
Before You Go Back to Yourself - Beyond their old marriage, there may be a new beginning
By Laura BelliniLength5h 19m
About this audiobook
Can you fall in love with someone you've already loved, married, and lost? And what if the person who broke your heart remembers your goodbye completely differently?
At thirty-nine, Magda Cicha has built a life she can finally call her own. She's an independent literary editor with a successful business, an apartment in Warsaw, and ambitions she's no longer willing to sacrifice for anyone.
Three years after her divorce, she's learned to appreciate her freedom. She isn't looking for another relationship, and she certainly isn't interested in reopening the past.
Her plan is simple: spend six peaceful weeks at a seaside writers' retreat, finish an important editing project, and prepare for a possible career-changing opportunity.
Then Łukasz Brzeziński arrives.
Her ex-husband.
The man whose voice she would recognize anywhere. The man who once knew her better than anyone else. And the man who remained silent on the evening she walked out of their marriage, secretly hoping he would ask her to stay.
Now forty-three, Łukasz is an accomplished literary translator who has spent the years since their separation confronting uncomfortable truths about himself. He never expected to meet Magda again, especially not in a place where they would be forced to work side by side.
But a publishing project brings them together. A collection of short stories by Baltic women writers needs urgent editorial attention, and their professional skills make them an unexpectedly effective team.
They establish boundaries. Separate rooms. Clear responsibilities. No personal arguments during working hours.
Unfortunately, neither of them can establish rules for what their hearts remember.
Between complicated manuscripts, late-night conversations, quiet coastal walks, and the sound of waves beyond the balcony doors, the attraction between them returns.
Except this time, something is different.
Magda isn't the woman who once organized their entire life while silently waiting for her husband to notice how lonely she felt. Łukasz is no longer willing to hide every difficult emotion behind another explanation or another professional obligation.
They begin to discover each other again, cautiously at first, then with a tenderness and desire neither can dismiss.
A dinner becomes a date. A familiar gesture becomes a conscious choice. And a kiss after three years apart raises a question neither is ready to answer.
Can the same two people create a different kind of love?
Because their past is not as simple as Magda believed.
She remembers waiting for Łukasz to fight for their marriage. He remembers being told to respect her decision and let her go. As they begin examining the words they never understood and the choices they never explained, their fragile happiness faces an unexpected test.
And when an important detail from their past emerges, desire alone may not be enough to protect the trust they've started rebuilding.
Before You Go Back to Yourself by Laura Bellini is a contemporary second-chance romance about mature love, emotional intimacy, difficult honesty, and the courage to choose someone without losing yourself.
An atmospheric story of two independent adults discovering that sometimes the most meaningful new beginning lies beyond the relationship they once believed was forever.
This publication was prepared using tools that support the creative process, including artificial intelligence solutions. The final concept, structure and editing are the responsibility of the author.
Audiobook details
GenreRomance
Length5 hrs 19 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 9, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1INTRO
2Chapter 1 - Terms of the Encounter
3Chapter 2 - The Boundaries of Closeness
4Chapter 3 - The Sentences We Mustn't Lose
5Chapter 4 - The Things We Never Said
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6Chapter 5 - The Right to Say No
7Chapter 6 - Between One Breath and the Next
8Chapter 7 - The Morning After, We Are Not Strangers
9Chapter 8 - Beyond Our Memories
10Chapter 9 - The Risks We Choose
11Chapter 10 - We Are Not Going Back
12Chapter 11 - Room for Two
13Chapter 12 - Two Versions of Goodbye
14Chapter 13 - The Price of Putting Your Name to It
15Chapter 14 - The Truth That Still Hurts
16Chapter 15 - The Evening We Remembered Differently
17Chapter 16 - The Distance We Need to Breathe
18Chapter 17 - What Belongs to Me
19Chapter 18 - The First Step Without Promises
20Chapter 19 - Not Everything Needs to Be Reclaimed
21Chapter 20 - Stay If You Want To