❥𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐘𝐀𝐋 || 𝑀𝐽 𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 ❥/𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑑/•

🌸𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃 𝚃𝚆𝙴𝙽𝚃𝚈 𝚃𝚆𝙾🌸

Later that day, Michael had been informed by the doctors that he was perfectly fine to leave whenever he had felt ready. Since Helen was due to visit him in the hospital, he had decided to wait until she showed up.

At the present moment, he was still inside of the room he had been allocated to, his body leaning against the wall as he stood near the window - gazing down at the carpark below. His most recent vision of Sarisha was still the only thing on his mind, her words playing over and over again in the forefront of his memory. For some reason, he felt calm after she had disappeared - a far cry from what he had expected to experience. For the first time, he felt as free as Sarisha's soul now was - but there was still a small part of him that continued to feel as though something else needed to be done, he just didn't know what.

He now felt the closure that had eluded him for seventeen long years, and though he would have loved to have discovered it sooner - he was just grateful that he found out before he made the massive mistake of marrying a traitor.

With his hands shoved into the pockets of his trousers, his mind ran over the darker thoughts he possessed. After almost two decades, it would have been impossible for Sarisha to have received legal justice - but that didn't mean justice was off the table altogether.

It didn't need to be right, it just needed to be fair.

Suddenly, Michael heard the door open, making him turn around to see Helen, who had arrived with a small bouquet of flowers. She smiled when she saw that he was on his feet.

"Well isn't this a lovely sight?" she remarked casually as she walked in. "How are you feeling now?" she made her way over to one of the vases, slotting the flowers in as best she could. "I was here yesterday, but-"

"Yes, Frank told me," Michael smiled. "I....missed you," it was very difficult for him to say those words without wanting to throw up, but he did anyway. "I'm actually quite alright now - the doctor said I'm free to leave whenever I feel ready," he cleared his throat. "But I was....waiting for you to come down here so that perhaps we could...go home together,"

She smiled wider, proceeding to walk up to him. "That sounds perfect," she set her hands on her hips. "You know, I'm glad that you were alright enough to regain consciousness today, because I actually had something planned for you that I feared would actually go to waste,"

"Oh?" he raised an eyebrow. "Do tell,"

"I know today is difficult for...all of us, but more so for you and me.....because we lost someone we loved dearly on this particular date," she shook her head sadly, and Michael found himself baffled at how well she could pretend to be innocent in all of it. "So there's a place I thought I would take you, where it'll be just you and me - and we can clear our heads,"

He stared at her, inwardly fuming. Deep down, he wanted to snap at her, and make her feel the sort of pain he felt at that moment - but he controlled himself, acting as though everything was perfectly fine. "That sounds wonderful. Just you and me, right?"

"Of course," she nodded with a laugh. "Just you and me,"

She gave him a kiss on the cheek, but he just stood there, rigid. Obviously she didn't notice the shift in his perspective of her, so her pretense remained as it always did - only this time she wasn't fooling Michael the way she believed she was.

As she walked away to speak to a passing nurse about their departure, Michael kept his cold stare fixed on her. She had aged, yet the more he glared at her, the more he could see her young self - betraying the only woman he had ever loved, in turn betraying him.

He couldn't understand how he hadn't immediately put the pieces together.

How could he have been so blind for seventeen years?

How did it not occur to him that Helen had been the culprit all along?

It should have been all too easy to have seen how jealous Helen was, and it should have been even easier to identify the animosity that she felt toward Sarisha. In fact, there should never been a single doubt about Helen being guilty.

But it was very easy to make those observations after the picture had been accurately revealed.

When in the middle of it, it always felt very different.

In the middle of the conversation with the nurse, Helen turned back to give Michael a smile - and as soon as she had done that, he recognized that smile, making him sick to his stomach. It was the very same smile she had broken into when she'd eyed Sarisha's lifeless body.

It was a mixture of satisfaction and triumph.

Then, Helen turned back to continue speaking to the nurse - leaving Michael more certain that he had ever been.

The last time he'd ever been so sure of himself was when he had married Sarisha.

As his thoughts grew more solid, he did well to remember a set of words in his mind that helped him grasp on to the validity of his emotions.

It doesn't have to be right, it just needs to be fair.

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