10 Year Gap Novels & Stories

Rahul said and burst out laughing, making me laugh with him. Hushed whispers outside the door pulled our attention. We could not make out what they were talking but I know he was talking too. And then the whispers stopped, once again silence reigned inside as well as outside the room. I waited with bated breath counting every second. It is anytime now that the door will be opened and he would come in. I would come face to face with him. How long has it been since I saw him? Ten years. Ten long years. Ten years of longing.

But here I was, with my son, my husband, and my pack—ready to take the next step in life, even though I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I smiled softly at my reflection, adjusting my gown one last time. My son, only two years old now, was already napping peacefully in his crib, a reminder of how much had changed in such a short time. Brian had been there for me every step of the way, and despite everything, I had managed to graduate. I had to take a gap year, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Just as I was about to leave the dorm room, my phone buzzed.

None of which had called back. I stared at the building for a moment… a long moment. If I had to be honest with myself, I doubted this one would be any different from the others. Why would it be? I had a three-year employment gap, no major work experience, a former housewife carrying twins she wasn’t ready to tell anyone about. Of course the companies preferred more polished people, people who already had their lives together and not barely holding on by a string and doing their very best to put their lives together.

But he was really serious. We would finally have an agreement. An understanding. Not forced labor. It felt… exhilarating. A portion of the weight I had carried for so long slipped from my shoulders. Some of the tension that had lodged itself in my bones since our third meeting—since the moment my fate was sealed—finally began to drain away. Still, ten years? As beings that live very long lives, a decade was not much. It was a blink in the grand scheme of things. But for living the life that is my presence, every day was long enough. Ten years sounded like ten centuries.

"What made this the year?" Adrian was quiet for a moment. Not evasive — deliberate, the way he was deliberate when something deserved care in its phrasing. "I turned thirty last year," he said. "And I found myself taking stock. The way you do. Looking at the shape of things and asking whether the shape was what you'd intended." He held Daniel's gaze. "Most of it was fine. Some of it was good. But there was this — absence. This specific-shaped gap. And I thought: if I'm going to close it, the time is now, before another year goes and I'm taking stock again and the gap is still there."

Of course, the women who wanted to get him must be more competitive. If Molly was a big girl or almost the same age as Chloe, it would be easy. However, the age gap between 14 and 23 was too big. It was said that every three years, there would be a generational gap. It was not easy to cross three gaps, let alone to wait for her to grow up, so... "Ten years? How old do you think Larry is now?" "If he can't wait, he can only be my good help." Hearing this, Natalie gave up half of her hope.

That was frustrating. I can't and don't want to imagine life without him. There have been only 10 years in my life that he wasn't a part of - my first five, the four years his father kept us apart, and the year he spent in the mirror realm. Well, it was more like eight months, but we had just gotten married, so it felt like forever. I don't remember the first five, but those last five were awful.

My tone and voice were sharp, reflecting all the feelings I had bottled up. He fell silent. His face tensed, as if he wasn’t ready to face my firmness. "I—I don’t know where to start. In these five years... I've realized something." I held back a bitter laugh. "In these five years, I’ve realized many things, one of which is that life without you has turned out to be easier than I thought." My words bit, and I knew they were painful for him. He bit his lip, as if holding back something.

The thought hits like cold water, and I inhale sharply through my nose, but the breath catches on something tight and raw in my chest. But it’s Mykhol. And it wasn’t like that. No, it’s only because they missed him. Nine years at the Academy—that's nearly a decade of absence. And now that he's back, a grown man and clever-tongued as ever, everyone wants to reconnect. Of course they do. They're just being nostalgic. Grateful. Rebuilding old ties that time had frayed. That's all.

"Ten years is a long time to be away from everything." He held my gaze for a moment. "It is," he replied. Then he walked out. And somehow, my heart broke a little that there was a tension between us.