How Long Should I Endure

from duty and expectations rather than desire. But that didn't stop her from giving everything to it. She had poured her heart into their life, hoping that one day,

bloom in the cracks of indifference, that pa

was much har

ing an empire. There was little time for her, and even when there was, it felt as if his mind was elsewhere. His attention, if it ever landed on her, was fleeting. And yet, she r

day nev

losing in. There was a growing chasm between them, a void that seemed impossible to bridge. She could hear the distant hum

y would envy. But what good was it if the person you loved couldn't even spare a moment to acknowledge your

lonely evening at a gala where she had been little more than an accessory on Arvid's arm. The alcohol had dulled the sharp ache in h

sh was

here was no time to react. The wor

something foreign, no longer tethered to the world she had once known. Her mind raced, her heart thundering in her chest as she

n, she

m a great distance. She tried to call out, but no sound left her lips. Panic began to rise in her chest as she realized that s

from her body. The lightness of it, the sense of floating above it all, was terrifying. Daria

, she sa

were distant, unfocused, as though he couldn't bring himself to care. She could hear

asn't Arvid's. Someone else-maybe a doctor, a nurs

. unresponsive," Arvid

but hearing it like this, so blunt, so uncaring... it crushed her. She had given everything to this m

st hint of another voice-familiar, too fa

t anything to you, did

other woman, one she r

who had been a part of their life-someone who had always lingered in the ba

e world began to dim around her. The voices faded, the figures receded, and Daria felt herself p

red open, but they didn't focus immediately. She felt dizzy, her mind still struggling to catch up with what

he sterile white walls, the beeping monitors, the machi

s Arvid. His expression was unreadable, but there was something differ

dn't car

ire. All of it felt so insignificant now. She had seen the truth, and it was more painful than any o

e person she had been before the accident. She wasn't the woman who had silently endured her husband'

was

but there was a strength in it she ha

ars, Daria felt something li