"Her wedding ring didn’t fit anymore."

A quick short story about the rise and fall of a relationship.

The sky was a cloudless one as they strolled unhurried down the meandering pathways. The couple paused every now and then. The woman would shut her eyes slowly and inhale deeply, all the while clutching on to a broad-shouldered man. The man would pause too, but he only had eyes for his newly wedded wife. They were opposites, the two figures. The man was tall, rugged and broad with frown lines prominent all over his face. His hairline was bordering on receding yet he exuded an aura that no one dared challenge. The woman, on the other hand, was short and curved with long, overgrown blonde hair and kind eyes. As she tipped her head back and laughed loudly at something the man had said, it was clear to see why the man had eyes for nothing else.

As the years went on her smile would retreat into itself and you would have to strain to remember the last time you saw her head tilted back in between hysterical laughter. Her face became leathery - hardened against the pain and the suffering the years had brought. A scar just below her right eye was barely visible in the dappled light of the day. It was months old - an evening out that had taken a dangerously drastic turn. He had lain with her for days afterwards, his guilty conscience had merged with her sorrow to form a dangerous coalition of emotions. So she had stayed, the same vicious knuckles had held her for nights on end - and she had let them.

Eventually, months and months later she had finally had enough. His request for her to "stop whining and moping all the damn time" resulted in a screaming match and a suitcase being hastily packed.
Her wedding ring didn't fit anymore and she wasn't sure if it ever did.
So she walked. Through the paradoxical pathways that once filled her with happiness and purpose, that now ignited a visceral uncertainty. Yet nothing in the world is certain but death and this was the most alive she had felt in years.