“I can’t marry you,” he said to Anya, and walked over to me instead. The wedding unraveled. Anya disappeared—off social media, out of town, maybe out of the country. I didn’t rejoice in her downfall. I just felt free.

Alexey didn’t push. He waited. He left notes. And one day, I opened the door—and said yes to a walk. Six months passed. I rebuilt my life: a job in publishing, my first published story, and finally living as myself—not someone’s shadow. Alexey stayed, not out of guilt, but love.

He proposed by the lake where we first kissed.

“No lies. No fear. Are you ready?” he asked.

I smiled. “Yes.”

Life broke me. But I found my way back.

And I will never be invisible again.