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.

taking medication, attending therapy sessions,

But nothing worked.

starting anew, to stop

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 who

not granting him a

the edge of a rooftop, wanting

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

Joseph gave everything

the right

returned

no longer face cameras

ended up requesting a transfer to a

day, yet I remained a walking corpse,

me to meet new people, even dragging me to

wanted to say a few polite

I met

moment I saw

face identical to

I had not to break

he was the brother

first, treating him as a stand-in did bring me some

days were

would cook dinner and wait for him to come

up on the couch and

nightmares woke me

quietly beside me would let me drift back into