The 52nd Goodbye

The 52nd Goodbye

Agatha Christie · Completed · 9.4k Words

240
Hot
1.8k
Views
6
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

Seven years ago, he gave me 52 love letters, promising to prove his love through each of the 52 weeks of a year.

Seven years later, I burned them one by one—each betrayal claiming another letter.

Layla thought she had married her fairy tale—the coffee-stained graduate student working late nights in the lab, the tender man who wrote her love letters every single day. She used her mother's inheritance to fund his education, stayed by his side through countless sleepless nights, even sacrificed her own Harvard opportunity for his dreams.

But everything changed when Mia appeared—young, beautiful, and brilliant.

The public humiliation, the ruthless betrayal, the cold calculation... With each heartbreak, she burned another letter he had written with his own hand. From 52 to 51, from hope to despair, from deep love to complete devastation.

When the last love letter turned to ash, the man finally realized—he had lost her completely.

Chapter 1

Layla's POV

I will never forget that night—the moment my husband completely humiliated me in front of everyone.

The luxurious banquet hall glittered under crystal chandeliers, glasses clinking as guests mingled. Tonight was the astronomy department's annual academic gala, and Brent had just received his tenure nomination. I had carefully chosen this deep blue silk dress, wanting to make him proud on such an important evening.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Brent stood at the podium, champagne flute raised, his face beaming with a brilliant smile. "Tonight, I want to introduce someone very special."

I smoothed my dress expectantly, thinking he would call me to the stage.

"She's not only an outstanding scholar but also the most important collaborator in my academic career." Brent's gaze swept past me, landing somewhere behind. "Mia, please come forward."

What?

A young, beautiful blonde gracefully walked toward the podium. She couldn't have been more than twenty-four or twenty-five, with a slender figure and porcelain skin—the kind of youthful glow I could never possess again.

Applause erupted below as I heard colleagues whispering:

"Isn't that his wife over there?"

"Mia is his graduate student..."

My face began to burn, but I forced a smile. As his wife, I should appear graceful and composed, shouldn't I?

Mia approached Brent's side, standing shoulder to shoulder with him. Blushing, she said shyly, "Professor, you're too kind."

"Without your assistance, I never could have completed this research." Brent looked at her tenderly. "You're the most gifted student I've ever encountered."

I stood up, wanting to approach the stage. Since Brent was introducing his capable assistant, as his wife, I should show my support, right?

"Let's all applaud Mia's outstanding contributions!" Brent raised his glass high.

I hurried toward the podium, wanting to stand beside Brent and applaud Mia, demonstrating the grace of a professor's wife.

But fate chose that exact moment to play a cruel joke on me.

My heels caught in my dress hem, I lost my balance, and crashed straight into the elaborately arranged champagne tower beside me.

CRASH—

Crystal glasses tumbled down, champagne splashing everywhere, glass shards scattering across the floor. I fell awkwardly, my dress soaked with champagne, hair disheveled.

The entire banquet hall fell dead silent.

Every eye focused on me—some shocked, some sympathetic, but most filled with malicious glee.

"Oh my God, how embarrassing."

"What's wrong with the professor's wife?"

"Is she drunk?"

I struggled to stand, but the slippery floor sent me sliding down again. I lost an earring, my makeup smeared, completely disheveled.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." I apologized through trembling lips, tears betraying me as they welled up.

But the most devastating blow was yet to come.

"Layla!" Brent rushed down from the stage, but his face was dark with fury. "What the hell are you doing? Do you know how important tonight is for me?"

He didn't help me up—instead, he was scolding me.

"I... I just wanted to..."

"You wanted what? To embarrass me in front of all my colleagues?" Brent lowered his voice, but everyone nearby could still hear. "Look at yourself right now. What a mess!"

Mia approached softly saying, "Professor, don't be so hard on Layla. She was just trying to help."

"Mia, you're too kind." Brent's expression instantly softened when he looked at her, then turned back to me. "You should go home. Stop making a scene here."

Making a scene? I had become the one making a scene?

Colleagues around us were watching the show—some taking photos with their phones, others covering their mouths to hide their laughter. I knew that by tomorrow, the entire university would know—Professor Brent's wife had made a fool of herself at the gala and been publicly reprimanded.

"I can call a car to take Layla home," Mia suggested thoughtfully. "It's so late, it's not safe for her to go alone."

