Underneath the wallpaper, I found the wall covered with a painting, Mathias holding Nathalia in his arms, a picture of perfect devotion. The words written beside it were like daggers.
‘Nathalia, this is our first home. I will never leave.
Every night, I hold Irene in my arms, but the only person I think about is you.
Will you ever come back?
I have everything now, so why haven’t you returned?
Irene wants to marry me, but I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone other than you.
Nathalia, I really… I can’t hold on much longer…’
Each sentence felt like a flame searing through my chest, burning my heart alive as it fought to keep beating.
Now, it all made sense. No wonder Mathias had kept me from touching the renovations. This wall, this damn wall, had been filled with his longing for Nathalia.
How laughable. The wallpaper I’d so carefully chosen had only served to blind me to the truth.
Mathias wasn’t sentimental; he’d been holding onto her all along.
And? I had never been anything but a punchline in his story.
My nails dug deep into my palm, the sharp pain barely registering as I numbly stared at the words on the wall, reading them over and over like a cruel mantra, torturing myself until the last remnants of my heart’s attachment turned to smoke.
With a steadying breath, I placed the keys on the table, no longer hesitating. Without another glance, I turned to leave.
Then, my phone buzzed, and I finally received a reply from Mathias. [If you want to talk, come to the Belmont Haven Hotel.]
I went. I kept my promise.
But Mathias wasn’t there.
Instead, Nathalia stepped out of a hotel room, draped in an expensive designer suit, her every step radiating grace.
The jewelry she wore sparkled like the cruel glint in her eyes as she looked me over, her gaze dripping with provocation.
“Mathias doesn’t even want you anymore, and yet you’re still clinging to him. Don’t you find that pathetic?”
A sudden clarity hit me.
“That message… you sent it from Mathias’s phone, didn’t you?”
Nathalia let out a laugh, a sound of pure derision as if her silence had already answered my question.
Since that was the case, there was no point in wasting another breath on her. I turned to leave.
But before I could take another step, Nathalia’s voice drifted from behind me, laced with mockery.