Chapter 03

Arvan looked at me with an expression I could not read.

I turned to leave.

"Reyna."

He called my name just as I was nearly at the door. His voice carried something quieter than before. But before I could turn around, the door swung open from the outside.

"Arvan."

Lara stood in the doorway in a cream dress that fell perfectly across her shoulders, hair arranged with effortless elegance, her smile like sunlight breaking through on a clear morning. Beside her, a small boy of about five held her hand.

"Oh." Her eyes met mine for a single second. "I'm sorry, I didn't know your wife was here."

Arvan moved past me. He immediately approached Lara.

"You have nothing to apologize for. She was just leaving."

He said that lightly. Without considering my feelings. His hand even touched Lara's back without hesitation.

"I will keep my word. You may go."

Arvan glanced at me briefly, the familiar cold look.

I nodded once.

And left.

As the door closed behind me, I heard Lara's voice, soft and unhurried, and Arvan answering her in a tone he had never once used with me.

---

I arrived home just before lunch. Kirana was waiting at the front door with her rabbit tucked under her arm.

"Mama!" She hung immediately from my arm. "Did you see Daddy? Is Daddy coming home today?"

I took off my shoes, set down my bag, and knelt in front of her. "Yes. Daddy said he will come."

"Really?"

"Really."

Kirana scrunched her small nose, the expression she always made when weighing something with great seriousness.

"Will Daddy come to Kirana's birthday too?"

My throat tightened. Arvan had never made a real promise to Kirana, because making a promise requires caring about the cost of breaking it.

"Yes, sweetheart," I said. "Daddy will be at your birthday."

Kirana gave a small leap of joy, her rabbit swinging through the air. I watched her run back inside to announce the news to it, and my chest felt full and hollow at the same time.

“Please don’t break your promise, Arvan,” I prayed silently. “You have to come. Not for me, but for her.”

That evening, Arvan arrived at exactly seven, just before dinner.

Kirana, who had been watching the door, flew to open it.

I watched from the end of the hallway as my daughter's face transformed, from the taut stillness of waiting, to something lit entirely from within.

"Daddy!"

Arvan knelt to receive her as she collided into him. Something moved across his face, quick and nearly imperceptible, but I saw it. A slight crease between his brows, like a man who does not know what to do with a feeling that has arrived without warning.

Dinner was quieter than I had imagined, though not with the kind of quiet that makes a room feel hostile. Kirana carried most of the conversation, telling Arvan about the butterfly painting she was nearly finished with and the red shoes she had decided she absolutely needed.

Arvan listened far more than I had expected him to.

After dinner, Kirana took his hand.

"Daddy, will you put Kirana to sleep?"

Arvan looked at Kirana, then glanced at me. I nodded slowly, signaling for him to agree.

I turned to clear the dinner table. Through the bedroom door left slightly ajar, I could see them.

Arvan sat on the edge of the bed with a picture book in his hands, the one about a little bear searching for home, Kirana's favourite. His voice was quiet, not particularly expressive, but Kirana did not care. She lay curled beneath her blanket with her rabbit pressed against her chest, watching him with eyes that grew heavier with each page.

Before he reached the last page, she was already asleep.

Arvan sat motionless for a few seconds, then closed the book.

I stepped back from the doorway before he emerged.

"I've prepared a guest room," I said when he appeared. "You can stay if you want.”

He looked at me with immediate suspicion. "Why bother? Are you trying to find your way into my bed again?"

"I only want Kirana to find you here when she wakes up tomorrow morning. Nothing more."

Arvan scoffed. Something glinted in his eyes. "I can see straight through you, Reyna. You want me to stay so you have more opportunity to get close to me."

"I have already agreed to the divorce, Arvan." I cut him off, and my voice came out tired rather than sharp. "I don't need to do anything else. You don't need to keep guarding. All you have to do is keep your promise to Kirana. Stay with her until her birthday.”

He seemed briefly unsettled by how calm I was. He opened his mouth to respond, but his phone vibrated first.

"Lara..."

He glanced at the screen and his expression softened immediately, the same way it had that afternoon. He held up one finger in my direction and turned away, walking toward the far end of the hallway, his voice dropping to something private.

"Arvan." I spoke to his retreating back before he disappeared around the corner. "Don't be late tomorrow. Kirana will be waiting."

He paused without turning. "I won't forget. As long as you don't try to use this as another opportunity to trap me."

I said nothing. I simply watched his back as he walked out the front door.

---

At ten minutes to eight, Kirana was already seated on the front steps in her jacket with her small backpack, having eaten nothing at all.

When the bell rang at precisely eight o'clock, she ran to the door.

"Daddy!"

Arvan stood outside holding a brown paper bag. He glanced at Kirana briefly and extended it toward her.

"The croissants you mentioned last night."

Kirana's eyes went wide. "Is this a present for Kirana?"

"You could call it that."

She seized the bag with both hands and ran inside calling for me, her laughter carrying through the whole house.

Arvan stepped in. I moved aside to give him room, and we exchanged no words. But for the first time in a very long while, the silence between us did not feel like combat.

After breakfast, Kirana led us to the small local market near the estate. Saturday mornings there were always lively. She had prepared a little map she had drawn herself, complete with a star marking the ice cream stall and an arrow pointing toward the flower stand she wanted to show me.

She walked between us, her right hand in mine, her left hand in Arvan's.

"Turn here," she instructed gravely, consulting her map with the expression of a seasoned explorer. "The star is right here."

I followed. Arvan followed.

At a snack stall, Kirana insisted we both sample the sesame balls before she committed to buying any. She fed me first, then turned to Arvan, her small hand raised toward him.

He hesitated. Then he bent slightly and let her feed him.

For a fraction of a second, something passed across Arvan's face that I had never seen there before.

Something resembling warmth.

Then a familiar voice broke the silence.

"Arvan! What a coincidence."

Lara was walking toward us, her smile as bright as ever. Beside her, her son Rio spotted Arvan and broke into a run.

"Papa!" Rio wrapped his arms around Arvan's legs and looked up with shining eyes. "Papa is here too? Did you come to play with us?"

Arvan lifted him instinctively, the movement of someone who had done it many times before. Lara came to stand beside him, her smile unchanged, though her gaze passed over me briefly with something I could not name.

Kirana stopped eating.

She looked at Rio in Arvan's arms. Then at Lara. Then at Arvan again.

"Arvan," Lara said softly, her voice like something carried on a gentle wind. "Since we've met, could you accompany Rio to the dentist this afternoon? He's scared every time he gets checked. I don't know who else to ask for help. Could you?"

Rio tightened his grip on Arvan's collar with both fists. "Papa will come with me, right? Pleaseee."

Arvan looked down at him, then answered without hesitation.

"Okay—”