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,

took a step closer and

very clearly,

"Apologize, asshole."

silence that followed

expected me to

remembering her role, she quickly recovered her expression changed like a curtain being

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

to

was really good

he'd rehearsed a thousand

hand rested on her shoulder, and his

"Nina... don't-"

my passport, my fingers curled around the familiar edge. Without another word,

if you walk out that

I paused.

words fell between us, heavy and firm,

and looked back at

watching me,

Waiting for what?

for me to hesitate? Am I going to buckle under

been through, everything

let out

And then, I smiled.

"Deal."

that what