No strings attached |(UNDER REVISION)

Chapter 40- Trapped love

Aiah's POV

Five years ago, I stood in front of Mikha, memorizing every detail of her face-the way her eyes darkened with pain, the way her lips trembled as she fought to keep her composure. I wanted to hold her, to tell her everything, to beg her to run away with me.

But I couldn't.

Mikha was my world. She was the air I breathed, the light that made every day worth waking up to. She wasn't just my love-she was my home, my sanctuary, my safe place in a life full of expectations and chains.

But I still left her.

I left because I had no choice.

I left because if I didn't, they would've destroyed her.

My parents made it clear: I was to marry Adrian. I was to fulfill my duty to the family. They threatened me in ways I never imagined-ways that didn't just involve me. They threatened Mikha's career, her life, everything she had built.

"If you love her, you will let her go," my mother had said, her voice calm but laced with poison. "Because if you don't, we will make sure she has nothing left."

I could handle their wrath-I had lived under their control my entire life. But Mikha? She deserved better. She deserved a life free from the darkness of my family's world.

So, I did the only thing I could to protect her.

I walked away.

I let her believe I didn't love her enough. I let her think I chose duty over love. I let her break apart while I shattered in silence.

I didn't protect myself. I let them ruin me.

But at least, Mikha was safe.

At least, she was free.

Or so I thought.

Five years.

It had been five long years, but my love for Mikha never wavered. It never changed.

I thought time would dull the ache, that distance would eventually make me forget, but no. Every single day, I lived with the weight of what I had lost.

I still loved her.

I loved her in the quiet moments when I sat by my window, staring at the Paris skyline, wondering if she was looking at the same sky.

I loved her in the stolen seconds before I closed my eyes at night, imagining her warmth beside me, only to wake up to the cold, empty space where she should have been.

I loved her in the way I never let anyone else touch my heart, in the way I kept my promises to her, even if she thought I had broken them.

She was still my world.

And seeing her again today... God, it hurt.

I wanted to run to her. To explain everything. To tell her that leaving her was the hardest thing I had ever done, that every step away from her felt like I was ripping my own soul apart.

But I couldn't.

Not with Adrian beside me. Not with the child clutching my hand-a child that wasn't mine, but the world believed was.

I saw the way Mikha looked at me. The shock, the confusion, the flicker of pain she tried to hide behind a smirk.

"Mukhang may date pa kayo ng asawa at anak mo," she had said, her voice steady, but I knew her too well. I saw the hurt buried underneath her words.

I wanted to scream. To tell her that I was never his, that my heart had only ever belonged to her.

But I had already broken her once.