Shattered Illusions: Love, Lies, and Redemption

Her laugh in the car that day, light and breezy, has been a melody in his heart these past few days, making him feel uplifted, filled with hopeful ambition.

He had mapped out the time, plotting how to woo her, to start fresh, to love like teenagers falling for the first time.

He even planned on being there for her after the birth, to support her through the postpartum period, to take care of her and the baby...

But he hadn't anticipated it all crumbling down so suddenly, turning into nothing but wishful thinking.

What he least expected was to hear from her own lips that she was willing to give him another chance. Yet, that chance slipped through his fingers in the most brutal way imaginable, piercing his heart with profound pain.

"Liz, I..."

He wanted to say, give me another chance, we're still so young, we can have more children.

But such words choked in his throat, unsaid.

He knew how tender her heart was towards him.

Time and again, she approached him, bleeding, crying.

It was his fault, again. How could he ask for yet another chance?

his eyes shut against the burning pain, while Lizetta opened hers at that

saw his rigid silhouette by the bed and whispered

amicably. I don't

rolled silently down her

it away,

the paperwork and then... let's

constricted as he

be this way?

twitched slightly.

no hope

his expression heavier

eyes. Moments

man closed the hospital room door behind him, he heard a muffled

the blankets, barely

to the doorknob was almost enough to snap

saw two figures rushing towards him from the other end of the hallway, Yolanda and Cassius. Cassius had taken Yolanda to Windale for an audition for a lead role in a period drama at a director's recommendation.

hell, with Cassius barely keeping it together, vomiting several times by the roadside from the rough ride. Yolanda stormed straight at Remington, her face

"Stand down."