Evelyn had always believed in love. Not the fleeting kind that fizzled out under the weight of reality, but the kind that stayed, silent, strong, unshaken. Though she never got it from her busy parents. She found it in the most unexpected place, in the presence of 'Rain'.
Rain wasn’t extraordinary in the way romantic heroes often were. He wasn’t the type who made grand gestures or whispered poetry under the moonlight. He was practical, ambitious, and oblivious to the way Evelyn's eyes followed him, the way her heart clenched every time he smiled at someone else.
They had been friends since her childhood. Evelyn, with her quiet admiration, always stayed a step behind him. She was the friend who listened when he spoke about his dreams, the one who cheered for him when he achieved his goals, the one who swallowed her feelings every time he mentioned another girl.
She never told him how she felt. Maybe she feared rejection, or maybe she feared losing the only connection they had. Either way, she chose silence.
But silence has a way of turning love into a slow, unbearable ache.
There were small, fleeting moments, when Evelyn allowed herself to believe that maybe, just maybe, Rain saw her differently. Like the time he waited for her when she was running late for class, or when he remembered her favorite coffee order without her telling him.
She clung to those moments, weaving them into a fragile hope that barely held together. But hope, when misplaced, is a dangerous thing.
Because Rain fell in love. But not with her.
The day he told her about Maira was the day Evelyn felt something inside her shatter. Maira was everything Evelyn wasn’t. Maita was bold, charismatic, effortlessly captivating. She saw the way Rain looked at Maira, the way his eyes lit up when he spoke about her. It was the way Evelyn had always looked at him.
And yet, she smiled. She congratulated him. She played her role as the best friend, the silent admirer, the girl who loved him but would never be loved in return.
Time did what it always does, it moved forward. Rain and Maira became inseparable. Evelyn became a background character in her own story, watching the love of her life build a future with someone else.
She tried to move on. She went on dates, entertained the idea of other possibilities, but no one ever measured up to him. No one else made her heart race, made her feel alive in the way Rain did. Because this painful first love cannot be forgotten that easily.
Her parents noticed her reluctance. They saw her turning away from proposals, saw the emptiness in her eyes. And like all concerned parents, they decided to take matters into their own hands.
When Evelyn's father mentioned the proposal from Inspector Leon Marshall, she barely reacted. She had heard it all before, good family, respectable job, stability. But this time, there was a finality in their voices. They weren’t asking. They were telling.
She didn’t resist. Maybe because she was tired, or maybe because she had already lost the battle she had been fighting for years.
Rain attended her wedding. He smiled, congratulated her, told her she looked beautiful.
Evelyn smiled back, but she knew, this wasn’t the love story she had dreamed of. This wasn’t the ending she had wanted.
But love, she had learned, wasn’t always returned. And sometimes, the only choice left was to let go.
Evelyn had once read that unrequited love felt like drowning in an ocean where no one knew you were struggling. That was exactly how she felt when she saw Rain at her wedding.
Dressed in a pastel suit, he blended into the crowd, just another guest, just another well-wisher. But to Evelyn, he was the only one in the room.
She had imagined this moment differently once, standing in front of him, adorned in white, but with his name written beside hers on the wedding card. Instead, her name was paired with Leon's, a man she barely knew.
Her parents were overjoyed. Leon was a police officer, disciplined and respected. He carried himself with quiet confidence, his presence demanding attention. He looked at her with admiration, but all she could think about was how unfair it was that someone could love her while the only man she had ever loved never even noticed.
The rituals dragged on. Vows filled the air, flowers rained down, people cheered. And Rain? He clapped along with them, his face unreadable.
That was the last time she saw him. After the wedding, he disappeared from her life. No messages. No calls. No closure. As if he had never existed.
On the other hand, Leon was kind. And that was the worst part.
If he had been cruel, if he had been indifferent, maybe it would have been easier to resent this marriage. But he wasn’t. He tried.
He remembered how she took her tea, less sugar, extra ginger. He noticed when she was tired, when the weight of expectations threatened to crush her. He gave her space, never forcing his way into her world.
And yet, Evelyn could not love him.
Because, for her, love has long left her alone.
Yet, she tried. She really did. She cooked Leon's favorite meals, laughed at the right moments, played the role of a devoted wife. But love could not be willed back into existence.
Nights were the hardest. She would lie awake beside Leon, staring at the ceiling, wondering if Rain ever thought about her. Did he ever regret not seeing her? Did he ever miss her the way she missed him?
But the truth was, it didn’t matter. He had moved on. And she was someone’s wife now.
Months passed. Life settled into a pattern. She learned to be Leon's wife, to exist in a marriage that felt more like a compromise than a love story.
One evening, as she walked through the marketplace, she heard a familiar voice.
“Evelyn?”
Her heart stopped.
She turned, and there he was 'Rain'.
He looked the same, yet different. There was something heavier in his gaze, something that hadn’t been there before.
“I heard about your marriage life,” he said, forcing a smile.
She nodded. “And Maira?”
A shadow passed over his face. “She left.”
It took her a second to process his words. “What?”
Rain exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. “She wasn’t ready for commitment. She ended things a month after you got married.”
Evelyn felt a strange mix of emotions, sadness for him, anger for herself. He had lost the love of his life, but at least he had 'had' it. At least he had been chosen.
She hadn’t.
For a moment, silence stretched between them. There was so much to say, and yet, no words felt enough...
“I should go,” she said finally.
Rain nodded, but as she walked away, she swore she heard him whisper her name.
That night, Evelyn stood by the window, staring at the city lights.
There was a time when she would have given anything to hear Rain say he needed her. But now? Now, it was too late.
She was married. He was alone. And life was unbearably cruel.
