I gave interviews I barely remembered afterward. I stood beside Aileen and Frank while reporters asked if Nina had enemies, secrets, or reasons to run.
I always answered the same way.
"No. She was happy."
Eventually, everyone told me to move on, but I never truly could.
How do you bury someone when there is no body? How do you grieve a woman who might still be somewhere under the same sky?
Some people lose their spouse to death. I lost mine to a question.
Years passed. My hair darkened, then began to gray at the temples. Friends stopped inviting me to weddings because they did not know what to say. My parents aged. Nina's parents moved away after Aileen told me the town had become "one large wound."
I worked. I ate. I paid bills.
I smiled when expected.
But every morning, some small part of me still woke up and reached across an empty bed.
