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Chapter_1
Stella froze, her heart racing at the sudden shift in atmosphere. She had been lying there, her thoughts tangled in the mess of emotions from the day, but now everything seemed to come to a halt. The sharpness of Keegan’s voice cut through the tension in the air, and her pulse quickened, realizing what she had just tried to do.
His grip on her wrist tightened, his face shadowed in the dim light, yet she could see the conflict in his eyes. He was angry—perhaps from the way she had acted earlier, or from the way she had been behaving tonight. His breath was shallow, and it only made her heart ache more.
“I…” Stella’s voice was barely a whisper. She tried to pull her hand back, but his grip remained firm. “I’m sorry,” she added, feeling vulnerable beneath him. She didn’t know what had possessed her to act this way, but the bitterness, the pain, and the feeling of being utterly alone had led her to this moment. She had tried to reach out, in whatever way she could, but now all she felt was regret.
Keegan’s face softened slightly as he stared down at her, his body still pressed against hers. The words hung between them, unsaid but clearly there. She was hurt—so much more than she had ever let him see. And he had been too caught up in his own world to notice until it was too late.
“Stella,” he murmured, his voice quieter, though still filled with the weight of the moment. His hand released hers, and he sat back, his body leaving hers as he stared at her in the darkness. “What are we doing?”
She didn’t respond right away, just lying there in silence, the weight of his words settling in. She didn’t know what they were doing either. Was it too late to salvage this marriage, or was it already beyond repair? Keegan’s mind was somewhere else—perhaps with Bella, perhaps with his own guilt, but certainly not with her. And Stella, for all her efforts, had never been able to make him see her the way he saw the people he truly cared about.
“I don’t know anymore,” Stella said quietly, her voice tinged with resignation. “I thought… I thought we could fix this. But I’m not sure it’s even worth it anymore.”
Keegan didn’t reply right away, as if he was contemplating her words. The silence in the room stretched out between them, heavy and suffocating. He wasn’t sure if he could promise her anything, but he knew that whatever was left of their marriage had reached a breaking point. The walls between them were too high, the trust too shattered to rebuild so easily.
Finally, he sighed deeply, running a hand through his hair. “Stella… I don’t know how we got here, but I’m not blind to what’s happening. I just… I don’t know what I can give you anymore. I don’t know if there’s enough left to fix.”
Her heart clenched at his words, but she couldn’t deny the truth in them. Maybe they had both reached a point where no amount of effort would change what was broken between them. Stella shifted, sitting up slightly, her eyes searching his face for any sign of the man she had once married, the man she had fallen in love with.
But all she saw was the distance.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he continued softly, his voice filled with a quiet sorrow. “But I think we both know we’re holding onto something that isn’t there anymore.”
Stella nodded slowly, her chest tight with the weight of his confession. She had known for a long time that things between them had been slipping, but hearing him admit it made it all the more real. A tear slipped down her cheek, but she didn’t wipe it away. She didn’t have the energy to.
“I never wanted this,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I never wanted to be the person who made you choose… but I can’t keep pretending like everything is okay when it’s not.”
Keegan’s eyes softened, but he didn’t move. The silence that followed was suffocating, and for a moment, neither of them knew what to say next. It felt like the end of something—something painful, something inevitable. The night stretched on, the distance between them growing, and neither one knew if they could ever bridge it again.
And yet, despite everything, the broken parts of their marriage still held on—fragile, but there.
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