His Lens Never Had Room For Me Chapter 04

His Lens Never Had Room For Me Chapter 04

On the night of the awards ceremony, I did not sit in the VIP family section.

Instead, I used a generic staff pass and slipped unnoticed into the shadows at the absolute back of the hall.

The spotlight gathered at center stage.

On the giant screen, in the photograph “The Light,” Sienna smiled recklessly in the glow of the sparkler.

Everett walked to the microphone in a perfectly tailored suit, trophy in hand.

He took the speech I had written from his pocket and read the first line.

“Astrophotography is a pilgrimage through the dark. We dedicate our lives to capturing the absolute purity of zero light pollution…”

At that point, he stopped.

After ten full seconds of silence, Everett stood before thousands of people and folded the note card I had written in half.

Then he slipped it back into his pocket.

“This speech is too formal. Right now, I’d rather set the script aside and speak from the heart.”

He lifted his head, his gaze landing directly on Sienna in the second row.

“Those who know me know I have one rule I never compromise on: zero light pollution. For that rule, I’ve demanded that the people around me not even breathe loudly for fear of to disturb an exposure.”

I stood in the last row.

I listened as he described, with his own mouth, the collar he had locked around my throat for five years.

“Tonight, many people have asked me why I gave up a comet that appears only once every seven decades.”

He paused for a second, his gaze crossing the crowd and settling on the cream-colored dress in the second row.

“Because a comet that leaves will come back. Even if it takes seven decades, it will eventually pass through this sky again.”

“But some people aren’t comets. Some people are meteors. You don’t know when they’ll light up, and you don’t know whether they’ll ever light up again.”

“So the exact second she appeared, I shut down every device, abandoned every plan, and aimed my entire camera, the entire night, the entire sky, at her.”

His voice softened further, dropping to a more intimate register.

“In that moment, it finally clicked for me. The stars we shoot are dead rocks. Their light travels for millions of years just to reach Earth, completely devoid of warmth. But true light is the warmth you feel the moment you turn your head in the dark of the wilderness.”

He looked at Sienna, whose face was wet with tears.

“So I willingly broke the rule I had guarded for five years. Because what we call light pollution is only light shining in the wrong place.”

“Sienna, thank you for lighting up my universe.”

Thunderous applause shook the auditorium.

Sienna covered her mouth and rose under everyone’s gaze, then ran toward the stage.

He had used the sacrifice of my five years in absolute darkness to prove his devotion to his rule.

Then he used one sparkler from Sienna to prove his love.

I did not wait to see them embrace.

Amid the deafening cheers, I turned and walked out of the auditorium.

I took a cab back to the apartment I had lived in for five years.

I pushed my only suitcase to the door.

Then I walked to the shelving unit and took out the three glass jars I had meticulously scrubbed until they were flawless.

I placed the three empty jars neatly beside his $150,000 camera.

No note.

No attachment.

One thousand and ninety-six dead, silent nights had all been emptied out.

I picked up my suitcase and closed the door behind me.

My phone buzzed.

Everett: [Sienna had too much to drink at the after-party. I’ll be back late. Go to sleep first. Don’t leave a light on.]

I looked at the screen, pulled out the SIM card I had used for five years, snapped it in half, and threw it into the trash.

The cab sped along the elevated freeway.

The city’s neon lights streamed backward outside the window, dazzling and full of light pollution.

He said the city sky was too choked to ever see the stars, using it as an excuse to constantly run away.

But he did not know that the astrophotographer who had once hidden every sharp edge and disappeared into darkness for him had completely erased her presence tonight.

Everett, your world no longer needed zero light pollution.

And I was going to photograph my own vast galaxy again.