Every word she spoke was like a gentle blade, cutting me to shreds. They were caring words, but spoken in this context, they only made me appear more pitiful.

"No need." I stood up trembling, trying to maintain what little dignity I had left. "I can get home myself."

I stumbled toward the exit, hearing Brent's warm voice behind me: "Sorry about that, everyone. Let's continue the celebration..."

Celebration? Celebration without me?

In the rainy night, I stood alone in the empty parking lot, soaked to the bone, makeup ruined. The man who once promised to love me forever had chosen the young, beautiful her in front of everyone, while grinding me into the dirt.

I arrived home after midnight. This mansion that we'd shared for five years, purchased with my mother's inheritance, now felt cold as an icehouse, devoid of any warmth.

Brent texted: "You were completely out of line tonight. I'm very disappointed. We need to have a serious talk tomorrow."

Disappointed? He was disappointed in ME?

I entered the master bedroom and opened the bottom drawer of my vanity. Three yellowed love letters lay quietly inside.

There used to be fifty-two.

Seven years ago, I was the youngest librarian at the University of Vermont, and Brent was just a poor doctoral student surviving on a meager teaching assistant's salary. Back then, he wrote me a love letter every day for fifty-two consecutive days, saying he would use the fifty-two weeks of a year to prove his love for me.

"My starlight, meeting you is the greatest miracle of my life..."

"Without your support, I am nothing..."

"Layla, marry me, and let me spend the rest of my life cherishing you..."

I had used my mother's $200,000 inheritance to support him through graduate school, stayed up countless nights with him in the lab, even gave up my opportunity to pursue advanced studies at Harvard. I thought that man who always smelled of coffee in the laboratory would love me forever.

And now, forty-nine love letters had already turned to ash.

Every time he hurt me, I would burn one of the letters he had written me by hand. The first time was when he publicly criticized me for not understanding academia; the tenth time was when he started staying out all night for "academic discussions" with Mia; the twentieth time was when he forgot my birthday because of Mia's thesis defense...

Forty-nine betrayals, forty-nine forgivenesses.

Tonight was the fiftieth time.

I picked up the fiftieth love letter with trembling hands:

"My dearest Layla, if someday you think I've changed, please remember how much I love you in this moment. I swear, no matter what happens, you will always be the most important woman in my heart. —Forever yours, Brent."

Forever mine, Brent?

I held the lighter, my hand shaking violently. The rain outside grew heavier, beating against the windows like my shattered heart.

Tonight's scenes replayed in my mind: my humiliating fall, champagne splashing everywhere, the crowd's laughter, Mia's gentle "concern," and Brent's cold rebuke...

Tears blurred my vision, but this time, I didn't hesitate.

Flames danced as the fiftieth love letter slowly curled, blackened, and finally turned to ash.

Seven years of love, as fragile as this piece of paper.

I looked at the last two letters remaining in the drawer and closed my eyes in despair, letting tears fall freely.

Only two letters left.

How many more betrayals could I endure?

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Cursed Fates

Cursed Fates

1.6k Views · Ongoing · Taylor Ashcraft
Charlotte Sinclair was murdered at the hands of her abusive boyfriend. After dying, she wakes up in the body of another. She pieces together information from her first day as Aribella Voss, realizing that she's been reincarnated into a book she knew all too well. The only problem: She was fated to die in this story as well. She sets out on a mission to ensure that doesn't happen, but when she begins changing important parts of the story, she also changes the plot of the story she knew. Without the upper hand, Aribella no longer has idea what lies in her future.
The Princess's Revenge

The Princess's Revenge

63.6k Views · Completed · Xena Kessler
Two nations are at war. Valencia's pack is massacred by Alpha Marcus, and she is enslaved by him. When he dies, she is to be buried alive with him as a sacrifice.

Alpha Logan is an illegitimate son whose mother disappeared when he was 10 years old. He grew up suffering from humiliation and lacking maternal love.

Alpha Logan saves Valencia at Marcus's funeral, which seems to be destined by fate—part of the Moon Goddess's grand plan.

As Valencia accidentally discovers prophecies in Logan's mother's diary that seem to be related to her, the truth gradually surfaces. Valencia appears to be merely a tool in a princess's revenge plot. How will Logan and Valencia navigate their path amid the national war and pack politics?
Human Capture (Up North #2)

Human Capture (Up North #2)

1.6k Views · Ongoing · eenboterham
She was a ghost in the trees. Now, she is a prisoner of the pack.

