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

Chapter 79

Autumn is creeping in Berlin.

The plane trees lining the streets fade to golden, their leaves curling at the edges before the wind picks up - they twirl, flutter, swirl, and slowly and obediently

descend.

They fall one layer after another onto the cobblestone streets, crunching gently underfoot.

The seasons change, just like life.

I adapted faster than I expected.

The transition was almost effortless.

The enrollment process was smooth. I became part of the professor's research lab, integrating into the rhythm of early mornings and late nights, the meticulous data collection, and the sterile smell of the lab.

For the first six months, I shadowed senior researchers – observing, learning, making mistakes.

By the end of the year, I had become a mentor myself.

"Interesting, isn't it?" my professor mused one afternoon, leaning back in his chair and browsing a set of reports.

"You didn't come after graduation, you bet you regretted it."

I laughed.

Regret?How could I regret it?

At that time, I never hesitated.

I just don't have the money.

That's the only thing holding me back.

Upon hearing this, one of the senior fellows next to me the one who mentored

joined looked at me and a look of elusiveness flashed across

his expression

me like that," I joked. "I'm

Very well.

scholarship covered everything I needed, and I

that I made the right

in the future, I'll make

on the day I

had stood in the apartment we once shared, expecting to find me

had gone so far as to bring Nina's parents, calling them as witnesses to something he should have done a long time ago, the moment he cut ties with her

family had

didn't care.It

next morning, he rushed to

steps hurried, the words already forming

it's over. It's all

stopping us

didn't know that five minutes before he arrived, I had already boarded a

broken from the night

now, the hinges groaned, the frame shuddering beneath

inside, the words on the tip of his tongue, and then

person standing there

girl,the

him, startled, a flicker of confusion crossing her face

hesitantly. "I thought you left the country

words landed like a punch

in his life he

fingers

"Where is she?"

Norway isn't for two more days. Where did

I hadn't told anyone. No

his phone, his

Dialing. Texting. Calling.