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Books.
They’re everywhere. Most of them are scattered across the floor. One lies in the shattered remains of a vase, its pages soaked by the water that spilled across the wooden floor. Another has knocked over a side lamp that’s now lying on its side, the light still on and casting strange shadows across the room.
Nora sits in the middle of it all.
She doesn’t even notice me.
She’s frantically turning the pages of another book, mumbling under her breath as if she’s looking for something.
Or someone.
I quietly pick up the romance novel at my feet, close it and slide it back onto the bookshelf.
Only then does she look up.
Her eyes are bloodshot, and there’s a half-empty bottle of tequila beside her.
“Look.”
She thrusts the open book toward me, her finger pressed against the last page. “‘I’ll love you forever.’” She laughs bitterly, then flips another page. “And here...” Her voice cracks. “The epilogue.”
She looks at me. “They’re old.”
She swallows. “They’re sitting on a porch watching their grandchildren.”
The book leaves her hand before I can react.
It slams into the wall beside me and falls to the floor.
“All lies!” Her voice echoes through the empty house.
She grabs another book, her hands shaking now as she flips through the final chapters. “‘I’ll never let you go…’” She lets out another broken laugh. “What a joke.” That one lands somewhere behind me.
I don’t even turn around.
Instead, I walk over, gently take the next book from her hands and close it.
She doesn’t fight me. She just looks up, tears running over her cheeks.
“They’re all lying.”
I sit down beside her. The wooden floor creaks beneath us.
Neither of us speaks for a while.
Then her voice breaks the silence.
“Where is my happily ever after, huh?” The words come out in a whisper at first.
Then louder. “Where is it?”
She looks up toward the ceiling.
“Where the fuck is my happily ever after?”
No answer.
There isn’t one.
