The Relational Bankruptcy

In a future where relationships are contracts, love requires paperwork. Marriage is a seven-year renewable term. Dissolution has penalties. Compatibility is assessed by the state. Mara and Daniel have twelve days to decide whether to renew their partnership before the civic system marks them as expired. They're not here to end things-not yet. They're only filing a notification of intent. A declaration that they'll consider staying together.
But the city has other ideas. The moment they submit, the system flags them: insufficient financial contribution, flagged compatibility scores, mandatory counseling. Each requirement is a small admission: something is wrong between you. And with each step toward renewal, Mara discovers that the barriers the state places between them are nothing compared to the distance they've already created themselves.
In a society designed to prevent relationship bankruptcy, Mara must navigate bureaucratic scrutiny, her husband's deepening silence, and the question she can no longer avoid: is a marriage worth saving if both people have already decided to leave?A literary science fiction novel about the intimacy we lose to institutions, the contracts we sign with our eyes closed, and what it costs to choose someone-or to finally stop choosing.