On a late Saturday night, when Lucy should be welcoming him with his usual hot coffee, a tight smile on her face and a fresh buddle of complaints, Aiden Carter finds himself welcomed by a dreadful silence and the news of his wife running away with h...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Ten hours pass. For once, the world seems to stop, and I can't understand why my heart still beats. I allow the tears to rush out of my eyes, sobbing every once in a while. Then I stop for some moments before I start all over again.
The tears do help. As much as it ached to find out every reason, to hear what scared me the most, it sort of have.. helped. I can't figure out why, or how. But there was a time when I thought that I would heal a little if I found out reasons, I was right.
Though this numbness now spreading away inside, it doesn't feel like healing. But for once, I'm glad that it has come.
The door opens, and Eva pokes her head in. Her eyes are deep and dark. I wonder what is it that hurts her.
'Can I come in?' She asks softly.
Dave has asked me the same question thrice, and I've said no each time. But something about her tune forces me to say yes.
She walks inside, looking nervous and sad. She inhales sharply as she sees me. I suppose I do look a sight. I raise a hand and feel my cheeks. Wet.
I sigh as I try to wipe away my tears, but it's hard with so many tears still leaking from my eyes. Eva hesitates, but then she crouches next to me and takes my hands away from my face. If I wasn't numb, I would feel awkward and embarrassed. But I don't.
She sighs as she wipes my tears away from me. It's a bit of a challenge for her as well, but then she stops and put her arms around me. And my heart responds.
'I'm sorry you have to see me like this.'
She pulls back and smiles sadly at me.
'I'm not sorry. I want to be here for you.'
Her words bring me warmth. It's faint. The numbness inside dominates every other feeling. The is a lot that I feel. Grief, sadness, shock, regret. Hope even, just a little, though I can't tell how it got inside. The numbness inside wraps itself around my heart like a thick blanket.
'Aiden?'
'Yes?' I stare at her, and her eyes, they speak a lot. I'm a little scared that I may be a misunderstanding. But my heart waits eagerly for her to speak.
'I don't want to go home.'
My heart stops, my breath gets caught.
'Why?' I ask softly, for a moment, forgetting about my own pain.
'My mum doesn't want me.' She sighs, looking away. 'I thought all mothers were like that. But you, you love so much.' Her lower lip trembles and she bites it. 'My mum said that she couldn't love properly because my Dad left. He was sick and he wanted her to be happy. That is what he said when I visited him at the hospital before he died. He had cancer. And mum, she said that she was too broken to love me as she should. She says that she can't be fixed. She can't ever love me. But you.' A tear leaks from her eyes too and she smiles at me again. 'You still love. You love as you can never stop.'
