Chapter 3

Why?

Was he afraid that if I got my sight back, I would discover his affair with Chloe?

I clutched my chest, gasping for air against a crushing weight.

If I could see, I wouldn't be useless anymore. I could help him.

He knew that! He knew I would give my life for him!

Yet he kept me in the dark.

He spent weeks scheming to deceive me just so he wouldn't be a day late treating Chloe’s skin rash, choosing to leave me in pitch-black blindness...

"Tyler," I whispered into the phone. "Please... don't tell Ethan about the transplant."

"He's out of the country on business. I want to surprise him when he comes back."

Tyler didn't suspect anything and agreed.

Martha was thrilled.

She had only stolen because she was driven to the wall, but she had always taken care of me with genuine devotion—far better than any agency maid.

Sitting by my hospital bed, she rambled on, "You're right to keep it a secret. Give Mr. Vance a shock. Once you can see again, how could he ever stray? He treats you like royalty; he must still love you deep down. Autumn, once you're healed and he breaks it off, just pretend none of this happened. Staying together is what matters..."

We couldn't stay together.

Martha didn't know that the woman Ethan was with was Chloe Sterling.

She didn't know Chloe was the very person who had blinded me—the person I hated most in this world.

I hid the surgery from Ethan not to surprise him, but because I was terrified. Terrified that if he found out, he would rush back with a fresh web of poisonous lies. I wouldn't have the strength to look him in the eye.

I couldn't bear the thought of them together. I couldn't even stomach the idea of confronting him.

The boy who had once fought until he was bruised and bleeding, only to wipe my tears with a goofy grin...

The man who had worked twenty-hour days without sleep just to afford my medication...

He was a ghost. A fading illusion that would never return.

"The surgery was a complete success, Autumn," Tyler said a week later. "In two weeks, you'll be discharged. You can start unwrapping the bandages gradually to adjust to the light..."

It only took me one week to adapt to my new eyes.

I asked Martha to pack my bags and buy me a one-way train ticket. I was leaving Ethan. I was starting over in another city.

Martha’s eyes went wide. "Have you lost your mind, Autumn? Sure, he slipped up, but he worships the ground you walk on! If he was this patient when you were blind, imagine how much more he’ll love you now. Why would you just hand him over to that homewrecking bitch?"

A bitter smile touched my lips. "My mind is made up, Martha. Please, just pack my things."

So this was what crying felt like when you could see—the world blurring behind a veil of liquid salt.

I had been in the dark for so long; the clarity felt foreign.

I pulled up Chloe’s Instagram. I had created an anonymous burner account, acting like a sick, twisted voyeur, peering into her glamorous life.

She hadn't spent a single day in prison. Five years ago, she had seduced Ethan, and they had been together ever since.

In their photos on sun-drenched beaches, Ethan's smile was so tender, so bright.

In the seven years of my blindness, how many times had Ethan smiled like that around me?

Rarely. Almost never.

He was infinitely gentle with me, but he was never happy.

Let it end.

Ethan, you're exhausted. So am I. Let's set each other free.