3.5 Months: Love, Loss, and the Silence Between

Chapter 1: The February Evening

It was just another night… until it wasn’t.

It was February 22nd.

The music was loud, and laughter echoed. She was surrounded by people who barely knew the weight she carried in her quietest thoughts. That night wasn’t special — until it suddenly became the most pivotal one of her life.

She wasn’t looking for anything. No fairytales, no chaos. She was just there, at a party, letting herself breathe for once. Just existing — not chasing, not healing. Floating somewhere between ease and contentment.

And then, a message.

A guy she had spoken to earlier that day — casually, with no intention — said he was coming to pick her up. He didn’t ask. He simply said, “I’ll be there.” And something in the way he said it made her believe he meant it.

When he arrived, everything changed.

He wasn’t the kind of man who just walks in and blends into the background. He carried an energy — composed but intense, like he had been part of her story long before they ever met. There was something familiar in his eyes. She couldn’t place it, but she didn’t want to question it either.

That night, sitting in his car, something about the way he looked at her made her feel chosen. Like maybe, just maybe, the universe had finally given her someone who could understand the chaos inside her — or at least sit with her in it.

He told her things. Simple things. About his day. His dogs. His favourite music. She listened, unaware that each word was slowly weaving a thread around her heart.

There were no fireworks. No grand gestures.

Just a soft beginning that felt like home.

She couldn’t know then that this man would soon become a storm — the kind that doesn’t knock on the door but floods through the cracks, quietly at first, then all at once.

But that night, none of that mattered.

All she knew was that someone had come for her. Someone she had always dreamt of — or thought she had.

And that was enough.