PROLOGUE
Anna Rosewood used to think loneliness only existed when someone left.
She did not know it could also exist while lying beside the person you loved.
The realization came quietly.
Not during a fight.
Not after betrayal.
Not even after disappointment.
It came on an ordinary Thursday night while she sat alone at a table meant for two.
Again.
The candle in the middle of the restaurant had already burned low by the time Anna checked her phone for the seventh time.
10:42 PM.
No messages.
The waiter approached carefully, almost apologetically. "Would you like me to reheat your dinner, Ms. Rosewood?"
Anna looked down at the untouched plate in front of her before offering the same polite smile she had been giving everyone lately.
"No, thank you."
Because reheating dinner would not change the fact that Caleb still was not here.
Outside the restaurant windows, rain slipped endlessly through the city while conversations and soft music blurred around her. Couples laughed quietly nearby. Glasses clinked. Someone across the room reached for their partner's hand absentmindedly.
Anna looked away first.
She was tired.
Not angry.
Not surprised.
Just tired.
Her phone finally lit up against the table.
And despite everything, hope still moved instinctively inside her chest.
Caleb.
Anna answered immediately.
"Hey."
The sound of hospital monitors echoed faintly through the line before Caleb's exhausted voice came through.
"Anna, I'm sorry."
Of course.
She closed her eyes briefly.
"There was an emergency surgery," he continued quietly. "I tried to leave earlier, but—"
"It's okay."
The lie came automatically now.
Because after three years with Caleb Grant, Anna had learned how to make disappointment sound gentle.
Silence settled briefly between them.
Then Caleb sighed softly. "Did you eat?"
Anna almost laughed at the question.
Not because it was funny.
Because somehow Caleb always remembered practical things while forgetting emotional ones.
"No," she answered honestly.
"You should eat."
Another silence.
Anna stared at the empty chair across from her table.
"You forgot, didn't you?"
Caleb went quiet immediately.
And that silence alone gave her the answer.
Tonight was supposed to matter.
Not because of the reservation.
Not because of the restaurant.
Because exactly three years ago, Caleb kissed her for the first time in the middle of a thunderstorm outside his hospital after working thirty hours straight.
Anna still remembered how exhausted he looked.
How beautiful.
How carefully he touched her face afterward like she was something fragile enough to ruin him.
Three years.
And he forgot.
"Anna," Caleb said softly now, finally realizing. "I—"
"It's okay," she repeated before he could apologize.
Again.
Always okay.
The problem was Anna did not know how much longer she could keep pretending it truly was.
Across the restaurant, someone laughed loudly while rain continued tapping against the glass beside her.
Caleb's voice gentled further through the phone. "I'll make it up to you."
Something inside Anna hurt quietly hearing that.
Because Caleb always promised that.
And maybe that was the tragedy of loving him.
He never meant to hurt her.
But somehow,
he still did.
"I know," she whispered.
Another emergency announcement echoed faintly somewhere behind him.
Hospital sounds.
Always hospital sounds.
Caleb exhaled softly. "I have to go."
Of course you do.
The thought crossed her mind so naturally now it scared her a little.
"When will you be home?" she asked quietly.
"Late."
Anna nodded before remembering he could not see her.
"Okay."
Neither of them spoke for a few seconds afterward.
Once upon a time, silence between them felt comfortable.
Intimate.
Now it felt like distance neither of them knew how to cross anymore.
Then Caleb's voice came softer than before.
"Anna."
"Yes?"
"I love you.".
There it was.
The thing that made everything harder.
Because Caleb did love her.
Anna knew he did.
He loved her in every quiet way he understood:
through loyalty,
through stability,
through exhausting himself trying to build a future for them.
But lately...
lately his love felt unreachable.
Like standing outside a locked room while knowing someone existed inside.
Anna swallowed slowly around the ache rising inside her throat.
"I love you too."
And she meant it.
That was the problem.
After ending the call, Anna remained sitting there alone for several minutes while the untouched dinner slowly grew cold between her hands.
Then finally, she reached for her purse and stood.
The waiter looked sympathetic when she passed him.
"I hope your evening gets better, Ms. Rosewood."
Anna smiled softly.
"It's alright."
But outside the restaurant, rain soaked through her coat almost immediately while loneliness wrapped quietly around her chest.
Not dramatic loneliness.
Not devastating heartbreak.
Something worse.
Something slower.
The loneliness of continuously loving someone who no longer knew how to reach back properly.
Her driver opened the car door quickly once she reached the curb.
"Home, Ms. Rosewood?"
Anna looked out toward the glowing city for one long second before answering.
"Yes."
As the car disappeared into Manhattan traffic, Anna rested her head quietly against the window while Caleb's words echoed painfully in her mind.
I love you.
Maybe he did.
But for the first time in three years,
Anna found herself wondering something terrifying.
What if love was no longer enough to keep them alive?
