Share
28
I drove for thirty minutes to get here, to this tranquil place after leaving that woman’s apartment, somewhere I don’t come all too often, yet today I felt like I needed to. I stare at the graves of my parents, laid side by side, and yet no tears come like I expected they would while driving here. I have a million conflicting emotions and thoughts that brought me here, and now I am; I’m too ashamed to stand before them. I'm aching for them after the day I’ve had, feeling lost and like everything is spiraling out of control, and I don’t have a grip on anything anymore.
I lay the bouquets I stopped to buy on the way here in front of them and bend to dust off the dark grey marble stones. Stopping to touch the faces in the pictures indented into the shiny surfaces hurts as much as it always did. I’ve never faced the grief and allowed myself to mourn them fully, but I don’t know how to start.
Contrary to how I behaved in front of Cl
Related chapters
Til Death Do Us Part 29
“Just when I start to feel bad for you, you always pull something out of the bag that completely turns me around again and reminds me you’ll stop at nothing to win. What the fuck are these?” he swipes the top layers aggressively and sends them splaying off the bunker and across the floor around my feet, light falling leaves, as he scowls at me and locks his gaze on mine. Softness and regret are gone, and he picks up my printed document that informs her of my intention to sue for the loss of contract between our companies.I step over them and lay my handbag on the counter on top of a few strewn loners with delicacy and shrug. Leaning down to open the cabinet and retrieve our medicine storage, acting like I don’t see them.“I actually agonized over you finding out like that, hating myself for not telling you the truth….. only to find you fucking knew all along and were having me followed. Fucking followed. What even is that? What gav
Til Death Do Us Part 30
I head out of the underground via our access road and turn left, out of the city to hit the cliff roads to let this baby roar. We live on the outskirts and are fortunate enough to be a short drive from one of the most scenic and windy roads that head into a beautiful part of our country and eventually stop at the sea. The river which runs past our home starts as a tiny trickle and somehow manages to size up and merge seamlessly to the vast world out there, and it has always fascinated me. That something so small can start that way and yet become a formidable force to take on the vastness of nature.The car feels heavy to steer, and I scrunch my face up at its lack of sensitive response, wondering what the hell he’s been doing to this. It’s sluggish and not exactly what you expect from a multimillion-dollar car that happens to be a limited edition. I can’t remember thinking it felt this awful to drive when I tried it out before, and I check the gauges for any
Til Death Do Us Part 31
It seems worse the faster I go and as I reach the mountain's summit to the plateau, where it levels for a brief time before heading downhill. I decide maybe I should go easier on this thing. Something doesn’t feel right, and as I turn the corner to the parking spot where cars usually sit in daylight, going way too fast, I make the turn to bypass it, yet nothing happens.The car doesn’t turn, the steering locks, and try as I might to force it, it won’t budge. My stomach leaps into my throat, and I impulsively slam my foot to the brake to try and control the forward motion at too high a speed as I head into the clearing.My heart stops, my lungs freeze, and my mind goes blank as my foot slides without resistance all the way to the floor like I’m pressing air, and my eyes widen in horror as it hits me.There are no brakes.I’m not slowing down. The railings are coming at me at a speed of noughts as panic grips me, and I yank wit
Til Death Do Us Part 32
I don’t know which way is up, and my lungs are burning, straining, with the effort of holding air that’s not enough to sustain me. I start to panic that I’m suffocating and the instinct to gasp in is something I have to fight with my entire willpower. Swishing my arms and legs around in a bid to swim to the surface, but every direction is a formidable black wall of nothing. I can’t even see the car anymore. I don’t know what’s down, up, left, or right.My gut pulls me one way, something like a sixth sense, that it’s to oxygen, and I kick with fury and extend my arms in a grasping motion as I fight as much a is can to find light and air. It’s a good guess, and as my face breaks the surface, I gasp with all my might to breathe it in before I’m plunged back under with the reactive force up my upward thrust. A moment of relief, followed by the reality that I’m far from safe.I resurface with less gusto, clawing at
Til Death Do Us Part 33
The gentle swish, swish, of something outside of my consciousness brings me around, and warm fluttering heat that seems to be growing over my back, heels, skull, and legs, as my limbs tingle back to life, and I start to cough. Not warm enough to heat my lifeless corpse and the inner block of ice that is my organs.My body wracks with the sudden crack of a violent choking fit that fully wakens me because it hurts like hell as though there’s a fire in my lungs. My eyes flutter open, through the hazy fog of a headache that’s awful, to the point I’m nauseous with it, and my body feels like it doesn’t belong to me.My fingers flinch of their own accord, and the sudden sensation of smooth yet also rough and damp textured balls pull my eyes to where I can feel it. Blinking, fluttering my lashes until my hand comes into focus, and I realize it’s laid on gravel and sand, mixed. Wet, shiny, tiny stones and pebbles smothered in grittiness. My fingert
Til Death Do Us Part 34
I run until I make it to the edge of the road, an actual tarmac and straight road, that I fall and kiss with utter gratitude. Tears are welling up to blurriness. A gritty, cold, rough surface that hurts my parched lips, but I’ve never been so happy to see something manufactured in all my life. I can’t describe the elation and aching chest pain it gives me.The truck is long gone, and I stare off in the direction it went, along a long road that curves off out of sight, and I gaze both ways, trying to figure out which would be the shortest route to a town. One might be close; one might not. Or maybe I’m being too hopeful, and it stretches for miles either way with nothing at all. If I have any chance of being rescued, I have to stick to the tarmac and not stray. Roads mean people, and people mean being saved. I am not going to give up. I get to my feet and follow the truck's route, hoping it’s the right choice.I watch the sun all day as I w
Til Death Do Us Part 35
“She’s lucky to be alive, and it’s a miracle given the state she was in. A few days here, and she can get out, but I want to observe her first. She has hypothermia, and the symptoms overlap with a concussion, so I can’t tell how bad the knock on her skull is. Her head wound seems minor, but I’m not out ruling it. She has a warm saline drip and oxygen for now, but I think she’s out of the woods. It was a long night.” A man’s voice reaches me in my sleep state, aware I’m somewhere soft and warm, but I have no memory of how I got here. The last thing I remember is the girl who pulled me off the road.“I thought she was a goner, doc. You didn’t see her when I pulled up.” My angel’s voice that I would recognize anywhere, bringing me around. I owe her my life. “I don’t know what the hell happened to her out there.”“I don’t think she would have lasted any
Til Death Do Us Part 36
There’s bubbly infectious energy about this girl, and I like it. She reminds me of Yoonah when he was younger, only somehow with a mature ability about her and far less clingy. I wish I’d known someone like her growing up and had a friend that resembled her. Although if we’re the same age, it feels like I’m about ten years older in maturity. I nod and force a smile that isn’t meant and close my eyes in the hopes she walks away to give me space.I hear her footsteps move off and then the creak of a chair and the scuffs of a book being opened and flicked through. I sigh with relief and relax into my comfortable mattress.I listen to the beeps and hums of the machines carrying on around me and lay as still as possible, just happy to not hurt as much. Now I’m fully awake and compos mentis, I have nothing else to do but think. They’ve doped me on pain relief for my minor wounds and a significant headache, and I do feel sleepy, but e
Latest chapter
