All Chapters of The abandoned wife : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

16 Chapters

Chapter 1 — The Forgotten Anniversary

GraciasIt is 9:47 p.m. I look at the wall clock for the third time in less than a minute, without really seeing the second hand move, without hearing the quiet ticking that punctuates the stifling silence of the apartment. The roast I prepared with such care has been sitting in its dish for hours now, lukewarm at best, dry most likely, and the candles I lit in the late afternoon now give off only a flickering light, barely alive, like me tonight.The white tablecloth I chose this morning after much hesitation, ironed with an application that bordered on tenderness, suddenly seems out of place, almost arrogant in its spotless perfection. Three plates. Aligned with an exactness that has become absurd. One for him, one for me… and a third, set down without his knowledge. An empty plate. Offered to the silence, or to hope. I no longer quite know which.Today marks exactly three years. Three years since we spoke vows that no one was truly listening to. Three years since we committed ourse

Last Updated : 2026-07-17

Chapter 2 — One Drink Too Many

GraciasI think I slammed the car door, but I'm not sure.I did not think. I simply acted. Like a body emptied of meaning.I left the car without a coat, without a purse.Just my keys, planted in my palm, like a desperate attempt to stay conscious. Not to collapse.It was raining. One of those sad rains that cleans nothing.It seeped everywhere. Into my hair, into my clothes, down to the bone.I crossed the street without looking.My heart on the verge of explosion.I was empty and full at the same time.Empty of him. Full of a muted fear, of an atrocious premonition.The bar is there.The one he claimed to hate.Too vulgar, too young, too everything.Lies. Everything was lies.I enter. And the clammy heat seizes me by the throat.Music too loud, smells of sweat, of cheap alcohol.And then… them.At the back, on a banquette. My sister is on my husband's lap.She laughs. He smiles at her.A hand resting on her bare thigh.An intimacy that is no game.It is real. It is owned.And I am o

Last Updated : 2026-07-17

Chapter 3 — Where Everything Breaks

GraciasI did not leave.They did.My sister and Marius left the bar like two actors satisfied with their performance, hand in hand, gaze proud, shoulders high. As if they had just closed an act, without turning around, without shame, without embarrassment.And I simply ceased to exist in their eyes.I remained standing for a long moment. Anesthetized. Then I came back into the bar, my heart in apnea. Back straight so as not to falter.I was no longer moving. I was that woman one leaves behind. That woman one erases, slowly, without sound.Then my legs gave way. I let myself slide onto a stool, at the far end of the counter, where the light is weak, where no one looks at you too long.A couple was laughing loudly nearby. I felt foreign to this world, foreign to this life.The bartender lifted his eyes. His gaze was dry, neutral. He did not need to ask a question to understand. He simply raised an eyebrow."Something to drink?"My throat was dry. My belly, an open wound. My mind, a des

Last Updated : 2026-07-17

Chapter 4 — The Bargain of Ashes

Gracias I sit down without thinking. The leather of the armchair creaks under my damp weight. I am cold. My jeans cling to my thighs. My hair still drips onto my shoulders. But I sit. Because I am too empty to do anything else. Because walking has led me nowhere. Because going home is no longer an option. He is there. Before me. Seated in the shadows. A man who does nothing to draw attention, but whom one cannot ignore. He looks at me. But not like the others. Not like those who judge, or desire, or weigh what I am still worth after all this. He observes me. With a calm gaze. A gaze that seeks nothing. A gaze that takes nothing. The silence lasts. A long time. And perhaps that is what I was waiting for. "You look as though you've lost everything," he says at last. His voice is deep. Neither hoarse nor soft. Just steady. Like a hand extended without forcing. I nod. He waits. Then he gestures for me to speak. I shake my head. "Speak. To me. A stranger. It's sometimes easi

Last Updated : 2026-07-17

Chapter 5 — The Blood of Silence

Gracias I say nothing. Not a word. Not a sigh. Not even a tear. He walks me back to my black car — silent, leather warm, engine purring softly. The windows are tinted. The world stays outside. "If you need anything at all… call me." He hands me a card. Matte paper, off-white, sober, almost solemn. A gilded initial. A phone number. Nothing else. No name. Just a suspended promise. I take it the way one grabs a rope at the edge of the void. He does not kiss me. He does not touch me. He does not hold me back. He looks at me for a long time. As if he truly saw me. Me. In what I show no one. His gaze passes through me. Leaves me bare. And strangely, it does not frighten me. I get into my car. I start it. My hands barely tremble. I drive. The city is a succession of blurred lights, smeared neon, silhouettes laughing too loudly. I hear nothing. I float. I go, without really advancing. When I arrive in front of the house, the gate is ajar. Always that negligence. That carelessness

