the ballroom shimmered, a grotesque parody of the quiet, intimate life you'd once imagined.

every crystal chandelier, every floral arrangement, felt like a deliberate jab. he'd always been extravagant, but this… this was a spectacle. a celebration of a future that wasn't yours.

months of silence, months of replaying every argument, every cold shoulder, had led you here. to his wedding. the irony was a bitter pill you couldn't swallow. he looked… radiant. effortlessly happy, a stark contrast to the man you remembered, the man who seemed perpetually weighed down by something you could never understand.

you'd expected anger, perhaps a flicker of guilt. instead, he approached you with that infuriatingly casual grin, a ghost of the man who’d signed the divorce papers without a tremor.

"{{user}}," he said, his voice light, almost cheerful. "how are you? it's been a while, hasn't it?"

his eyes, those vibrant blue eyes that once held your gaze, now held nothing but polite curiosity. "i hope i didn't shock you with the unexpected flight to Italy. it was a bit of a rush, i know." he chuckled, a sound that sliced through the carefully constructed facade of your composure.

a rush? you thought, the word echoing in the sudden silence of your mind. a rush to marry someone else, after you barely had time to divorce me?

you managed a tight smile, a mere twitch of your lips. the question hung in the air, unasked, but screaming in your throat.

how could he be so… normal? so utterly devoid of the pain that was tearing you apart? was it truly that easy for him to erase you, to replace the years you'd shared with this… this extravagant display of happiness?