“Belinda, have you made up your mind yet? Don’t let this opportunity to study abroad slip away. It’s an experience you’ll regret missing out on!”
After reading the message, something inside her shifted. She had been hesitant and unsure for weeks, but now, the decision was clear.
“Yes,” she typed back. “I’m going to study abroad.”
It was time to start over. To leave everything behind.
She quickly packed her things, each item a symbol of the life she was leaving.
Despite the feverish chill in her bones from the rain the following day, Belinda dragged herself to the registry office. She waited. Minutes stretched into an hour. Lucas never showed.
She called him.
Verena’s voice answered. “Lucas, could you help me here…”
Lucas’s voice followed, distant and uninterested. “I’m busy. We’ll go to the registry office another day.”
The phone went silent.
Belinda stared at the screen, her heart sinking. A lump formed in her throat, but she didn’t cry. Not now.
She typed one last message to Lucas, then took out her SIM card and threw it into the nearest trash can.
No more messages. No more hope.
Today was the day. The day she would leave for Chixdon.
Belinda made a silent vow to herself as she left the remnants of her old life behind.
When she stepped onto that plane, she would erase Lucas from her mind—every memory, every dream.
She would never look back.