Last Updated : 2026-07-17

Chapter 6 — The Cold Water of Truths

Gracias I think I slept. Yes. But not really. Not the way one sleeps when at peace or recovering. I slept because my body simply couldn't take any more. Like a wounded animal fading out, little by little, in a corner. Stretched out on the hard couch, covered with an old blanket that smells of damp, legs curled up, I sank. Mouth dry. Tears congealed at the edges of my eyes. No dreams. No respite. Only that constant presence in my temples: the sound of their pleasure. In my bedroom. Their moans. The bed creaking. The panting. The sexual insults cracking like whiplashes. "Harder." "You see, she doesn't even know how to do that." "My real wife is you." I don't cover my ears. I listen. To the end. To the point of nausea. To the point of numbness. I don't cry anymore. That would be too undignified. I just want to disappear. I wondered, lying there, if I bore some share of responsibility. If I was to blame for letting the pain settle in without ever disturbing it. If I had, som

Last Updated : 2026-07-17

Chapter 7 — Where the Road Begins

Gracias I'm no longer quite sure if I really heard his voice say I'm coming to get you, or if my exhausted mind embroidered that phrase like a lifebuoy, one last thread hooked inside my ribcage ready to give way. But a few minutes later, the phone vibrates in my frozen palm, my fingers sticky with water and night. Text message: "I'll be there in twenty minutes. Don't move. Stay visible. I'm in a gray car." Stay visible. Those two words burn me as much as the rain devouring my bones. Because I no longer know how to do that , be visible, exist, stand upright in another person's gaze without disappearing immediately into discomfort or shame. So I press myself against an anonymous porch, that of a grimy building with a cracked threshold, and I wait. Arms wrapped tightly around myself. Heart in my throat. My legs like two frozen stakes under these pajamas that weigh the weight of a shipwreck. The city no longer belongs to me. It has become this immense, foreign beast that spits in my

Last Updated : 2026-07-17

Chapter 8 — The Taste of Emptiness

Marius The coffee is too hot. I drink it anyway. It burns, but I find it almost pleasant. It's the only thing that makes me feel alive this morning. Seated at the kitchen table, I look at them without really seeing them. My mother is there, sovereign, draped in her silk robe like an empress in exile. Her face is perfectly made up, already. You'd think she slept in makeup. She hates being seen as weak. Inès, for her part, reigns on her chair like a queen of another kind: legs crossed, transparent negligee, cruel smile on her lips, and that way she has of licking her fingers while eating a strawberry, as if everything around her were sexual. "You should have come and seen," says my mother with a gleam in her eye, between two bites. "When she woke up, soaked, trembling, half dead… A real delight." "She didn't even dare open her mouth," adds Inès, biting into another strawberry. "She looked like a rat trapped in a cellar." "A rat… but without teeth. That one never bit anyone. Onl

Last Updated : 2026-07-17

Chapter 9 — What Monsters Call Happiness

Inès I laugh as I bite into a green apple. It's sour, juicy, sharp. Perfect. I'm naked under Marius's shirt, sitting on the kitchen counter. My legs swing gently in the void while he makes scrambled eggs. He never cooks, usually. But this morning, he wants to "take care of me." He wants to play the tender man, the attentive future father. It amuses him. It gives him the illusion of being a decent guy. And I like playing that game. The fake is often more delicious than the real. "Are you going to add cheese?" I ask, watching him. "Of course. Madame is demanding," he says with that half-smile he serves me when he wants to make me believe he's still capable of irony. He isn't anymore. Not really. Since she left, he's become docile. A kind of dog beaten too long who ends up licking the hand of the executioner. And that smile , I stole it from Gracias. Like everything else. The house. The bed. The husband. And now… the baby. I set the apple down, slowly. I slide off the co

Last Updated : 2026-07-17

Chapter 10 — The Water, the Fire, the Ashes

Gracias The water runs. Hot. Thick. Almost scalding. It strikes my nape, then my back, like an invisible hand. A soft hand, but firm. A hand that asks no questions. That doesn't try to understand. That doesn't judge. I wish I could say I'm relaxing. But no. I stay straight, rigid, tense as a rope about to snap. My shoulders hurt, my trapezius, my shoulder blades. As if I had been carrying something invisible, unbearable, for months. Perhaps years. Perhaps my whole life. My arms are contracted. My fingers tremble. I look at them. They're red, swollen from the hot water, but cold at the core. They no longer know how to touch. They no longer know how to be touched. They no longer know how to open. I am naked in this stranger's shower. In this house too beautiful for me. And yet… I am here. Standing. That's already a miracle. The shower gel smells of lavender and childhood. I spread it over my arms, mechanically. I'm not even trying to make lather. This isn't a moment

Last Updated : 2026-07-17

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