Overview
🖤Can you spot the lie before the truth explodes? Every clue counts. Let’s begin.
The room was too quiet.
Even the air seemed to hold its breath.
“Do you, Mr. Steve, take Miss Rose to be your lawfully wedded wife?” the priest’s voice cut through the silence, steady but heavy with expectation.
Steve’s mouth was suddenly dry as desert dust. His throat tightened. The world tilted on its axis, all eyes narrowing and focusing on him.
But his voice, when it came, was steady, controlled, rehearsed.
“I do.”
The priest’s gaze lingered for a moment longer before moving on.
“Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health?”
A bead of sweat traced a cold line down Steve’s temple. The silence thickened, pressing in from every corner of the room.
“I do.”
“Do you promise to stay by her side, for better or worse, till death do you part?” The words hung in the air, heavy and final.
A pause.
A long one.
Steve’s heart thudded once — slow, loud, like a warning drum echoing through a cavern. His eyes locked onto Rose. She sat there—perfect, serene, and terrifyingly composed.
Unreadable.
The woman he had loved with blind faith, whose presence had colored his world in shades of hope he had never dared to believe in.
His lips parted, but the words tangled deep inside his chest, stuck and suffocating.
“I…”
He swallowed hard, fighting the rising panic.
The weight of her gaze was like a blade pressing into his soul, sharp, relentless, and unforgiving.
“I—can’t.”
The words shattered the fragile silence.
A faint gasp rippled through the hall. Some guests exchanged startled looks. A handkerchief fluttered briefly.
Rose didn’t flinch.
She simply tilted her head, her expression a calm lake hiding a storm beneath.
The rings were real.
The vows—hollow.
Two Years Earlier
“Mr. Steve, your meeting has been postponed to next week. Anything else to be noted?”
Angela’s voice was steady as she stood at the edge of his office with her tablet in hand, eyes attentive but neutral. Steve glanced up briefly, a faint, almost imperceptible smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“Yes. Tomorrow I’ll be having lunch with friends in Paris. I’ll still be reachable by phone.”
Outside, the day sparkled with relentless brightness.
The sun cast a golden glow over the city, streets bustling with life and movement.
But for Steve, the shine of the sun went unnoticed.
His world was a monochrome of meetings, emails, and deadlines. A relentless procession that left no room for grace or pause. Each day blended seamlessly into the next, marked only by the ticking of his to-do list.
“Ugh… these thousands of papers to sign—again!” Steve muttered, pen hovering just above a contract. His voice was low, tired, and sharp—like steam escaping a pressure valve.
“Twenty-four hours are not enough for a day.”
The desk before him was a battlefield. Contracts stacked in piles, memos scattered like fallen soldiers, urgent deadlines looming. Signatures lined the margins like marching lines of soldiers falling into formation.
The clock ticked on, indifferent to his exhaustion. Steve had long stopped counting time the way most people did.
For him, life had never been about the present moment—it was about what came next. The next task, the next deal, the next summit to conquer.
Desires weren’t dreams to him; they were targets. And once one was hit, another appeared—slightly farther, slightly harder.
His goals were never static. They shifted, morphed, multiplied like shadows chasing the sun.
Life was a race—a private, unending marathon against the man he used to be. Slowing down felt like defeat.
Rest was unfamiliar, even suspicious.
Outside the office, the sun poured its golden warmth over the city. Inside, Steve sat surrounded by glass and silence, chasing after something even he could no longer name.
Steve looked like the kind of man whose presence turned heads without trying.
Tall, broad-shouldered, with a chiseled jaw that hadn’t softened despite years behind office walls.
His hair—dark, slightly tousled—always looked effortlessly styled, even on days he hadn’t bothered.
There was a certain precision to him—the way he moved, the way he dressed. Tailored suits, polished shoes, sleeves rolled just enough to reveal a watch worth more than most people’s rent.
But it wasn’t just his looks that made people pause when he entered a room.
It was the quiet intensity.
The way his eyes—steel-gray, alert, calculating—seemed to scan everything and everyone. As though already ten steps ahead in a conversation that hadn’t begun. He smiled rarely, but when he did, it felt like the reward of surviving a storm.
People admired him.
Some feared him.
Few truly knew him.
Beneath the polished exterior was a man wired for motion. Driven not by greed, but by some unspoken standard he had set for himself long ago.
A standard he never shared. And perhaps no longer remembered the origin of. Failure, to him, wasn’t falling behind others—it was failing to outpace the man he was yesterday.
“Eventually,” Steve exhaled, stretching his arms behind his head.
“All work done. Now I can recharge with some sleep.”
The office lights dimmed behind him as he stepped out, the cool night air brushing against his face.
But before the idea of bed could fully settle in, his stomach reminded him of something he’d ignored all day—food. Hunger pulled him toward the roadside stalls a few blocks away—the ones that stayed open late and always smelled like comfort.
Despite the late hour, the sky still held onto a dull blue. The neon signs from the stalls cast a warm, buzzing glow.
He stopped at a familiar cart and ordered a burrito with a chilled mint margarita. Leaning against the counter, he took the first bite.
The night was quiet—just the soft hum of the city and the sizzle of food on grills.
That’s when he saw her.
Across from him, by another stall, stood a girl—young, clearly drunk, holding a paper plate like it was the only stable thing in her world.
Her eyes were heavy, her balance worse.
She took a shaky bite of her hot dog, chewing slowly as if every movement was a battle against gravity. Steve paused mid-sip, watching.
Something about her—alone, swaying, on the edge of collapse—pulled him out of his bubble.
Then it happened.
She took the last bite, staggered slightly, and collapsed—her body crumpling like paper.
Steve didn’t hesitate.
He dropped the rest of his burrito onto the counter and rushed toward her, heart pounding in a way work never managed to provoke.
“Hey!” he called, kneeling beside her.
“Are you okay?”
Her head lolled sideways, lips parting slightly. The scent of cheap liquor mixed with faint traces of floral perfume. She blinked slowly, confusion clouding her eyes.
“Can you stand?” he asked softly.
She tried, but her legs trembled violently, forcing her back down onto the curb. Steve’s hands hovered uncertainly before settling beneath her shoulders, steadying her.
The crowd thinned, people moving past like shadows, leaving them alone in a cocoon of flickering neon.
His pulse hammered louder, an unfamiliar protectiveness flooding through him.
“I can’t just leave her here,” he muttered under his breath.
Gently, he helped her sit upright, brushing a stray lock of hair from her face. She shivered, eyes closing briefly.
“I’ll drive you home,” he said.
“Just to make sure you’re safe.”
Her gaze lifted, hesitant but trusting.
“Okay,” she whispered.
The ride was quiet.
The city lights blurred past, casting fleeting patterns on her face. She leaned against the window, fragile, lost.
Steve stole glances at her—wondering what story she carried, what battles lay behind those tired eyes. When they arrived at a modest apartment building, she straightened and turned to him.
“I didn’t catch your name.”
“Rose.”
He nodded.
“Steve.”
She smiled faintly, stepping into the night. He watched as the door closed behind her—the echo of footsteps swallowed by silence. He didn’t drive away immediately.
He lingered.
Like a dream slipping through his fingers.
He hadn’t saved her.
He had only watched her fall more slowly.
© 2025 Maheen Nouman. All rights reserved.
Author's note:
The complete serialization of Wife Over Life continues on Ream after Chapter 5. Thank you for reading — I’m glad you’re here. 💙
https://reamstories.com/maheenwrites
Rose’s smile hides more than meets the eye. Who do you trust so far — Steve or Rose? Let me know! Next chapter will dive deeper into their secrets…
