When He Stopped Loving Me Chapter 9

In the following days, Ethan truly didn't appear.

Claire's world suddenly went quiet.

She quietly recovered, quietly ate, quietly watched clouds drift by her window.

Occasionally she'd pick up her phone, inevitably seeing Rachel's social media.

All photos of her and Ethan's sweet dates.

And every place they visited was somewhere Ethan had once taken Claire.

The mountaintop restaurant where he'd promised her forever. The beach with their footprints side by side. Even the wishing tree where Ethan cut down the heart-lock he'd hung with Claire, replacing it with one for Rachel.

He methodically, calmly brought his new "love" to retrace and completely erase nine years of traces between him and Claire.

Like erasing chalk from a blackboard—effortless, without a moment's hesitation.