A cigarette rested between his lips. He glanced at his phone. He had called you too many times, sent you too many messages. But there was no sign of you. He didn’t know where you were. Wherever you had gone, he had searched—but it was as if you had vanished like a ghost.

He set his phone on the table, rose from the chair. There was only one place he hadn’t gone yet. The villa he had bought for you. The one you always went to with him during the holidays.

He grabbed his keys, threw on his coat, and left the house straight to his car. Sliding into the driver’s seat, he started the engine.

He was worried about you.

He missed you. His heart ached at the thought of you leaving.

He had to find you. Thousands of questions tore through his mind. The love he had for you—it was deep and dreamlike. Not dangerous, just the kind of love that longed for your touch to calm him. Your touch had always soothed him. But now, he was anything but calm. His hand kept twitching, restless, like stress was eating him alive.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered shakily under his breath. Tears spilled freely. He clenched his teeth, pressed harder on the gas. As if every second mattered—ten seconds, five seconds—it didn’t matter, he just had to get there.

He arrived. Stepping out of the car, his heart pounded wildly in his chest. He pulled out the spare key and pressed it into the lock. The villa door opened. Within a minute, he was inside.

The lights were on.

But you weren’t in the living room. You weren’t in the kitchen. You weren’t even in the lounge.

He climbed the stairs, checking room after room, until he reached the last one—the one where you two had always found peace together.

And when he opened the door—

Everything stopped.

A surge of betrayal.

His eyes trembled.

His hands trembled.

His heart trembled.

The smile faded from his face.

You were in the arms of another man. The smile that once belonged to him was now for someone else.

You turned toward the door, your smile gone, your eyes wide with terror.

The other man turned as well.

And that was the beginning— The beginning of your betrayal.