Chapter 21 — The Ex-Wife Movement(Zara's POV)The call ends, but I don't move.I keep holding the phone to my ear for a few seconds after the line drops, as if my body hasn't quite processed that the conversation is over. When I finally put it down, I place it face down on the table and just stare into space.Jane watches me from the sofa."Who was it?" she asks, neither casually nor abruptly, just firmly, in the way she acts when she knows something matters.I don't respond immediately.Not because I don't trust her, but because I don't know how to say her name without making it real in a way I'm not ready for yet. Saying it out loud feels like opening a door I can never close.—Zara—she says again, more softly this time."I'll tell you later," I reply, and even to my own ears it sounds like a delay, not an answer.Jane studies me for a moment longer, then nods once. —Okay. But you'll tell me about it.I agree, although I don't know when that "later" is supposed to be.---I don't

Chapter 23 — Zara's Mother Returns(Zara's POV)After the call with Dominic, I decided not to stay there overanalyzing everything he'd said. It was easier to let him handle whatever was going on with Claire than to keep turning it over in my head until it became something bigger than it already was. I had classes, work, and enough to deal with without adding imaginary problems to the list.So I moved on.Classes in the morning. Work afterward. Evenings that somehow always ended with Dominic, either in person or on the phone. It settled into something that almost felt normal if you didn't look at it too closely.Claire never called again.Dominic didn't mention her.Jane noticed it too, but said nothing about it, which meant she was saving it for later.That morning, the two of us were in the apartment, talking about nothing important. She was complaining about one of her professors, and I was half-listening, half-thinking about an assignment I hadn't even started yet.Then there was a