Chapter 2

Later that evening, Ethan' s phone rang. David Kim.

Their mutual college friend. Always caught in the middle. Always well-meaning. Always naive.

"Ethan, man, Olivia called me. She feels terrible," David said, his voice full of forced cheer.

Ethan remembered David saying similar things in the past life.

"She said this is just for show, to get the press off Liam' s back. She' s really torn up about it, promises a quick reconciliation. Even mentioned a lavish make-up vacation."

Ethan leaned back on his worn couch in his small music room, a space Olivia rarely entered.

"Is that what she said?" Ethan asked, his voice flat.

"Yeah, man. You know Olivia. She gets into these fixes with Liam. That kid… well, you know. But she loves you, Ethan. Don' t do anything rash."

"Rash?" Ethan almost laughed. He' d already lived through the consequences of not being "rash" enough.

"She said you agreed very… calmly. That worried her more than if you' d yelled."

"Good," Ethan said.

"Good? Ethan, what' s going on with you? This isn' t like you."

"Maybe I' m finally being like me, David," Ethan said. "The me I should have been a long time ago."

He remembered the smear campaign. Liam' s whispers turning Olivia against him. The faked evidence of professional misconduct. His career, already fragile as an indie musician, shattered.

He remembered the doctors Olivia found, handpicked by Liam' s "contacts," who dismissed his growing weakness, his tremors, as "anxiety."

"Just try to understand her position," David pleaded. "Aura' s IPO is on the line. Liam' s fragile career..."

"Fragile?" Ethan cut him off. "Liam is a parasite, David. And Olivia enables him."

The words hung in the air. He' d never spoken so bluntly to David before.

"Wow, Ethan. That' s… harsh."

"It' s the truth. And I' m done being sacrificed for it."

"So, this divorce… you' re serious?"

"As serious as a heart attack," Ethan said, remembering the crushing pain in his chest before he' d reached for the pills in that other life. "Tell Olivia my condition stands. After this charade, we' re finished."

He hung up before David could argue further.

He looked around his studio. His guitars. His songbooks, filled with lyrics Olivia had once inspired, then lyrics filled with pain because of her.

He wouldn' t let it happen again.

He wouldn' t end up a ghost in his own life, a footnote in Olivia' s story of devotion to Liam.

This time, he would walk away.

He had to.