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.

me to try starting anew, to stop dwelling on

But... how could I?

He died for me.

an unshakable shadow, always hanging

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

for not

on the edge of a rooftop, wanting to follow

every time, at the very last moment, I

Joseph

had the

I returned to

longer face cameras or

up requesting a

yet I

encouraged me to meet

wanted to say a few polite

then I

I saw that

face identical

took every ounce of strength I had not to break down in

found out he was

as a stand-in did bring me some

ordinary days were

worked late, I would cook dinner and wait for him to come

days off, we'd curl up on

nightmares woke

quietly beside me would let me drift