The Stars Between Us

Chapter One: The Last Signature

"You investigated my family behind my back."

The words came out raw, unpolished. Maya hadn't meant to say it, not like this, not in front of the solicitor. But after a year of silence, she had reached her breaking point.

Across the polished oak table, Liam Carter closed his eyes. Just for a moment. As if he'd known this was coming but still wasn't ready to face it.

The solicitor, Mr. Chen, looked up from the divorce papers spread between them. He cleared his throat. "Mrs. Ellison, perhaps we should…"

"No." Maya didn't look away from Liam. "I'd like an answer first."

The room fell silent. Outside, rain streaked the courthouse windows in crooked lines. Inside, the only sound was the ticking clock mounted above the filing cabinet.

Liam exhaled slowly. "We're not doing this here."

A sharp, bitter laugh escaped Maya. "Really? After everything, this is where you draw the line?"

The solicitor shifted in his chair. "I can step outside for a few minutes if…”

"Please," Liam said quietly.

Mr. Chen gathered the documents and slipped out, closing the door behind him.

Silence settled over the room.

Maya folded her arms. "You spent a year making me think I was imagining things. The distance. The lies. The way you looked at me like I was an unsolved puzzle."

Liam stared at the tabletop. "I know."

"You searched through my mother's belongings."

His jaw tightened.

"You went through my grandfather's journals."

He said nothing.

"And then you lied about all of it."

Finally, he looked at her. "I never lied. I just didn't tell you everything."

The disbelief on Maya's face was sharp enough to cut. "You disappeared for days without telling me where you were."

"I was working."

"You told me you were attending intelligence briefings."

"I was."

"You said it had nothing to do with my family."

He paused. "It didn't begin that way."

Her brows knitted together. "What does that even mean?"

Liam opened his mouth, then stopped.

Maya recognized that hesitation. She'd seen it too many times over the past year. The invisible wall he built between them whenever the truth got too close.

It had started subtly. First came the missed dinners. Then the locked study. Then the phone calls stopped the moment she entered the room.

Then came the questions about her grandfather.

Questions he asked too casually to be innocent. Questions she wished she hadn't answered.

By the time she'd discovered he was investigating her own family, she realized she no longer knew the man she'd married.

"You promised," she said, her voice quieter now, "that we would never keep secrets from each other."

His eyes glistened. "I remember."

"So why?"

He leaned back, rubbing his face. "If I could tell you"

"You could,” She interrupted.

"I can't."

"You won't."

"They're not the same thing."

"They are when you're the one being lied to."

Another silence stretched between them. The kind that had become painfully familiar over the last year. Nights spent on opposite ends of the sofa, pretending to watch television, both of them too afraid to say what was already obvious.

Neither ever had. Until she'd asked for a divorce.

"I loved you, Maya."

She closed her eyes. "Please don't."

"I still do."

"Don't."

His voice cracked. "Not a single day has passed that I haven't wished I'd chosen differently."

She looked at him again. For a moment, she saw the Liam she'd fallen in love with. The man who'd danced with her in the dark when the power went out. The man who'd driven across the country at midnight just to surprise her with coffee and flowers.

That Liam would never have searched through her late mother's belongings. Would never have followed her without telling her. And definitely would never have made her question whether any of their happy memories were real.

Tears stung her eyes. "You didn't just break my trust. You made me doubt my own judgment."

Liam looked as though she'd struck him. "I never wanted that."

"But you did."

He rubbed a hand over his face. "I was trying to protect you."

The sentence snapped something inside her. "From what?"

He said nothing.

She stood abruptly. Her chair scraped across the wooden floor. "That's always your answer."

"Maya"

"No." She shook her head. "I begged you to tell me the truth. I defended you to everyone. I told Chloe she didn't understand you."

His shoulders slumped. 

"And all this time..." Her voice broke. "...all this time, you were investigating the people I love. What for? 

Liam was silent. He couldn't meet her eyes.

Maya looked down at her left hand. Her wedding ring caught the dim light. She'd told herself she would take it off today. She'd told herself a hundred times.

She slipped it from her finger. The pale band of skin beneath looked strangely naked.

She placed it on the table between them. It made almost no sound.

Somehow, that hurt even more.

The door opened. Mr. Chen returned, sensing the conversation had ended. "Shall we proceed?"

Maya didn't answer. She picked up the pen and signed her name. Every stroke felt final.

Liam signed immediately after.

The solicitor gathered the documents with professional efficiency. "I'll file these now. Once processed, your divorce will be legally complete."

The door clicked shut behind him.

Liam stood. "So this is really goodbye."

"It was goodbye a long time ago."

She walked toward the door.

"Maya."

She stopped. Her hand hovered over the handle.

"If... if someone ever starts asking questions about your family..." He hesitated.

She turned slowly, confused. "What are you talking about?"

He glanced toward the rain-streaked windows, then toward the door, as if expecting someone to appear. When he spoke again, his voice was barely a whisper.

"Don't answer them."

Maya's blood went cold. "What did you just say?"

But Liam was already moving. He crossed the room in three strides, opened the door, and walked out leaving her standing alone in the empty office, staring at the space where he'd been.

For a long moment, she didn't move.

The divorce papers no longer felt like the most important thing that had happened

that morning. For the first time in months, one thought eclipsed all the hurt, all the anger, and all the grief.

Why would anyone be asking questions about her family?