Chapter 1 A Life Left Behind

(Jane's POV)

They say you remember moments of trauma in pieces-like glass shattering, each shard catching a different reflection. Maybe it's your breath hitching in your throat.

Maybe it's the sound of your own heartbeat turning into thunder. Or maybe it's the way the ground suddenly feels like it's tilting beneath your feet, and you're just... falling.

I wasn't supposed to be home tonight. My work trip to Boston was meant to last four days-stiff suits, bland hotel breakfasts, investor pitches. But I finished the presentation in half the time. Two days flat. Efficient. Strategic. I was proud.

I imagined Nathan's surprise when I walked through the door, maybe even a little turned on. I wanted to be spontaneous again. The wife who used to wake him with kisses, not reminders about dry cleaning.

So I went all out.

Merlot from the overpriced wine shop on 13th. The silky black nightgown he once said made me "too tempting to function." My heels in one hand, the wine in the other. My heart humming with hope, as I crept down the hallway of our apartment building, imagining the smile on his face.

The door creaked open with a gentle push. The living room, dim and bathed in the soft golden hue of the lamp, was wrong. Jazz played through the speakers. Nathan didn't even like jazz.

Something felt off.

I walked inside, my bare feet making no noise on the cold marble floor. The wine clinked softly in my hand as I moved closer ahead. The anticipation in my heart was strong-nothing like the gladness I'd visualized.

Then I heard it.

A moan.

Low. Deep. Female.

I froze. My mind scrambled for an explanation. A movie? His phone? Maybe he fell asleep to something inappropriate? But then I heard his voice-close, groaning.

And her again. Louder. More urgent. More intense

I dropped the wine.

The bottle broke, the red liquid content bleeding onto the marble floor like a wounded artery. I didn't even batter an eye.

Something inside me went dead.

I moved toward the bedroom, barely breathing. Each step felt heavier than the last. My fingers brushed the wall, searching for something solid to hold onto. But even the familiar texture of the paint felt foreign beneath my skin.

The door was slightly open, glowing with a sliver of golden light that spilled into the hallway like a secret. From inside, I heard it-soft gasps, breathless and intimate. The rhythm of bodies moving in synchrony.

Whispers of pleasure, like prayers at an altar of desire.

I wanted to turn back. To pretend I was still outside with the wine, still holding onto hope like a fool with a gift in my hand and love on my tongue. But something pulled me forward.

The truth, maybe.

Or the cruel part of my heart that needed to know.

I pushed the door open.

And my world... stopped.

Time didn't slow-it fractured.

There he was. Nathan. The man who had once sworn his forever into my hands beneath the soft petals of springtime roses. The man whose laughter had filled our home, whose touch had once been the only thing that quieted my racing mind.

Now he was a stranger.

Naked. Moving. Drowned in the kind of sexual drive that was supposed to belong to us-not borrowed, not stolen, not given away like an unbearable song. His back arched, muscles taut beneath a sheen of sweat dripping on his exerted body.

His hands held firmly to the sheets like he was holding onto life itself, knuckles white, desperate. And his mouth-oh My God-his mouth was pressed into her soft delicate neck, tracing down her skin with a reverence that killed something sacred on my inside.

She held unto him as though they were meant to be, her body a perfect expression to his lustful desires. Legs tangled at his hips, hands holding unto his backside. She moved with him-fluid, fevered, soft-as if they had rehearsed every moment, like their bodies had desperately wanted to be in sync for far too long.

I stood stupefied, eyes wide open and mouth ajar. My lungs failed me, my body a vessel of nothing but shock and disbelief. The air around me felt too thin, too unconducive.

The sound of their intimacy, once soft, now rumbled in my ears, drowning out the pounding of my heart.

I didn't let tears drop down my cheek. Not yet. Tears required belief, and all I had was disbelief-pure, undiluted, suffocating. As though it was all a dream.

And then-she turned.

Not fully. Just a part of her head, her eyes catching mine over Nathan's shoulder.

For a second, the world stopped spinning. Her face was a blur, but her eyes-shock, recognition, fear-flickered in them.

In a frantic movement, she shoved Nathan off her, limbs scrambling to cover herself. Nathan blinked, confused at first. His body still lost in pleasure, his gaze following hers-until it landed on me.

Everything changed in an instant.

He whispered my name, but it was too late. The damage had been done. The room, once ours, was now haunted, and I was the ghost.

"Don't," I choked, the words barely scraping past the rawness in my throat.

Nathan moved toward me, his eyes frantic, pleading. His mouth opened, but nothing came out. The woman-her-had already fled, disappearing into the night.

I hadn't seen her face, but the memory of her desperate flight was burned into my mind, her body twisting as she scrambled to escape what she knew was about to happen. Something fell off from her body.

I didn't even notice the woman's hasty departure at first, too stunned by the scene in front of me.

But what fell off...

A silver bracelet-her silver bracelet-lay abandoned on the marble floor, like a cruel reminder of everything I hadn't wanted to know.

I reached down with trembling fingers, the cold metal biting into my skin as I grasped it, the weight of it pulling me back into the moment. The bracelet was still warm with the heat of her skin. It felt wrong in my hand-foreign, yet too familiar.

Nathan stepped forward, his face a mask of panic and regret. His voice cracked as he tried to find words, but they faltered before they could take shape. "Jane... please, you didn't see her face." His eyes darted between me and the floor, as if searching for some way to undo what had already been done.

"I... I can't tell you who she is. I-" His words trailed off, a choked breath replacing any attempt at explanation.

His hesitation-his complete lack of clarity-cut deeper than anything he could have said. The silence that followed was worse than any confession. It was the absence of understanding, the failure to recognize the depth of the damage.

I wanted to shout at him, to fling the bracelet at his chest and demand answers. But my body betrayed me. The only thing I could do was clutch the bracelet tighter, feeling the cold metal dig into my palm, grounding me in the wreckage of a life I never thought would fall apart. At least even if it would not be in this manner.

Without uttering a word, I turned, each step heavy, like the floor itself was resisting me, pulling me back to that fractured moment. But I had to go. The dreadful silence in that room was too much, and as I stepped further away from him I knew deep within me that this situation was one that I couldn't salvage.

The one thing left in my palm was the cold, familiar bracelet-the one that had fallen off the mystery woman.