Chapter 15 – Finale: The Stepmom’s Choice8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJQ0Qg9Y0SU
The day Janina decided to leave the Villegas estate, the sky was gray. Not raining, not storming—just undecided. Much like her heart.
She had packed lightly. Just the essentials. A few clothes, her sketchpad, and the only photo of her mother she ever kept in her wallet. Everything else she was leaving behind—including Ethan.
Especially Ethan.
But fate wasn’t done yet.
She was halfway down the driveway when the black Ford Everest skidded to a halt in front of the gate. Ethan stepped out, hair messy, breathing hard, like he had run from a storm only he could see.
“You’re leaving,” he said, his voice flat, eyes locked on the suitcase by her feet.
“I have to.”
“Why?” he asked, walking closer. “Because you're scared? Or because you still think this is wrong?”
“Both,” she admitted. “And because I love you too much to ruin your life.”
He flinched. “You think I’m ruined?”
“You haven’t even started your life yet, Ethan. You're twenty. You have Cathy, your med school dreams, your future. I was just the woman who lost herself trying to be someone’s wife. Don’t let me be the reason you burn down everything you’ve built.”
“I don’t care about med school anymore,” he said, fists clenched. “I care about you.”
“And I care about you enough to let you go.”
They stared at each other, the weight of everything unspoken pressing between them.
Then, for the first time, Ethan didn’t try to fight it.
Instead, he asked, “Did you ever love him?”
“Gregory?” Janina exhaled. “In a way, yes. He saved me when I needed saving. But I never belonged to him. Not really.”
“And me?” he asked quietly. “Do I have a piece of you?”
Janina’s lips trembled. “You have all of me. That’s the problem.”
He nodded, eyes glassy. Then, slowly, he stepped back. Gave her the space she needed. The choice she had to make.
She picked up her suitcase.
He didn’t stop her.
But as she passed him, he whispered, “I’ll wait.”
She paused, heart thundering.
“I’ll wait,” he repeated. “Until you’re no longer his wife. Until you’re free. Until you choose me with no shame.”
Janina turned to him, tears streaming.
“I already chose you,” she said.
Then walked away.
One year later.
In a small apartment overlooking Laguna de Bay, Janina stood by a window, a coffee cup in her hands.
Her divorce was finalized six months ago. She went back to designing—smaller projects, but ones that made her feel whole again. No more mansions. Just spaces that felt like home.
There was a knock on the door.
She knew the rhythm by heart.
She opened it.
And there he was—older, a little more confident, a small scar near his temple she didn’t recognize.
“Hi,” Ethan said.
Janina didn’t speak. She just stepped aside and let him in.
He placed a worn-out poetry notebook on her coffee table. The one he used to hide under his bed.
“For you,” he said. “They’re all about you.”
She opened to the first page.
"The Stepmom I Loved."
She looked up at him.
And smiled, soft but certain.
“Stay.”
End.
🥀 The Stepmom Dilemma – Finished.
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