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, even resorting

But nothing worked.

try starting anew, to stop dwelling on the

But... how could I?

He died for me.

thought became an unshakable shadow, always hanging

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

for not granting

the edge of a rooftop,

last moment,

Joseph gave

no longer had the right

months later, I returned to work

could no longer

up requesting a transfer

passed, day by day, yet I remained a walking

and encouraged me to meet new people, even dragging me

wanted to say a few polite words

then I met

I

face identical

took every ounce of strength I had not to

I found out he was the

as a stand-in did

mundane, ordinary days were so

dinner and wait for

off, we'd curl up on the couch and watch movies

the nights when nightmares woke me in

him lying quietly beside me would let me drift back