Chapter 4
660 Words
"Chapter 5: The Distance Between Us
Zara had always believed that love was a choice—a daily decision to stay, to fight, to grow.
But lately, she was starting to wonder if Kael had stopped choosing her long ago.
It was in the way he no longer lingered after a kiss.
The way his eyes flicked to his phone when it buzzed, his smile faint before he slid it away.
The way her name—Sora—was never said, only implied, like an echo hanging in the spaces between them.
That night, after she returned from the campus, Kael wasn’t home.
Again.
The dinner she prepared was cold now, untouched.
She sat alone at the table, stirring her wine, trying to convince herself this was just a rough patch—just stress, just work, just life.
But her heart wasn’t buying it.
And neither was the silence.
Her phone buzzed.
A message from her friend Elin.
“Saw Kael downtown. Sora was with him. Just... thought you should know.”
Zara’s grip on the wine glass tightened.
The words blurred on the screen, but the knot in her stomach sharpened.
He hadn’t mentioned anything about meeting Sora.
Again.
She told herself they were old friends. That Kael had always said Sora was like a sister to him. That she was dramatic, intense, flirtatious with everyone—that it meant nothing.
But sisters didn’t leave perfume on collars.
Sisters didn’t take your husband’s hand and whisper secrets into his ear at gallery openings.
Sisters didn’t text at midnight with “I need you.”
Zara stood up and wandered into their bedroom.
Kael’s shirt lay draped across the chair. She picked it up, pressed it to her face.
And there it was again—that soft, unfamiliar scent. Not hers. Not his cologne.
Something floral. Sharp. Sora.
Why would he do this?
She had been there through everything.
She held him when his mother died.
She supported him when his business nearly collapsed.
She gave up job offers in other cities so they could build a life together here.
Zara wanted to believe that love wasn’t so easily replaced.
That what they had wasn’t that fragile.
But lately, Kael’s tenderness had begun to feel performative. Like he was trying to convince himself of something. Like his lips said “I love you,” but his heart whispered someone else’s name.
And yet…
He would still wrap his arms around her in the middle of the night and hold her like he was afraid to lose her.
He would still laugh at her bad jokes, still make her coffee exactly the way she liked it, still press his forehead to hers when she was anxious and say, “You’re the best thing I’ve ever done right.”
So why, then?
Why Sora?
She needed answers.
But she wasn’t sure she could survive them.
Later that night, Kael finally came home.
He looked tired. Handsome in that careless way of his. He dropped his keys into the bowl and toed off his shoes like nothing was wrong.
Like she hadn’t spent the last few hours wondering if their marriage was dissolving by the minute.
“You’re late,” she said softly.
Kael rubbed the back of his neck. “Ran into Sora. She wanted to talk about some stuff. Lost track of time.”
Zara folded her arms. “She always wants to talk. About what this time?”
He paused. “Just… things. From before. She’s going through a lot.”
Zara narrowed her eyes. “Things she can’t talk to anyone else about? Things she can only bring to you?”
Kael didn’t answer right away.
He just looked at her.
There was a flicker—something unreadable in his eyes. Regret? Guilt? Or worse… affection?
“She’s not what you think, Zara,” he said finally.
But that was the problem.
Zara didn’t know what to think anymore."
- Writer
