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Summary
Gale is a psychology professor who has built a career around understanding the mind while quietly enduring a marriage that has narrowed his life to obligation and careful silence. Still married and caught in an emotionally abusive relationship, he moves through his days on principle alone, convinced that leaving would make him selfish, weak, or worse. Not only that, but Mystra owns him; he knows that leaving means his career and reputation.
One evening, he escapes to the pub with friends and ends up in an unguarded conversation with the bartender. Sameera is observant and easy to talk to, with a curiosity that runs deeper than small talk. What passes between them is ordinary enough to feel harmless at first.
As they continue to cross paths, that ease becomes harder to ignore. So does the fear of repeating the past.