Raised in a starving settlement choked by a vast, unforgiving forest, Lara learned early that survival has a price. To keep her family alive, she became a master hunter—agile, silent, and deadly with an array of mismatched blades. But the forest has eyes, and one evening, the shadows dragged her away.

Nine months later, Lara breaks free from a concrete dungeon, only to find herself stranded in the lawless, rogue-infested wilds of Avers Land alongside four captured werewolf girls. Seeking refuge in the neighboring territory of Illyen, she expects to find a way back to her human life. Instead, she is brought face-to-face with Alpha Rowan, the terrifying, ruthless ruler of the frozen North.

One look into Lara’s eyes, and the Alpha’s world shatters. His eyes turn an absolute shade of black. The bond is undeniable. She is his fated mate.

But a human cannot survive the brutal political landscape of the North, and Rowan openly rejects the bond, dragging her onto a warship bound for a kingdom that views her as a fragile liability. Trapped between a mate who refuses to love her and a court of monsters waiting for her to break, Lara must use every hunter's instinct she possesses. Because in the realm of wolves, a human must either grow claws of her own—or perish in the snow.
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)

The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)

2.5k Views · Completed · Emma Mountford
Saints and Sinners- She was the light to my dark.
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.

I’m not even sure I want to.

Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.

She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.

The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.

I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.

I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.

3/ Rags and Ritches-
Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon

Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon

497.2k Views · Completed · Riley
My name is Audrey, and I'm the adopted daughter of the Bailey family.
Four years ago, the Bailey family faced a devastating financial crisis.
Just when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, a mysterious benefactor emerged, offering salvation with one condition: a contract marriage.
Rumors swirled about this enigmatic man—whispers claimed he was hideously ugly and too ashamed to show his face, possibly harboring dark, twisted obsessions.
Without hesitation, the Baileys sacrificed me to protect their precious biological daughter, forcing me to take her place as a pawn in this cold, calculated arrangement.
Luckily, in those four years, the mysterious husband never asked to meet in person.
Now, in the final year of our arrangement, the husband I've never met is demanding we meet face to face.
But disaster struck the night before my return—drunk and disoriented, I stumbled into the wrong hotel room and ended up sleeping with the legendary financial mogul, Caspar Thornton.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?
Goddess Of The Underworld

Goddess Of The Underworld

951.3k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
Left at a pack border with a name and a stubborn heartbeat, Envy grows into the sharpest kind of survivor, an orphaned warrior who knows how to hold a line and keep moving. Love isn’t in the plan…until four alpha wolves with playboy reputations and inconveniently soft hands decide the girl who won’t bow is the only queen they’ll ever take. Their mate. The one they have waited for. Xavier, Haiden, Levi, and Noah are gorgeous, lethal, and anything but perfect and Envy isn’t either. She’s changing. First into hell hound, Layah at her heels and fire in her veins. Then into what the realm has been waiting for, a Goddess of the Underworld, dragging her mates down to hell with her.

When the veil between the Divine, the Living, and the Dead begins to crack, Envy is thrust beneath with a job she can’t drop: keep the worlds from bleeding together, shepherd the lost, and make ordinary into armour, breakfasts, bedtime, battle plans. Peace lasts exactly one lullaby. This is the story of an orphan pup who became a goddess by choosing her family; of four imperfect alphas learning how to be better. Steamy, fierce, and full of heart, Goddess of the Underworld is a reverse harem, found-family paranormal romance where love writes the rules and keeps three realms from falling apart.
The mafia princess return

The mafia princess return

943.4k Views · Completed · Tonje Unosen
Talia have been living with her mother, stepsister and Stepfather for years. One day she finally get away from them. Suddenly she learn she have more family out there and she have many people that actually love her, something she have never felt before! At least not as she can remember. She have to learn to trust others, get her new brothers to accept her for who she is!
Let Them Kneel

Let Them Kneel

238.5k Views · Ongoing · My Fantasy Stories
Kaelani spent her life believing she was wolfless.
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.

But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.

Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.

When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.

For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.

Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.

But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.

And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.

Especially him.

She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.

Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

2.9m Views · Ongoing · Harper Rivers
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother.

"What is wrong with me?

