Love, Hate, and Farewell

In the fourth year of her marriage, Anna realizes she no longer loves her husband, Nick Shaw. His touch repels her, his goodnight kiss feels like torture, and even his freshly laundered clothes carry a scent she cannot bear. Yet she was the one who pursued him relentlessly, so she tells herself this is the bed she made and lies in it, wasting away a little more each day. Then, one afternoon, she glimpses a conversation on his phone that changes everything.

At a class reunion, a drunken woman accuses Anna of stealing Nick from someone else. When Anna defends herself, Nick silences her, calling her dramatic. That familiar numbness returns, and the argument suddenly feels pointless. Later, when he reaches for her in the dark and she turns away, he asks whether her coldness is all because of Sylvia, his old flame.

Anna remembers how she first fell for Nick, how she chased him for two years, and how Sylvia once claimed they were only classmates from the same hometown. Now she begins to wonder what was really left unsaid between them.