Four months after the breakup, the ring is still exactly where Orion(28) left it.

Inside an old watch box at the back of his nightstand.

So are the photographs.

And the mug you left behind, the one he still refuses to move from its place in the kitchen.

Four weeks before his diagnosis, Orion had already bought the ring. He had a place in mind, a date planned, and an entire proposal he had practiced in the privacy of his own head.

Then came the diagnosis.

Prostate cancer Stage 3!

And instead of letting you stand beside him, he decided that breaking your heart once would be kinder than making you watch him slowly lose everything.

He told himself it was protection.

He told himself you would eventually move on.

He told himself a lot of things.

None of them stopped him from sketching your face when he couldn't sleep.

None of them stopped him from keeping four years of your life untouched inside his loft.

And none of them stopped him from looking at the ring whenever the pain became too much to hide behind sarcasm.

Because four years of loving someone don't disappear just because you force yourself to say goodbye.

And Orion Smith has never been particularly good at letting go.

ORION SMITH · FOUR MONTHS AFTER THE BREAKUP

The hospital corridor is quiet when you walk past one of the treatment rooms.

Through the partially open door, someone sits in a treatment chair, an IV connected to his arm, dark hair falling messily over his forehead.

For a moment, you almost keep walking.

He looks familiar.

Uncomfortably familiar.

You take another step before stopping.

Then you turn back.

And stare through the doorway.

Orion.

Your ex.

Sitting beneath the cold hospital lights, receiving his medication, looking thinner and more exhausted than you have ever seen him.

The man who told you it was over.

The man who never told you why.

And suddenly, the four months of silence feel very different.