Love Bombing
He was everything she ever wanted — attentive, generous, obsessed with every word she said. It took Nadia six months to understand that obsession and love are not the same thing.
13 min read
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Toxic Relationships
Love that corrodes, partners who weaponise tenderness, and the slow architecture of an unhealthy bond.
No one moves in with the monster. They move in with the version of him who remembered her favourite tea, who held the umbrella over the wrong head in the rain. The corrosion comes later, in such small dosages that it cannot be photographed, and by the time it is named, the photographs have all been edited.
The stories in this section are about the long, intelligent ruin of two people who once meant well by one another. They are about apologies that cost nothing and accountability that never quite arrives. They are about the partner who keeps a private ledger of your faults and produces it only when you have begun to feel safe. Above all, they are about the particular grief of staying — the way that a person can choose, again and again, the closing door over the open one, because at least she knows which way this door slams.
Adult fiction, written for readers who have lived next door to this kind of love and want it rendered honestly, without the easy redemptions.
The Waiting Room
Nadia had spent three years in a relationship that technically did not exist. Every time she decided to leave, Marcus sent a single message, and the waiting always produced her.
13 min read
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The Quiet Restructuring
When Petra moved in with Daniel she was warm, decisive, and direct. By the end of the first year she was none of these things. The changes had been so incremental she had not seen any single one of them happen.
14 min read
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The Debt
Elias rescued Maya from a cult. He was patient, gentle, and never asked for anything. It took her two years to understand that the gratitude she owed him had become its own kind of captivity.
15 min read
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The Perfect Marriage
From the outside, Daniel and Claire had everything. But on the evening of their tenth anniversary, Claire opens a single message on his phone — and every lie begins to unravel.
18 min read
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More stories coming soon.
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Browse the full Portal Avalon collection — dark fiction across every realm.
All Stories → All Betrayal & Secrets