Sarah’s POVEster’s Apartment, New YorkThe city beyond the window of Ester's apartment has started to sparkle, covered with a soft amber glow as the sun was setting down the buildings.The apartment's scent was a mixture of peonies and vanilla candles, and small pieces of ivory lace, blush-toned satin, ribbons, along with-half-drank lattes were scattered all over the floor.Noah was outside on the balcony, his body wrapped around the fairy lights, and he was jokingly swearing as he corrected them every few minutes. His humming, comically off-key, drifted in like background music.Ester was half in bridal crisis mode, half in a giddy glow of anticipation, tapping between Pinterest boards and scrawled notes in her wedding planner.I sat cross-legged on the rug, holding up a mock bouquet for her opinion. "You realize you're like, three tiers deep in florals at this point, right?""Sarah, flowers are very important," she said, taking the bouquet from me. "Besides, you should consider you
Sarah’s POVA Few months later – New YorkLife had started to feel quiet again. In the best way.The kind of quiet that meant peace, not isolation. The kind that crept in with soft mornings, sunlight on coffee mugs, and Gabriel’s early babbles echoing through the apartment before the world was fully awake.We had fallen into our own rhythm, me,Alessandro and Gabriel.The days started with Alessandro kissing my forehead while I groggily reached for tea. Gabriel would be in his high chair, stuffing tiny fists with banana pieces and giggling at nothing in particular.I’d answer emails while Alessandro made breakfast, classical music humming in the background. Nothing extraordinary.But everything I had ever hoped for.And in all that soft, golden stillness, Adrian’s shadow didn’t even touch the edge of this life anymore.It was like he had never existed.It was healing, the kind that didn’t require grand gestures. Just space to breathe. Just room to feel again.Ester came over almost ev
Adrian’s POVFew Months LaterThe walls are too white.Too quiet.They buzz when the light hits them, like they’re judging me. Or maybe I’m judging myself.No.I’m not the villain here.They made me into one.I ignored the scrape of concrete beneath my bare feet as I paced the length of the cell once more.Just to show that this place wasnt permanent I clawed my hands against the cinderblock wall earlier leaving them raw.It isn’t.It can’t be.I wasn’t supposed to end up here.She was supposed to understand.Sarah.She was mine.Remembering her I landed hard on the side of the cot, my head cradled in my hands. Her visage stuck in my mind, serene and determined in the courtroom, sharing her truth as if it were holy literature.Lies soaked in emotion. But they believed her. Of course, they did.A woman cries, and the world kneels. A man cries, and he’s a monster.No one cared that I was falling apart too.That I didn’t mean for things to go that far.She was my wife.She moaned, she
Sarah’s POVSame NightThe city’s quiet hum outside my apartment windows tonight wasn’t so loud. For once, it wasn’t pressing right in on me. It also wasn’t reminding me about everything I was trying to forget.It was just… there, background noise to a life that finally felt like it might belong to me again.Dinner had been simple, easy. Alessandro and I ate on the couch since Gabriel babbled in his high chair between us, so he gleefully smeared food all over his tray like it was his personal canvas. He laughed at his mess like it was the best part of the day.While Gabriel chattered away in his high chair positioned between us, Alessandro and I had no choice but to eat on the couch. With a smile on his face, he plastered food all over his tray as if it were a masterpiece waiting to be painted.And maybe it was.Maybe this was our nature.Once we settled Gabriel into bed, his small fingers grasped his frayed stuffed bunny, and I lingered by the crib longer than necessaryJust… watchin
Alessandro’s POVJail Facility, New YorkThe sterile drone of the visitation room droned in my ears like an invisible, annoying insect. I sat motionless, my elbows resting on the chilly metal table, my hands clasped together in anticipation.I envisioned this meeting in countless ways. I had envisioned anger.Aggression. Contentment.Yet now that I found myself here, what I experienced was something completely differentI wanted to see him.I wanted to see what was left of him when the spotlight was gone. When his kingdom had crumbled.When the door clanged open, and Adrian was marched inside, I didn’t know what I expected.But I didn’t expect him to still look so… polished.Crisp prison-issued shirt tucked in neatly. Hair still combed back. Chin lifted in that same rehearsed defiance.He walked in like he still believed this wasn’t real. Like someone would come along any minute now and explain it had all been a big misunderstanding.And yet, his eyes.His eyes were frantic.I didn’t
Sarah’s POVSame Day EveningThe sky’s colours reversed from dark to a vibrant navy blue that calms you when you’ve had a long day. The soft sound of the city beneath, which was none the wiser about what had transpired hours before in that room.Adrian’s fate was sealed. The gavel had fallen.And I thought, naively, that relief would hit me like a wave. That some kind of peace would come rushing in to sweep away the weight.But peace, I realised, wasn’t loud or dramatic. It didn’t knock the wind out of you. It was subtle.Like suddenly noticing that the air isn’t as heavy, even if your body doesn’t quite know how to relax just yet.Gabriel had fallen asleep early; maybe he felt the shift in me. Like whatever I had been holding in had worn him down, too. Alessandro had gone out to wrap up a few things with the lawyers. Ester had made soup and left strict instructions to call if I needed anything.Which, knowing her, meant “when,” not “if.”I was in the living room, wrapped around a mug