Page 17 of The Kat Bunglar

She struggled to remember when they had first started dating. There was romance there—she was sure of it. She remembered the sly smiles, the innuendos that had her hanging onto every word he said. She remembered her entire being vibrating with the need to be next to him.

She had believed he was the missing half of her hollow soul.

But somewhere along the way, the conversations began to wind down and then fade out altogether. The quick-witted banter became stark and transactional, with the bare minimum being uttered.

“Where did you put my socks?”

“I have an early morning meeting.”

“Grab some milk on the way home.”

Until finally, they had completely unraveled each other’s every thought and desire.Is that all there is?Laila wondered, then shied away from thinking about it too deeply. Because if she squinted and looked at it from a closer angle, she would have to admit that what they shared wasn’tthatspecial.

Maybe they were just two people who happened to get along and then predictably got married, like most of the world.

She was just the other half of a necessary statistic meant to propel society forward.

She twiddled with her wedding ring.

It had been her mother’s before she passed away from dementia. Jay had wanted to buy her something sleek and modern.

But she had refused—the two-carat emerald ring made her feel close to her mother and to her Pakistani heritage.

She re-read the Urdu inscription within it, ????? ???? ?? ??? ?? “Freedom comes from love.”

With a sigh she slipped it off her finger and dropped it on her vanity table. The weight of it felt too heavy to hold on to tonight.

?Chapter 5

Back to Chesterton

Present day

July 9th

Kat Kar

---