The slam rattled the frame, leaving silence in her wake. For a moment, Clara stood frozen, her arms trembling at her sides. Then the man’s lips curved into a thin, knowing smirk. The woman didn’t speak, but her eyes glistened with a quiet triumph beneath the tears, as if Clara’s silence had just handed them everything they’d been chasing.
Clara sank into the nearest chair, her chest collapsing inward, the truth pressing down on her like a stone. I’ve lost her, she thought, despair clawing at her throat. Eighteen years of love, undone in a single moment.