The changes she had instructed Mrs. Maddy to begin days ago were finally taking shape, and Raellyn had decided to oversee everything personally. She poured her energy into every detail, transforming her frustration and sense of rejection into something constructive. Something tangible. If Arnav wouldn’t let her in emotionally, she would at least reclaim their shared space.Within days, the entire house felt different. Warmer, softer, more welcoming. Gone were the bleak, cold tones that once dominated every corner. Change flowed through its hallways like a quiet revolution. She chose cheerful colors, refreshing scents, and cozy textures. Everything had been scrubbed, polished, and brightened. The forbidden rooms Arnav once declared off-limits had been aired out and carefully redesigned. The fireplaces worked again. Dust was banished. Carpets, curtains, bedding—all replaced.And the scent. Fresh pine and lemon. Crisp. Clean. Comforting.Even the room Arnav had explicitly banned was tra
For the first time in her life, Raellyn made a decision just as significant as marrying Arnav: she quit her job. The moment felt seismic. After only a week of returning to work and after received a chorus of warm congratulations from her coworkers about her recent marriage. Her sudden resignation sent shockwaves throughout the office like a bolt of lightning on a clear day. The shock rippled across the office, tongues wagging, eyes widening. No one was more stunned than Violet, her closest confidante at work, who wasted no time in confronting her. Violet practically dragged Raellyn aside for answer into an empty meeting room the second she learned Raellyn had handed in her resignation letter just before the lunch break. Sliding it across their boss's desk with fingers that trembled slightly but with eyes that held steel."Explain this to me right now," Violet demanded, her tone bordering on interrogation, hands on her hips, her voice a notch below a full shout. Her usual calm was no
Raellyn only wanted to feel a little better. She had hoped for peace, just a fragment of calmness to patch the hole inside her chest. But instead, the reunion greeted her with a face from the past. The one face she would rather never see again. The person she’d been trying to forget.Gilbert.Raellyn never liked dwelling in the past. Not because she was cold-hearted. She is far from it. It was quite the opposite. She felt too deeply. She simply believed in memories. Especially the ones irrelevant to the present deserved to stay buried, hidden behind years and reasons. She didn’t believe in reopening wounds that had already been neatly stitched.She thought Gilbert understood this. That he would keep their past where it belonged in the past.Apparently, she was wrong.The day dragged on with a weight that clung to her skin.When she finally returned home. She was met not with warmth, but with a stillness so cold, it made her shiver from the inside out. The house was quiet. Too quiet. U
“Congratulations on your new life, sweetheart!” The chorus of voices rang out in cheerful unison.It was a small surprise celebration, organized by Raellyn’s coworkers to welcome her back after her one-week leave. She hadn’t expected such a warm reception, especially after the emotional storm of her life had just weathered wrecked her so thoroughly. Yet here they were, all smiles and warmth, reminding her of how much she was still loved. Her heart swelled with emotion at the kindness around her, And among them, Violet stood out. She is her senior, her friend, the woman who had taken her under her wing when Raellyn was still fresh in the company from day one. Violet, and her charmingly patient boyfriend, Oswald, was there too, along with one of his friends, whom they had invited for dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant insisting Raellyn treat them.“I’m so relieved now that my junior is finally married!” Violet exclaimed over the sizzling meat on the grill, her voice slightly slurred. Now
The atmosphere in her husband’s house had shifted into something almost suffocating. It wasn’t just the relentless rain that poured without warning, the wind that slithered through the old windows like an unwelcome guest. No, it was something far heavier. It was the silence. A silence so deep it seemed to hum in the air between Raellyn and Arnav. Husband and wife in name only, sharing the same house but not the same world, that even the weather seemed to echo it.It wasn’t that Raellyn hadn’t tried. She had desperately so. She longed to cut through the heavy tension that now wrapped around them like a noose. To unbind the knot she had unknowingly tied the moment she let her curiosity drive her too far. But this time, all her efforts only seemed to tighten the rope.She had been too curious. Too willing to dig into things that perhaps weren’t hers to uncover. It was part of who she was researching things down to the bone, asking the questions others were afraid to. She thought maybe i
The thunderous slam of the door as he left his room with Raellyn echoed like a gunshot in Arnav’s chest. Startling him more than he cared to admit. For a brief second, a wave of guilt washed over him but as quickly as it came, his pride crushed it. He let his ego take the reins again.He made his way to the library, which doubled as his study a fortress of silence where whiskey was his most loyal companion. Then he poured himself a drink with steady hands that betrayed nothing. Yet the moment he took that first sip, the bitterness of the alcohol wasn’t enough to drown the truth. The moment with Raellyn earlier had rattled something within him. He had let himself forget.Forget that this marriage wasn’t born of love. Raellyn had her ambition. He had his pleasures to indulge in whatever pleasure her body and presence could give. It was a transaction, nothing more.But then… both had wandered too far off script, into a fragile reality neither had asked for. And yet, somehow, something s