Lena left the café with a heart heavier than the suitcase she dragged behind her.
She hadn't expected anger to hurt more than indifference.
Ethan hadn't raised his voice.
He hadn't accused her.
He had simply looked at her like someone he once knew… and no longer did.
That hurt the most.
She walked until her feet ached, until the streets blurred into memories—laughing teenagers, shared secrets, promises whispered under streetlights.
We said forever, she thought bitterly.
But forever didn't survive silence.
Her phone buzzed.
An unknown number.
Ethan: You forgot this.
A picture followed.
Her old scarf—the one she used to lend him on cold nights.
Her chest tightened.
Lena: You kept it?
Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again.
Ethan: Some things are hard to throw away.
She stared at the screen for a long time before locking it.
Across town, Ethan leaned against the café counter, eyes unfocused.
He told himself he was fine.
But the truth was cruel.
Lena had returned looking stronger, calmer—
and yet, one look from her had cracked walls he spent years building.
"You okay?" his coworker asked.
Ethan nodded.
"Yeah. Just… tired."
That night, Lena unpacked slowly.
Every item carried a piece of the life she built away from him.
Every empty space reminded her of what she lost.
She sat on the bed, clutching her phone.
She wanted to ask how he had been.
If he was happy.
If he had ever missed her.
But some questions were too dangerous.
She turned off the light, whispering into the darkness,
"Please… don't let me fall again."
Author's Thoughts – Chapter Two
This chapter is about distance.
Not physical distance—but emotional distance.
The kind that forms when people care too much and say too little.
Lena and Ethan are circling each other carefully.
Neither wants to be the first to bleed.
But love doesn't disappear.
It waits.