Days later, Anna told David she would take the train into town - her earring needed repair, and she thought she might see a film afterward. He smiled, relieved to hear her making plans, and pressed some money into her hand.


“Treat yourself,” he said.


The gesture touched her more than she expected. As she stepped outside, the air felt lighter than it had in weeks. The idea of being away - away from the stillness, the rooms that seemed to rearrange themselves when she turned her back - brought a quiet relief she hadn’t known she needed.


By the time she reached town, Anna felt something inside her begin to ease. She stopped first at the jeweller’s, a small shop, the kind of place where nothing unusual could ever happen. The elderly man behind the counter looked up with a polite smile as she laid the earrings on the glass. He examined one through his lens, tilting it toward the light.


“The clasp’s bent,” he said kindly. “An easy fix.”


A moment later, the door opened, and a beautiful, elegant, young blonde woman stepped inside. Her voice was bright as she greeted the jeweller, removing her gloves with a casual grace. Around her wrist shimmered a silver bracelet - fine, delicate, with a small sapphire clasp. The jeweller’s eyes lit up.


“That’s a beautiful piece,” he said. “Almost a perfect match to the earrings I’m repairing for this lady.”


Anna turned slightly, her breath catching before she could speak. The bracelet was hers. She remembered its weight, the faint scratch near the clasp - she had searched for it for weeks before deciding it was gone.


The blonde smiled, pleased by the attention.


“Thank you,” she said. “My fiancé gave it to me as an engagement present, but it is too loose. Can you fix it?”


“You have a fine piece there, Evelyn, and a fine man too,” the jeweller said with an approving smile.

“Yes… He’s wonderful”, her tone soft, almost dreamy. “We’re getting married soon....once his divorce is final, and his wife is in care. She hasn’t been well for some time, poor thing. He’s arranging to have her sent somewhere she can finally rest.”


The words settled in the air, soft yet heavy. Anna stood very still, the quiet safety of the shop turning suddenly tense, almost menacing. She felt the blood drain from her face, a slow, cold realization unfurling inside her. When the jeweller handed back her repaired earring, she nodded faintly, thanked him without hearing her own voice, and stepped out into the street, the sound of the bell fading behind her.


She walked without direction at first, the streets blurring into one another, the repaired earring clutched tight in her palm. She had planned to see a film, to lose herself for a few hours in someone else’s story, but the thought of sitting in the dark among strangers now felt unbearable. Instead, she turned toward the station.


The train ride home passed in silence, her reflection flickering faintly in the window as the landscape slid by. Her thoughts drifted through fragments of a life that no longer felt like hers. Walking from the station, she tried to reason with herself - perhaps it had all been a mistake. The bracelet could have been similar, not hers at all.


By the time the house came into view, she had almost decided not to confront David, at least not tonight. She would wait, she told herself, put her thoughts in order. After all, her mind had been playing tricks for weeks. Perhaps the woman -Evelyn- was only another confusion, another cruel invention of her restless mind. But then, through the warm light of the window, she caught the slow, unhurried motion of a figure moving inside. A tightness gathered in her chest, and her steps quickened, driven by a sudden mix of curiosity and unease.