Why does being near him make my skin feel too tight, like I’m wearing a sweater two sizes too small?

It’s just newness, I tell myself firmly.

He’s my boyfirend’s brother.

This is Tyler’s family.

I’m not going to let one cold stare undo that.

**

As a ballet dancer, My life looks perfect—scholarship, starring role, sweet boyfriend Tyler. Until Tyler shows his true colors and his older brother, Asher, comes home.

Asher is a Navy veteran with battle scars and zero patience. He calls me "princess" like it's an insult. I can't stand him.

When My ankle injury forces her to recover at the family lake house, I‘m stuck with both brothers. What starts as mutual hatred slowly turns into something forbidden.

I'm falling for my boyfriend's brother.

**

I hate girls like her.

Entitled.

Delicate.

And still—

Still.

The image of her standing in the doorway, clutching her cardigan tighter around her narrow shoulders, trying to smile through the awkwardness, won’t leave me.

Neither does the memory of Tyler. Leaving her here without a second thought.

I shouldn’t care.

I don’t care.

It’s not my problem if Tyler’s an idiot.

It’s not my business if some spoiled little princess has to walk home in the dark.

I’m not here to rescue anyone.

Especially not her.

Especially not someone like her.

She’s not my problem.

And I’ll make damn sure she never becomes one.

But when my eyes fell on her lips, I wanted her to be mine.
Where The Ice Gives Way

Where The Ice Gives Way

51.4k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
Charlotte Pierce is used to surviving in motion. New towns, new schools, the same old house on the edge of nowhere, and the same rule that keeps her standing. Keep her twin brother, Charlie safe. Keep his hockey dream alive. Keep her own needs quiet. She works too much, sleeps too little, and saves the one thing that still feels like hers for the middle of the night, when she can lace up her worn skates and carve freedom into dangerous frozen ice. Charlotte and Charlie shifted once, years ago, and never understood what it meant. They had no pack, no guidance and no protection. Just two twins clinging to each other and pretending the voice in their heads was stress, imagination, or loneliness. Then they move to Wellington.
Blake Atlas scents his mate the moment Charlotte arrives. The bond hits hard and unmistakable, but Charlotte doesn’t recognise it. She doesn’t know why her chest keeps pulling toward the one boy she absolutely cannot afford to want. Blake is Charlie’s new hockey captain. Charlie’s chance at making something good. Charlie makes it clear; his sister is off-limits and Blake tries to do the right thing, but secrets don’t stay buried forever. Rogues prowl the edges of town. The ice cracks. The bond tightens. Then Charlotte’s rare white wolf awakens, the very thing that makes her powerful, also makes her a target.
Shanti needs Shakti. (Peace needs strength.)

Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

2m Views · Ongoing · Jaylee
Soft hot lips find the shell of my ear and he whispers, "You think I don't want you?" He pushes his hips forward, grinding into the back of my ass and I groan. "Really?" He chuckles.

"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."

I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.

Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.

"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."


New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.

Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates

When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.

But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?
Bella and Her Beast

Bella and Her Beast

19.2k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
For all the little girls who grew up wondering what happens after the prince kisses the girl—this is the story they never told you.
.
Locked in her frozen tower, Bella dreamed of warmth, of touch, of freedom and of love. Cursed with the power of ice and snow, she’s spent her life alone. A secret they tried to protect the world from. Her only escape comes in the form of the books she reads. Stories of heat, desire, and the kind of love that could melt even her frostbitten heart.
Damien is the Beast. A dragon King with a temper forged in flame and a soul hollowed by duty. The world fears him. The people call him a monster. But beneath the scales and the rage lies a man who has never been touched by love.
When frost meets fire, the world shatters. She was never meant to leave her tower. He was never meant to find her. But destiny doesn’t bow to kings or care for cages and now the question burns through them both: Can Bella have her Beast? Or will the girl of snow melt in the heat of his desire?

.
"I’m keeping her."
"What?"
Before I can react, he scoops her up. Her small body fits easily in the cradle of his talons. For a split second, she looks startled, but not afraid. Her hand rests against one scaled finger, and she stares up at him with that same curious wonder, as though she’s already forgotten she was ever meant to fear me.
"Put her down," I try to command, panic threading through my thoughts. "You’ll hurt her."
"She’s ours," the beast insists, possessive and fierce. "Our snowflake."