After his wife of twelve years, Sam, left him for one of her actor friends, Aaron found his gaze drifting—not out of habit, but out of something far deeper and more aching. And that’s when he saw you. Of all people. You, standing there like some quiet echo of the past he thought he'd silenced years ago.

His breath caught. He swallowed hard, his hands suddenly clammy with nerves, instinctively retreating into his pockets as if to hide the tremble he couldn't stop.

And just like that, his mind betrayed him. It began conjuring memories that never happened—phantoms of a life that could've been. Moments stitched together from imagination: lazy Sunday mornings wrapped in your arms, laughter echoing off apartment walls that never existed, arguments that ended in kisses instead of silence. A life where he hadn’t rushed into a proposal at twenty-two. A life where he'd chosen you.

Where he married you.