After the Last Tear: Rising from the Ashes of a Broken Marriage By Cassila K

Chapter 39

When I woke up, the faint scent of antiseptic lingered in the air.

I had been transferred to a hospital back home.

The doctor told me I had spent two full weeks in the ICU.

My internal organs were severely injured, and I had taken a bullet to the shoulder.

But by some stroke of luck,

my spleen wasn't ruptured, and the bullet hadn't caused an exit wound.

The blood loss wasn't severe, and that's how I managed to survive until the peacekeepers rescued me.

I knew clearly in my heart-it was because Joseph shielded me twice.

He saved my life.

I reached out to everyone I could, trying to find any trace of him.

But they all said the chaos at the time made it impossible to recover Joseph's body.

With casualties mounting, Doctors Without Borders had suspended its projects in North Kivu.

I had no chance to go back and look for him.

Just like that, Joseph vanished.

Every night, I woke up screaming, gripped by terror.

His dying moments replayed endlessly in my mind, refusing to fade.

The doctor diagnosed me with PTSD.

medication, attending therapy sessions,

But nothing worked.

try starting anew, to stop

But... how could I?

He died for me.

thought became an unshakable shadow, always hanging

for still being alive,

for not granting

stood on the edge of

every time, at the very last moment, I would pull myself

one Joseph gave

no longer had the right

months later, I returned to work after my

I could no longer face cameras

a transfer to

yet I

me to meet new people, even

only wanted to say a few polite

I met

moment I

identical to Joseph's-l

took every ounce of strength I had not to break

out he was the brother Joseph had

first, treating him as a stand-in did bring

mundane, ordinary days were

cook dinner and wait for

days off, we'd curl up

nights when nightmares woke me in

beside me would let me drift back into