She looked tired but beautiful, with that beauty that doesn’t catch the eye immediately but reveals itself gradually over the years. Her movements were smooth, almost weightless, and in them one could feel the care she surrounded everyone with.
He suddenly understood that he hadn’t noticed this before, or perhaps didn’t want to notice.
His mother-in-law’s words echoed in his head, and every time he looked at his wife, warmth spread in his chest, mixed with a sense of guilt.
He recalled how in the last weeks Olivia had cooked his favorite dishes, how she silently accepted his bouquets, how she looked at him with that strange thoughtfulness, as if saying goodbye. And that thought stung him more than he expected.
The celebration continued, but Alex was no longer fully in it. He watched Olivia, how she laughed at an old friend’s joke, how she poured tea for her mother, how she hugged her niece who had come from another city.
All of it was so familiar, so dear, that he suddenly felt fear…
Fear of losing it forever. His mother-in-law, still wiping her tears, smiled at him across the table, and in her gaze was something he couldn’t decipher. Either a warning or hope.
— What are you thinking about? — Olivia asked quietly, approaching him with a glass of wine.
— Nothing, — he hesitated, trying to hide his confusion. — You really look beautiful today.
She looked at him with mild surprise but said nothing, just smiled slightly and went back to the guests…
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