THE EX WIFE WHO ROSE FROM THE ASHES

LUNA'S POINT OF VIEWTwo years. Seven hundred and thirty days of loving a man who looked at me like I was something he was still deciding about. And this was what I came home to.I should have known. I should have felt it the way you feel the weather changing, the way the air gets heavy before a storm. But I had been too busy being a good wife. Too busy trying to earn a place I thought I already had.The grocery bags were heavy in my hands when I pushed the front door open.I had driven thirty minutes to the other store because Ethan preferred their brand of coffee. Not the one three streets away. The one across town with the narrow parking lot and the long Saturday lines. I had waited. I had been patient. I had bought the yogurt he mentioned wanting twice last week and had forgotten twice before finally remembering. I remember thinking about it on the drive home, how small it was, how it should not have mattered. But it did.The sound reached me before I had fully stepped inside.Lau

SARA'S POINT OF VIEWI gripped the steering wheel so hard my fingers started to hurt.I did not loosen my hold. Not once.The whole drive home felt too long. Every second dragged. My head would not stop replaying it. Her voice. That calm voice that did not need to rise. The way she walked in and everything shifted. The way Ethan stopped being certain the moment she looked at him.And the worst part.The way she took Luna’s hand.Like Luna mattered. Like she was something soft and worth protecting.My chest tightened.I pressed harder on the wheel.By the time I got home, my hands were shaking. Not small tremors. Full shaking. The kind that makes it hard to breathe properly.I pushed my bedroom door open and stepped inside.The door slammed behind me.I did not stop. I did not think.My eyes landed on the perfume bottle sitting on the vanity. The one he had given me three years ago. The one I kept even when I told myself I had moved on.I grabbed it and threw it.Hard.It hit the wall

LUNA'S POINT OF VIEWI almost did not go.I stood in front of the wardrobe for a long time, longer than I should have, my fingers brushing against dresses I had not worn in months. Some still had tags. Some still smelled new. Some smelled like memories I did not want to touch.I was not really seeing any of them.My mind was somewhere else.Back at that table. Back at the way the tea soaked through my dress. Back at the way Ethan did not look up. Back at his voice.Know your place.I swallowed hard.My fingers stilled on a dark green dress. I pulled it out slowly and held it against myself, staring into the mirror.I looked… fine.Not beautiful. Not special. Just fine.I almost laughed.Fine had never been enough in this house.I let the dress fall against my body and watched myself in the mirror again. My face looked calm. Too calm. The kind of calm that comes from holding too much inside for too long.I could stay home.No one would ask.Emily would probably be relieved. Eva would l

LUNA’S POINT OF VIEWThe salon was too loud.I did not notice it at first.When I walked in, it felt normal. The low hum of dryers. Women talking over each other. Laughter that came and went in waves. The sharp smell of products mixing in the air.It should have been comforting.It was not.I sat in the chair and watched myself in the mirror while the stylist moved behind me, fingers running through my hair, sectioning it, lifting it, asking me questions I barely heard.Just a trim.That was all I said.Just the ends.Something small.Something that belonged to me.Something that had nothing to do with that house.With Ethan.With Sara.With the weight that had been pressing on my chest since the party.I stared at my reflection.I looked the same.That was the strange part.Nothing on my face showed what I felt.No one looking at me would know that everything inside me had shifted.That something had broken.That something had changed.The scissors moved.Soft. Precise.Small pieces

LUNA’S POINT OF VIEWThe courtroom was colder than I expected. Not just the air. Everything felt cold. The walls, the floor, the way people looked at me like I was already decided.I sat beside my lawyer and kept my hands in my lap so no one would see them shaking. I had not slept. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Rose on the floor again. The blood. The way her body had looked too still. And then Ethan’s voice, flat and final. She’s dead.My throat tightened. I forced myself to breathe.“You need to stay calm,” my lawyer whispered. “We will challenge the evidence.”I nodded, even though something inside me already knew this was not going to go the way it should.People kept walking into the room. Quiet voices. Papers shifting. Chairs scraping softly. It all sounded normal. Too normal for a place where someone’s life was about to be decided.I did not look for Ethan, but I felt him when he walked in. Some people you feel without seeing. My chest tightened anyway.The hearing started.