught my eye—a small black mole.

Just moments ago, I had seen that same hand yank out his own oxygen tube. My brother had ended his own life.

Luna clearly hadn’t expected things to spiral out of control like this. She cleared her throat a few times.

“Look,” she said, her voice surprisingly calm. “Seth won’t hold it against you for hitting him. Let’s just forget about today. Let it go.”

“Your brother’s been paralyzed for so many years. Honestly, a man living like that with no dignity is worse than dying with some honor.”

Her words were casual, like she was talking about something trivial. Yet, they had stolen my brother’s life away.

“Is your dad in more debt again?” she continued, almost bored. “Four hundred fifty thousand dollars, right? I’ll take care of it for you.”

“Cy, stop causing trouble.”

She spoke like she was tossing a coin to a beggar, giving me just enough to dismiss me. After a few more dismissive words, she left.

Cy… She hadn’t called me that in five years.

I wanted to laugh, but there was also the sting of tears behind my eyes. What I felt most, though, was relief.

Finally, I was free.

It was time for all to end.

I couldn't bury my father, but I could bury my brother. There were no other family members left, so there was no funeral either.

As I stepped out of the graveyard complex, I called Vega. “Vega, come pick me up.”

I went home right after.

The same group of Luna’s college guys, the ones who had come around before, barged in again, eager to take whatever they could. I didn’t stop them, as usual and even handed them some of the things I’d been storing.

They were practically glowing with excitement as they grabbed whatever they wanted. The only thing left untouched was the box full of memories of Luna and me. Not one of them wanted it.

Well, neither did I.

***

That night, I handed Luna the divorce papers again.

“Cyrus, are you done yet?” she snapped. Predictably, Luna lost her temper again. She locked me in the room.

When Vega climbed over the wall to pick me up, my miserable first half of life finally came to an end.

Luna had been drinking all night. When she woke up, she instinctively reached for some hangover pills.

“Nova, where are the hangover pills?”

“They’re in the cabinet ma'am. I’ll go check.”

Nova wiped her hands and headed upstairs to look for someone. She pushed open the bedroom door, only to find it completely empty.

Luna, as if sensing something was off, rushed up the stairs. "Nova, has Mr. Gray's father been here recently?"

Nova blinked in surprise. "Mr. Gray’s father? He was murdered a few days ago—beaten up to death and dumped on the outskirts of the city. They haven’t caught whoever did it. It’s been all over the news... You haven’t seen it?"

The empty room swallowed Luna whole. She stood frozen for a few minutes, her blood running cold. A deep, crushing sense of abandonment washed over her.

For the first time, Luna felt what it was like to be truly left behind.