The city was a screaming, vibrant chaos. Horns blared in rhythmic frustration, city lights flickered like dying stars through the smog, and the relentless hum of traffic provided a frantic soundtrack to the carnage of Heena's marriage.
Heena leaned back, her spine pressing into Alex's broad chest.
She could still feel the cooling dampness of the fabric beneath her, the literal mark of her surrender, clinging to her bare skin. But the shame that should have consumed her was gone, replaced by a cold, crystalline clarity.
Her eyes remained locked on the sedan a few meters ahead, its taillights mocking her like two glowing embers.
'Was I really just that stubborn?' she wondered, the thought echoing through the hollow chambers of her heart.
The realization was a slow-motion car crash. She had been the only one tending the flame of this marriage, nursing a ghost of a relationship while Howard had already moved into the light.
