Five Years of Marriage

"Daniel, you're home?"

Alina Hayes stood in the living room with flower shears in hand, her heart racing as she watched her husband step inside.

Five o'clock in the afternoon—Daniel was home early, a rare occurrence that had happened only a handful of times in their five years of marriage. Maybe he remembered? Maybe this year would be different?

Daniel didn't even look at her. His eyes remained fixed on the phone in his hand, his thumb moving rapidly across the screen.

"Mm."

Not 'hello.' Not 'I'm home.' Just a hum without a glance.

Alina set down the shears and vase, wiping her slightly trembling hands. Five years, and she still got nervous every time she spoke to her own husband.

"I... I made a reservation at that Italian restaurant you like. For tomorrow night. I thought we could—"

"Just cancel it." Daniel's voice was flat, still not looking up from his phone screen. "I have an important dinner tomorrow night."

Something gripped Alina's chest. "But tomorrow—"

"Alina."

This time Daniel looked at her—not with affection or regret, but with the same look he used for his secretary when arranging his schedule. Efficient. Impersonal. Cold.

"This is important. You understand, right?"

Of course Alina understood. She always understood. That had been her role for five years—understanding, accepting, not complaining. A good wife. An undemanding wife.

"Alright. I'll cancel the reservation." Alina's voice was barely a whisper.

Daniel was already walking toward the stairs before Alina finished her sentence, as if this conversation was over and there was nothing more to discuss.

"Daniel?"

Alina didn't know where her courage came from. Why, after five years of rejection, she still hoped. Why her heart was still foolish enough to believe that one day, this man would see her—truly see her—as a wife, not just a resident of his house.

Daniel stopped on the third step. His back faced Alina. He didn't turn around. Even to listen, he didn't need to look at her.

"Tomorrow is a special day," Alina said.

There was a long pause. A very long pause. Alina could hear her own heartbeat, could feel the foolish hope growing in her chest. Maybe he remembered. Maybe—

"What special day?"

Three words that shattered everything. Spoken in a genuinely confused tone, not feigned. Daniel truly didn't know. Or more accurately, didn't care to know.

Alina felt something crack in her chest—slow, painful, like glass breaking in slow motion. Five years of marriage, and her husband had never remembered their wedding anniversary, not once.

"It's nothing." Alina's voice sounded foreign to her own ears—too calm for a broken heart. "Just forget it."

Daniel continued up the stairs without looking back. As if their conversation had been no more important than a discussion about the weather.

Alina stood frozen in the living room. The vase in her hands felt heavy. The white lilies she'd carefully chosen that morning—Daniel's favorite flowers that the man had never even noticed—suddenly looked ridiculous. Like her efforts. Like her hopes. Like her unrequited love.

Her phone vibrated in her dress pocket. A social media notification. Without thinking, Alina opened it—and the world around her stopped spinning.

A video. Daniel at the airport. Smiling—a smile he never gave Alina. In his hands, a large bouquet of red roses. And beside him...

A woman. Beautiful. Long wavy hair, a model's slender figure, a face that even after five years remained just as stunning. Clarissa Sterling. Daniel's ex-wife.

The video's audio began to play:

"Mr. Blackwood! Is it true you're picking up Miss Sterling?"

"We're very happy Clarissa is back." Daniel's voice sounded warm—a tone he never used when speaking to Alina.

"Miss Sterling, are you back for a family reunion?"

Clarissa smiled at the camera, then looked at Daniel with a too-familiar gaze. "I'm back because I missed my family. Especially my son."

My family. My son.

As if five years of Alina caring for Daniel Jr. had never happened.

Alina stared at the screen with trembling hands. Comments filled the column:

"They're still the perfect couple!"

"Finally Clarissa's home! Poor Junior all this time without his real mother."

"The second wife must be so awkward right now."

"Team Clarissa! She's the real Mrs. Blackwood!"

Second wife. Replacement. Temporary.

