Chapter 4
Chapter 4 — The Honest Door
Rolandas struggles with Regina's message for two days before confiding in Zvonkus, who offers pragmatic warnings. Elena sends a brief email that reinforces her earlier insight about Rolandas's self-deception. Rolandas replies to Regina, agreeing to meet honestly. They meet at a neutral café; Regina is direct and grounded, cutting through his nostalgic embellishments while revealing she has built a stable life with Marius. She acknowledges a flicker of past affection but makes clear she fears disappointment. Rolandas leaves the meeting shaken, recognizing the gap between his idealized memories and the real woman. The chapter ends with him composing an email to Elena, admitting he may have been wrong about what he's been chasing.
He carried the message like a stone in his pocket for two days.
Not literally—his phone remained on the kitchen counter where he'd set it that first evening, screen dimmed but not dark, the three lines of Regina's text still visible if he tapped it awake, which he did eleven times before morning and more than he was willing to count after that. But the weight of it traveled with him through the apartment, through the grocery store, through the mechanical motions of a Tuesday that asked nothing of him and received less.
Come honestly.
Keep reading "Chapter 4 — The Honest Door"
Open the same story in AIBookCraft. Later chapters may require an active subscription.
Free on iOS & Android · No signup to read