Ethan sat in his small apartment, staring at the empty space where his three cats once lounged lazily in the afternoon sun. Max, Oliver, and Luna—his constant companions for years—were gone.
His wife, Clara, had given them away without his knowledge or consent. The weight of their absence settled on his chest like a stone, and he struggled to breathe through the suffocating betrayal.
He and Clara had been married for three years. It hadn’t been a perfect marriage, but it had been good enough—or so he had thought. There had been small arguments, of course, over the usual things: household chores, finances, plans for the future. But nothing prepared him for the day he came home and found his three beloved cats missing.
