11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUsIxkHNtFe
The suitcase clicked shut with a finality that made Andrei pause in the hallway.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGMckHHP1jM
Colleen didn’t look back.
“Just a few days,” she said quietly, slipping on her coat. “I need air that doesn’t carry your silence.”
He wanted to stop her. He didn’t.
Because sometimes love meant letting someone leave — especially when it hurt.
The First Night — Tagaytay
She checked into a small inn overlooking the lake, the chill of the mountain air biting into her loneliness.
Colleen curled up in a blanket, her journal resting on her knees, pen poised above the page. And then, she wrote — not to Andrei, not even about him.
She wrote to herself.
Day 1.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEatDPJibnO
The silence is louder without you. But here, I hear myself again.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdsygrcSkgG
I’m not just someone who got hurt. I’m someone who survived it.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBPhcIY51UZ
I need to remember that.
Day 3 — By the Cliff
She stood by the edge of a viewing deck, wind whipping through her hair, the sky painted in bleeding pink and orange.
A family laughed behind her. A couple took selfies. A child ran to his father.
She smiled — and it didn’t feel like betrayal.
That night, she wrote again:
Day 3.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHrIm3u1ue2
I thought leaving meant giving up. But I think it means choosing me — if only for now.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4mfI9XAsAU
I still love him. That hasn’t changed.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaOMumLbCb1
But I also love the girl who’s been trying so hard to breathe again.
Day 5 — The Letter She’ll Never Send
She poured herself into it, not as an attack, but as a final confession.
Dear Andrei,
I loved you so much, I forgot how to love myself.
I twisted myself into forgiveness I hadn’t felt, laughed when it hurt, stayed even when I was breaking.
And I know you’re sorry. I see it in your eyes. But sorry can’t unfeel.
I’m not leaving forever. But I need to come back to you whole — not shattered in apology.
If you love me, really love me, you’ll wait with open hands, not tight fists.
Because I am not a punishment you must endure.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9chKuuWW2F
I am a person you must choose — fully, freely, faithfully.— Colleen
She folded the letter and tucked it between the pages of her journal.
A keepsake of pain.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCeDTYZBeWW
And strength.
Colleen didn’t know what would happen when she returned.
But for now, she finally felt like her again.
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