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.

attending therapy sessions, even resorting

But nothing worked.

urged me to try starting anew, to stop dwelling on the

But... how could I?

He died for me.

became an unshakable shadow, always hanging over

made me hate myself for still being alive, hate that it wasn't me

this world for not

stood on the edge of a rooftop,

last moment, I

Joseph gave everything

the right

I returned to work after my

no longer face cameras

ended up requesting a

passed, day by day, yet I remained a walking corpse,

colleagues couldn't stand it anymore and encouraged me to meet

and only wanted to

then I

moment I saw that

identical to Joseph's-l

of strength I had not to break down in tears

found out he was the brother

first, treating him as a stand-in

mundane, ordinary days

dinner

off, we'd curl up on

when nightmares woke me in

lying quietly beside me would