# **A Poisoned Glass of Wine – in Anna's Thoughts*

*

The silence in the apartment was unnatural. Every sound, even the faint tick of the clock, seemed louder than usual. Anna stood at the table, staring at the glass of wine. The ruby liquid shimmered in the candlelight, and her heart beat erratically – with a mixture of fear and a strange sense of justice.

*"It's time. This has to happen,"* she thought. "There's no turning back. I can't let him go without knowing what he's done… what he's done to me."*

Marek entered the room, tired, smiling, completely unaware. Anna watched his every move, every gesture. She looked at him and suddenly felt a mixture of regret, anger, and emptiness.

*"This is the same man I loved. But can I love betrayal? Can I love a lie? No… I can't."*

As she handed him the glass, her heart skipped a beat. She could smell the wine, knowing the dose she'd prepared was just right, so everything would happen slowly – without shouting, without dramatic scenes.

*"I don't want suffering. I only want truth… and peace."*

Marek raised his glass, and their gazes met. His eyes were filled with weariness, but also trust. And hers? Hers were cold, precise, like a blade long honed.

*"I'm sorry, darling… but there's no turning back."*

The first sip. First a smile, then a strange twist in his face that lasted only a moment. Marek tried to stand, tried to say something, but the words caught in his throat.

*"He won't come back. It's over… and I have to be strong."*

Marek collapsed to the floor. His eyes looked at her, full of disbelief and pleading. Anna knelt beside him, gently smoothing his hair as if stroking a sleeping child.

*"I couldn't do otherwise... He deserved the truth, and I... I needed closure. Everything must have an end."*

Silence filled the apartment. Marek's every breath was now just a memory. Anna stood slowly, took her glass, and looked at him again. There was no triumph in her, only a strange, cold sense of relief.

*"Freedom at last... and emptiness. But emptiness is also necessary to start over."*

Outside, the night was cold and still. The streetlights cast Anna's shadow on the cobblestone sidewalk—a lonely woman who, in one silent decision, had closed an entire chapter of her life.

*"There was no choice... only necessity. And now I can move on."*

Anna turned and left the apartment, and the silence remained inside—quiet, deep, and absolute, like the echo of a decision that had changed everything.

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