The month of July passed in a blur of work, giving way to the oppressive heat of summer. After being swamped with duties throughout the month, Yugh finally got a brief respite. His mother had also left the house to meet a friend, leaving him in solitude. đŹ
Seizing the rare quiet, Yugh retrieved Zahra's diary from the trunk and settled on his bed, intending to read for a while. It fell open to an entry from May of the previous year, 2023.
22 May 2023 đ
"Today is a special day for me because Zayan and I... it's been a year since we met..."
Yugh's chest tightened, forcing him to pause. He took a sip of water, drew a long breath to steady himself, and then forced himself to continue. đ
"...We're planning to meet at the park this afternoon to celebrate a little. I bought some of the spicy snacks he likes. Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing something wrong to Yugh... but Zayan brought light into my lonely life. The one year I've spent with Zayan feels like it was lived with more happiness than the fourteen years I was with Yugh. Every day, I think about why I didn't meet him first."
The words on the page were a cold, precise blade. Yugh had always assumed, perhaps needed to believe, that Zahra had been content in their marriage. But here was her own testimony, declaring that a single, secret year with another man had outweighed over a decade of their shared life. A wave of profound regret washed over him,not just for her betrayal, but for his own apparent failure. Had he been so blind, so disengaged, that he hadn't noticed her profound unhappiness? đ
A deep, personal sorrow enveloped him. He closed the diary, locked it away, and mechanically ate a small meal. Needing to escape the confines of the house that now felt like a museum of his shortcomings, he stepped outside.
He walked without a clear destination, the summer heat pressing down on him, hoping the physical movement might loosen the grip of the painful truth now etched into his heart ,the realization that his wife's greatest happiness had happened in the shadows, with someone else. đ