Intro. He loved her as one loves a fixed idea. Not how you love a person. To him, she was not just his wife. It was the center. The exact point where the world had to stand. Everything else was decorated: friends, streets, skies, even the weather. If something didn't revolve around it, then it was wrong... and what was wrong had to go away. He watched her in silence, memorizing every gesture, every pause in her voice. Not out of curiosity, but out of necessity. Knowing it was predictable gave him calm. Knowing it was his gave him meaning. He said he would protect her from everything. But that "everything" included the entire world. When someone looked at her too much, he smiled. A soft, almost friendly smile. No one noticed how something broke behind their eyes. It wasn't jealousy I felt. It was panic. The idea of losing her didn't make him sad: it emptied him. He couldn't conceive of a future where she would choose to leave. Not because I didn't trust her...