1

The house was silent when I came back. I expected to hear footsteps or the sound of dishes. Usually, his assistant would be on the phone. But tonight the silence was heavy.

I took off my shoes at the door. I was tired down to my bones. The business trip had been exhausting, three days of presentations, negotiations, and smiling until my face ached. All of it to secure a deal that would reflect well on him, on his company, on the carefully constructed image of our marriage.

My head was aching. I knew this feeling well as the beginning of one of my episodes. I looked for my medicine in my bag, then paused.

"Shit," I had forgotten to take my morning dose, but the afternoon dose I usually never miss.

I decided to wait until I changed. I wanted to wash off the day and let myself pretend, just for a moment, that this house felt like home.

I walked up the stairs. The wood was rare and very costly. All of it was pretty but cold. The hall was full of silver frames. One of them was our wedding photo, we looked serious in it. He held my waist. It was sweet but felt fake. I spent three years being the perfect wife.

I opened the door to our bedroom and time stopped.

The bed was a mess of white sheets. Maxwell's bare back was to me, muscles shifting beneath skin I had memorized in the dark during our dutiful, scheduled intimacies. Another figure was half beneath him, long dark hair spilling across the pillow.

For a split second, I thought my mind was finally breaking. Then she turned her head. She was very pretty with soft skin. Her eyes showed a deep love I could never give him.

It was her. Selene, his first love.

He once said she taught him how to be a husband. She showed him that small things mattered. She was the one who left him years ago and shattered something in him that I was never quite able to repair.

My bag fell from my hand. He turned around. His eyes were wide but not guilty. He wasn't even shocked to see me. He was calm and in control.

"You're home early," he said.

That was all.

No apology. No explanation. No scramble to cover up or make excuses.

I felt my knees go weak. My fingers pressed into my palm, nails biting into flesh as if I could dig the shock out of my body through sheer physical pain.

"I forgot my medication," I whispered. My voice did not sound like mine. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere far away.

She sat up and did not seem to care. She acted like this was her room.

"You're the contract wife," she said, eyes raking over me with mild curiosity. "I heard about you."

I stepped back, my body moving before my mind could catch up. Then I turned and walked out fast, closing the door behind me with a soft click that felt louder than a slam.

The walls seemed to tilt, and all the photographs blurred.

Three years. Three years of waking up beside him. Three years of learning his likes and dislikes, his work schedule, his tells when he was stressed. Three years of small moments that had felt, despite everything, like they were building toward something real.

All of it crumbled in the span of thirty seconds.

I sat down on the sofa before I collapsed, my hands gripping the armrest to anchor myself to something solid.

Minutes passed, or maybe hours. Either way, time had lost meaning.

Then I heard footsteps on the stairs.

He walked down slowly, wearing only his shorts and a robe. His hair was wet from what seemed like a quick shower. His attitude did not look like he was about to end our marriage. He dropped a dark leather folder on the table with a soft thud.

Then he sat in the chair across from me.

"Sign it," he said.

I looked at the cover. Divorce Agreement in gold letters. My hands shook as I reached for it, but I pulled back and pressed my palms to my thighs.

"I thought... we still had a week," I said. Our contract had been for three years. This week was supposed to be the final week. Seven more days before we sat down with lawyers and ended this professionally, the way we'd begun it.

"She came back earlier than expected," was all he said, acting like that was enough. As if that explained everything. As if the sudden appearance of his first love erased all courtesy, all basic human decency.

I swallowed hard. "So you decided this tonight."

"Yes." He said firmly.

He opened the folder, flipping past legal texts to the signature page, a blank line waiting for my name, and slid it toward me.

"Our agreement ends today. This was always the plan. One more week of it means nothing."

I stared at the paper. The words blurred together. Dissolution of marriage. Division of assets. Terms and conditions.

Three years. Reduced to a signature line.

Selene came down the stairs wearing my silk nightgown. The one he bought for my birthday last year. He said it looked good on me. I had only worn it three times because it felt too intimate, too romantic for what we actually were.

It clung to her curves like it had been made for her instead. Like everything else in this house had been waiting for her return.

"You're still here?" she asked lightly, like I was a guest who'd overstayed their welcome.

I said nothing. My throat had completely closed up.

She sat on the arm of the couch by him, sliding her hand around his neck as if it belonged there, fingers playing with the hair at his nape in a gesture so casual, so familiar, it made something crack in my chest.