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

Chapter 69

Pax and I parted on bad terms.

Four days before I left the country, she was hospitalized. Just when I thought things couldn't get any more ridiculous, Nina tried to kill herself.

"She's got serious depressive tendencies."

"It's just an apology."

Pax stood before me, fingers pressed to his forehead, as if the weight of this conversation had exhausted him. The dim hospital lights cast deep shadows under his eyes-evidence of a sleepless night.

I wondered if he had spent the night here, at her bedside.

He exhaled slowly, his patience fading by the second. "Wouldn't you?"

I stared at him, my lips curling in amusement.

An apology?

I almost laughed.

"Of course," I said, my assent easy, almost nonchalant.

Then I walked into her room.

The place smelled sterile and artificial, like disinfectant, with a hint of metal. The monitors beeped at slow, rhythmic intervals, the only sound to break the silence.

Nina sat on the bed, her skin pale under the fluorescent light. Her hair was combed to one side, framing her delicate features and making her look almost ethereal—like a fragile thing that was almost broken.

saw me,

step closer

very clearly,

"Apologize, asshole."

silence that followed was

blinked, stunned, as if she really expected me to come here, lower my

remembering her role, she quickly recovered her

glassy with tears. Her fingers clenched the hospital blanket, the knuckles white, as if my words hurt

had to

was really

expected-like a script he'd rehearsed a thousand times before-Parks

her shoulder, and his

"Nina... don't-"

didn't stay to listen. Then I reached for my passport, my fingers curled around the familiar edge. Without another word,

you walk out that door

I paused.

fell between us, heavy and

and looked back

was watching me, waiting,

Waiting for what?

hesitate? Am I going to buckle under the

through,

let out a slow

And then, I smiled.

"Deal."

what