Episode 6 – Before the Lie
397 Words
Before the silence.
Before the unread messages.
There was laughter.
Yasmin met Nadim during one of the worst weeks of her life.
She was twenty-three, broke, and stuck at her cousin’s wedding in a dress that didn’t fit and heels that hated her.
He was a last-minute guest, filling in for a no-show friend.
He noticed her not because she was the loudest — but because she wasn’t.
She sat at the edge of the party, sipping water like it was wine, watching people dance like they knew how to be happy.
Nadim sat beside her without asking.
“You look like someone who hates weddings.”
“I don’t hate them,” she replied. “They just don’t believe in me.”
He smiled at that. She smiled back.
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They weren’t perfect. But they were warm.
Late-night drives. Cheap takeout. Stupid inside jokes. A universe made of small things.
She told him about her father leaving when she was ten. How her mother stopped smiling after.
He never judged. Just listened.
He told her about his sister.
About loss.
About silence.
They held each other like lifelines.
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But the years passed.
The routines grew tighter. The joy thinner.
Life piled on quietly — bills, work, fatigue.
And one day, she realized she hadn’t laughed with him in weeks. Then months.
She tried to reach for him, but he was always tired, always “just resting his eyes.”
And she hated how that made her feel invisible.
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Then Ali showed up.
It started as a DM on a throwaway post.
He remembered her from university. Said she looked different now — in a good way.
She ignored it at first.
Then she didn’t.
A week later, he said:
“You know, I’d kill to sit across from you at a table and just listen.”
Nadim hadn’t said anything like that in… she couldn’t remember.
So she replied.
And replying turned into chatting.
Then hiding it.
Then lying about work.
Then two bodies in a car with too many regrets between them.
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Yasmin knew the first betrayal wasn’t physical.
It was emotional.
She gave someone else the attention Nadim never realized was missing.
But she never stopped loving him.
She just didn’t know how to reach him anymore.
And by the time she remembered what they’d built,
it was already burning.
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- Writer
