Weeks passed after the signing of the agreement, and everything changed — quietly, but completely.

Julian changed first.

He stopped calling. The morning texts, the goodnight messages, the flowers — all gone. His absence wasn’t loud; it was methodical, calculated. It was as if he had carefully erased me from his life one layer at a time.

At work, he didn’t look at me. Didn’t nod, didn’t acknowledge me. We could walk past each other in the hallway, and he would act as though I were ...