• Chapter 14

  • When I woke up, the faint scent of antiseptic lingered in the air.

  • I had been transferred to a hospital back home.

  • The doctor told me I had spent two full weeks in the ICU.

  • My internal organs were severely injured, and I had taken a bullet to the shoulder.

  • But by some stroke of luck,

  • my spleen wasn’t ruptured, and the bullet hadn’t caused an exit wound.

  • The blood loss wasn’t severe, and that’s how I managed to survive until the peacekeepers rescued

  • me.

  • I knew clearly in my heart–it was because Joseph shielded me twice.

  • He saved my life.

  • I reached out to everyone I could, trying to find any trace of him.

  • But they all said the chaos at the time made it impossible to recover Joseph’s body.

  • With casualties mounting, Doctors Without Borders had suspended its projects in North Kivu.

  • I had no chance to go back and look for him.

  • Just like that, Joseph vanished.

  • Every night, I woke up screaming, gripped by terror.

  • His dying moments replayed endlessly in my mind, refusing to fade.

  • The doctor diagnosed me with PTSD.

  • I began taking medication, attending therapy sessions, even resorting to alcohol.

  • 09:24

  • of

  • 58.1%

  • Chapter 14

  • But nothing worked.

  • starting anew, to stop dwelling on

  • could I?

  • died for

  • unshakable shadow, always hanging over

  • being alive, hate that it wasn’t

  • this world for not granting

  • edge of

  • the very last moment, I would pull myself back.

  • one Joseph gave everything to save.

  • the right

  • to

  • longer face

  • a transfer to a

  • I remained a

  • it anymore and encouraged me to

  • me to

  • and only wanted to say a few polite words

  • then I

  • I saw that

  • face identical to Joseph’s–I froze.

  • 09:24

  • Bride of Velvet Nights

  • 58.3%

  • Chapter 14

  • strength I had not to break down in

  • out he was the brother Joseph had

  • treating him as a stand–in did bring

  • days were so

  • would cook dinner and wait for him to come home.

  • days off, we’d curl up on the couch and watch movies

  • nightmares woke

  • seeing him lying quietly beside me would

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