THE TRUTH?

He smiled, took her hand and walked to the nearest coffee shop. He led her to the table, placed an order for a Americano and a salted caramel Latte, her favourite he still remembered after all these years. Her heart skipped a beat, she was going to get a heart attack from this encounter she was certain. "I hope you don't mind me I ordering for you, I'm not sure if your taste has changed but I remember this was your favourite so I just ordered." He looked half shy, which she found very cute. She wanted to laugh at how cute he looked.

"It's fine, it's still my favourite. Anything salted caramel." He smiled a boyish smile that melted her heart. Heavens this guy is too good looking for her heart every action he makes causes unrest in her heart. "You called me here to explain, I'm waiting." She gave him a stern look, as stern and serious looking as she could. She wanted to feel more in control, she wanted to feel like she was driving the conversation. He took a deep breath, he looked like he was gathering his thoughts before he began speaking. "Maya, I know what I'm about to say might not seem like the truth and you might think that I'm lying but I swear every word is the truth. He took another deep breath. "Maya, back then... I... I was sick. I had to go abroad for treatment, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it or not. My chances of survival was less than 10%. My family wanted me to tell you they said you deserved to know but I was so scared back then." His voice broke, tears started rolling down his cheeks. She wanted to comfort him but she couldn't bring herself to do that as she was engaged to someone else. What if someone saw them hugging and it got back to James? That would ruin her relationship. He seemed to calm down as he took a deep breath. "Maya, I know me saying this now might be pointless but I really wanted to explain this to you. I really loved you back then. I still love you, a lot. I hope that one day you could find it in your heart to forgive me." She looked at him, trying to read his expressions. She wasn't sure what to say. What does one do in such a situation? She started thinking about what he said, trying to process everything.

"When did you find out you were ill?" She looked him in the eyes wanting to read every expression. "Two weeks before we broke up." "What were you diagnosed with?" She asked. "Cancer, a very rare type of Cancer. There wasn't really specialists available in the country that could treat it. Hence I had to go abroad." He replied. "Why did you break up with me? Why not tell me what you were going through? Did you not trust me or did you not have faith in me that I would be there for you? Do you know how that hurts? I truly loved you back then, you were my everything and something like that happened to you and you didn't want to share your pain with me? Is that what you call love?" She started raising her voice, luckily it was only them and the staff in the cafe. She started crying, she couldn't control her tears and her anger any longer. She loved him so much back then, she was so devastated when he broke up with her. She thought she had done something wrong. She had imagined so many scenarios but not once did she think it was because he was sick.