A Marriage Never Meant To Be

adition they clung to like a life raft, a way to signal their commitment and stability. My engagement to Eth

n no longer loved me.

hat touched his lips when a text lit up his screen. I heard it in the excuses he made, the late nights at the office that always seem

It was a watch. My brother' s watch. He had given it to me the day I got my first

of course. She floated around him, her hand always finding his arm, his back.

aid, her voice dripping with a sweetn

wer, she reached f

The watch slipped. It hit the hardwood floor w

roken pieces, my breath caught in my throat. It felt

r mouth. "Oh my god, I am so, so sor

waited for him to see the devastation on my

went straight to Chloe, wrapping a

d, his voice soft and soot

ression hardening. "It's just a

placed by a cold, hard clarity. This was my life. A life where my pai

soon. It was filled with boxes, half-packed for a future that now felt like a p

He' d forwarded a posting for a foreign correspondent position. It was a dangerous, diffic

eir own. I pulled up

Ava

ted to

ream-colored envelope, a formal invitation to my own lifelong sentence. I looked

o a box of my brother's old books.

s calls with a calm I didn't feel. I packed boxes for o

t renewed. I sold my car. I told my landlord I wouldn't be renewing my le

osed to move the last of my things into Ethan' s place. He called

r? Chloe' s having some friends over tonight, and I

h, and I was thinking, we can go look for a

my lips. "Of course

See yo

one suitcase by the door. I looked out the w

. I did not go to his apart

agined him calling my phone, the calls going straight to voicema

lope tucked away in a dusty box. A painful, permanent reminder of the love he