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.

she saw me, her lips parted

a step closer and

very clearly,

"Apologize, asshole."

followed

to come here, lower my head, and beg for her

recovered her expression changed like a

Her fingers clenched the hospital blanket, the

had to

really good at

a script he'd rehearsed a thousand times before-Parks was

on her shoulder,

"Nina... don't-"

fingers curled around the familiar edge. Without another word, I turned and walked away. But

you walk out that

I paused.

us, heavy and firm,

slightly and looked back at

watching me,

Waiting for what?

Am I going to buckle under the pressure of

through, everything

let out a

And then, I smiled.

"Deal."

that what