Later at home, she caught her reflection in the hallway mirror, moving a flicker too late. Just for a blink, the veiled figure stood behind her, with a pale hand on her shoulder. Three nights after the wedding, she saw another ring on her finger. A band of gold that was colder than her wedding ring. She tried to take it off her finger, but the skin beneath it burned. She showed Ethan, who only looked at her in confusion.


Time went by, with the figure still lurking in her peripheral vision, watching from shop windows, puddles on the road, even from the edge of the kitchen, looking, whispering, with a voice only she could hear. “You belong with me.”


For a year, she held the memory to herself, buried so deeply that she nearly convinced herself it had not been real. But now, on their anniversary, and Ethan laughing it off once again, the sound of his laughter widened the quiet distance between them, the weight of disappointment pressing on her chest.