That's what she'd always been. But seeing it written explicitly by strangers—people who didn't even know her—somehow felt more painful.

The video had been uploaded three hours ago. Daniel knew. He'd known since this afternoon that his ex-wife was returning. He picked her up. Brought her flowers. Smiled like he was happy.

And he said nothing to Alina.

Her phone nearly fell as Alina's hand lost its strength. Mrs. Helen, the elderly servant who'd worked at this mansion for ten years, appeared from the direction of the kitchen with a worried expression.

"Ma'am... Have you seen the news?"

So everyone knew. The servants knew. The driver knew. Maybe the entire city knew that Daniel Blackwood's ex-wife had returned. The one who didn't know—or wasn't deemed necessary to know—was only his current wife.

"I'm fine, Mrs. Helen." A lie that didn't even convince herself.

"Ma'am, I've prepared chamomile tea in the family room. Perhaps you need—"

"Thank you. But I want to be alone."

Alina walked to the sofa and sat down slowly, staring at the phone screen still displaying that video. She pressed play again—torturing herself by watching how Daniel looked at Clarissa. How the man who'd been cold and expressionless for five years could smile like that for another woman.

That evening, Daniel left again—without saying goodbye, without saying when he'd return. Alina didn't ask where. She already knew the answer.

At eleven o'clock at night, Alina sat alone in the dining room. Before her sat a small birthday cake she'd made herself. A candle shaped like the number '5' burned on top of it.

Mrs. Helen watched Alina with teary eyes from the kitchen doorway, but didn't dare say anything.

Midnight struck. Their anniversary officially began. And Alina was alone.

She blew out the candle by herself. No one sang happy birthday. No one said congratulations. Only the silence of the large, cold mansion.

Alina cried while eating the cake—each bite tasted bitter despite being full of sugar. Crying for five wasted years. Crying for love that was never returned. Crying for hope she should have buried long ago.

At half past midnight, Alina went up to her room. Daniel still wasn't home.

In the bottom drawer of her vanity, there lay a small velvet box containing a maroon silk nightgown. A gift from Emma, her best friend, on her wedding day.

"This is for your wedding night!" Emma had said with a mischievous wink.

A wedding night that never happened.

The gown was still neatly folded with the price tag still attached. Alina had worn it once, on their first anniversary. She'd waited in the bedroom with aromatherapy candles burning and foolish hope in her chest.

Daniel came home late that night at eleven, but went straight to his own room. The next morning at breakfast, the man hadn't even noticed anything was different.

As if she were invisible.

Alina closed the drawer again. Not tonight. Not anymore. She would never wear it again.

Under her pillow, something was poking out. Alina pulled it out—a small box containing a limited edition men's watch. An anniversary gift she'd prepared two months ago. She'd even had the initials 'D.B. - A.H.' engraved on the back with their wedding date.

Foolish. So foolish.

Because on Daniel's shoe rack, there were seven pairs of unworn shoes—previous anniversary gifts that Daniel had never worn. In Daniel's closet, there were two sweaters, three ties, and a scarf still wrapped—all gifts from her that had never been touched.

Daniel didn't throw them away. But he never wore them either. As if gifts from Alina were too worthless to use but too troublesome to discard.

The phone on the nightstand chimed softly. A calendar notification: "Anniversary - 5 years."

A reminder she'd set herself because she knew no one else would remember. Not Daniel. Not her mother-in-law. No one.

Alina opened her messaging app. There was a message from Emma sent that afternoon.

"Happy 5th anniversary, honey! Hope Daniel gives you a special surprise this year! 💕"

Surprise. Alina laughed bitterly alone in the dark room. Oh, there was a surprise. Just not the kind Emma meant.

The surprise was a video of her husband picking up his ex-wife at the airport with a smile he'd never given her.

The clock showed two in the morning when Alina finally fell asleep—exhausted from crying, exhausted from hoping, exhausted from being a wife who was never truly a wife.