But after seeing Rain again, Evelyn couldn’t sleep. She lay beside Leon, staring at the ceiling, her mind stuck in the past.
She had spent years longing for a man who never chose her, and now, when he stood before her with loss in his eyes, all she felt was exhaustion.
She wiped her tears before Leon could see them.
Tomorrow, she would wake up and play her role again. Tomorrow, she would smile, cook, and pretend that her heart wasn’t buried in a past that never truly existed.
Because love, real love, was never about timing. It was about choice.
And Rain had never chosen her.
The next morning, she went about her routine as usual, making breakfast, answering her mother-in-law’s questions, pretending everything was fine. But something felt… different.
A quiet nausea crept over her, followed by a strange fatigue.
Days passed, and the symptoms grew stronger. She tried to ignore them, dismissing it as stress, as exhaustion from emotions she hadn't processed. But when she finally missed her cycle, a thought whispered in the back of her mind.
Could it be?
She took the test alone, in the silence of their bathroom, her hands trembling as she waited.
Two lines.
Her breath hitched.
She was going to be a mother.
A thousand emotions crashed into her at once, fear, uncertainty, disbelief. But then, an unexpected warmth spread through her chest. A quiet, hesitant kind of joy.
For years, she had searched for love. And now, love was growing inside her.
For the first time in a long time, she didn’t think of Rain. She didn’t think of the life she could have had.
She thought of the life she was about to bring into the world.
And for the first time, she felt at peace.
Evelyn hadn’t cried when she married Leon. She hadn’t cried when she had last seen Rain. But when she saw the two pink lines on the pregnancy test, tears spilled down her cheeks.
She wasn’t sure if they were tears of relief, fear, joy, or something else entirely.
She stood in front of the mirror, pressing a shaky hand to her flat stomach. There’s a life inside me.
The thought filled her with awe and a quiet kind of terror. She had spent so long feeling hollow, like a shell of a person waiting for something, someone, to fill the emptiness.
And now, without warning, life had taken root inside her.
For days, she told no one. She carried the secret with her, feeling it like a flickering light in the darkness. Every morning, she woke up knowing she was no longer alone.
Evelyn didn’t tell Leon right away. She needed time to sit with the truth, to let it settle into the deepest parts of her.
She spent days running her fingers over her stomach, whispering soft words to the life inside her. You are loved. You are wanted. Words she had once longed to hear herself.
But when she finally told Leon, his reaction surprised her.
He broke into a rare, genuine smile, the kind that reached his eyes. He held her hands, his voice thick with emotion.
“You’ve given me the greatest gift, Evelyn,” he said. “Thank you.”
She only nodded, because how could she explain? This wasn’t about him. This was about the love she had been searching for all her life.
Something which truly belonged to her.
And now, she had finally found it.
Pregnancy didn’t come easy for Evelyn.
The morning sickness was relentless, pulling her under waves of nausea every day. The fatigue made her feel like a stranger in her own body. And yet, despite the discomfort, she found herself in awe of the life growing inside her.
She spent nights lying awake, hands over her belly, whispering to the baby.
“Do you hear me?” she murmured one night, feeling silly. “I don’t know if you can yet. But I want you to know something.”
A deep breath.
“You will never have to wonder if you’re loved. You are loved!”
She said the words again and again, letting them settle into the spaces in her heart that Rain had once occupied.
By the time she felt the first flutter of movement, a tiny kick, like a butterfly against her skin, Evelyn was already hopelessly in love.
Pregnancy does changed her in ways she never expected.
At first, she was terrified. What kind of mother would she be when she had spent so many years feeling empty? But as the months passed, something shifted inside her.
She found herself reading parenting books late into the night. She ran her hands over her belly, feeling the soft kicks of the baby inside her, and smiled without realizing it.
She started humming lullabies, ones she didn’t even know she remembered.
For the first time in years, she wasn’t thinking about Rain. She wasn’t waiting for love.
She was creating it...
The night her son was born, a storm raged outside.
Pain blurred the hours together, contractions rolling through her like waves, leaving her breathless. Leon was by her side, his usually calm demeanor replaced by barely concealed worry.
“You’re doing great, Evelyn,” he murmured, squeezing her hand. “Just a little more.”
She barely heard him. All she could focus on was the burning pain, the pressure, the way her body seemed to split open, making way for something greater than herself.
Then, after what felt like a lifetime, a sharp, newborn cry pierced the air.
Evelyn gasped, her body trembling from exhaustion, her mind hazy.
And then, HE was there.
They placed him on her chest, in her embrace, his tiny body warm and fragile. His cries softened as she touched his face, her fingers trembling.
For the first time in years, Evelyn felt.
Her heart swelled, overflowing with something so raw, so consuming, she thought she might break under the weight of it.
This love wasn’t uncertain. It wasn’t something she had to chase or beg for. It had arrived, pure and unconditional, wrapped in the tiny body of her son.
His tiny fingers wrapped around hers, his warmth sinking into her skin. And in that moment, she knew, she had never loved anyone like this before.
This was the love she had been waiting for. The kind that never left. The kind that never had to be begged for.
She pressed a kiss to his damp forehead, whispering the only words that mattered.
“You are my everything.”
And for the first time in her life, she truly believed it.
Years passed, but the ache of unrequited love faded, replaced by something gentler. Evelyn no longer yearned for Rain’s affection. She no longer replayed what-ifs in her mind.
Because HE was enough. His laughter filled the hollow spaces in her heart. His love was pure, unconditional.
And maybe this was how life had meant it to be all along.
Maybe some people aren’t meant to be loved the way they want to be.
Maybe they’re meant to find love where they least expect it.
And for Evelyn, love had never been found in a man’s arms.
It had been born in the eyes of her son.
✧✧✧
Thanks for reading!
–By AprilSky.
