Chapter 30 – The Storm That Followed
The café turned into a vacuum of silence, the kind that hums louder than words.
Elira's eyes remained fixed on Kael.
The woman beside their table didn't wait for an invitation. She pulled out the remaining chair and sat down like she belonged there—like she had belonged somewhere in Kael's life long before Elira did.
"Elira," Kael said, his voice quieter than before, "this is—"
"Calla," the woman finished for him, eyes never leaving Elira. "And I'm not just some girl from his past. I'm the mistake he never cleaned up."
Elira's jaw tightened. "That supposed to mean something to me?"
"It should," Calla said, leaning forward. "Because you're sitting here, sipping coffee with a man who doesn't know how to stay."
Kael stood up, jaw clenched. "Calla. That's enough."
She scoffed. "Is it? I gave you three years of my life, Kael. Three years of picking up your pieces just for you to vanish and pretend I never existed."
Elira looked between them, her stomach twisting.
"You were with her," she whispered.
Kael turned to her instantly. "After you left me, Elira. After the letters stopped. After I thought… we were finished."
"That doesn't change anything," Elira said, voice trembling. "You said you were broken. But you didn't say someone else was helping hold you together."
Calla laughed bitterly. "Oh no, I didn't hold him together. I shattered right alongside him."
Elira blinked rapidly, trying to steady her breath.
"So why now, Calla? Why show up here?"
Calla stood, eyes flashing. "Because I saw your name on his phone. Because I've read the things he never deleted. The drafts he wrote and never sent. The pain he claimed to leave behind… was still wearing your name."
Kael stepped between them. "You came to destroy something that never even began again. That's not fair."
"No," Calla said, tears at the corners of her eyes. "You don't get to decide what's fair when you're the reason both of us learned to stop trusting love."
Silence again.
But this time, it wasn't peaceful.
Elira slowly picked up her coat, her voice barely above a whisper. "You both need to figure out what's still broken. But I'm not here to be part of another unfinished story."
Kael reached for her. "Elira, wait—"
"Write to me," she said without turning around. "Not a thousand letters. Just one. The truth. I'll decide if I want to read it."
And then she was gone.
Leaving behind Kael…
And a woman who once believed she was the ending.
But maybe—
She was only the interruption.