Lahat ng Kabanata ng Till Divorce Do Us Part: Kabanata 541 - Kabanata 550

IVYI reared my head back in shock at her direct statement.“Excuse me?” I wasn’t sure I heard her right.Or maybe it wasn’t just about the words but the monstrous way with which she had uttered them.“You heard me right, Ivy, so I suggest you get right ahead and start doing the laundry,” she responded firmly. “If you start now and are fast enough, you should be done in six hours,” she informed me.Was that supposed to make me feel better?“You want me to wash all these sheets and linens that have been soaked in all sorts of disgusting things?” I asked her, barely able to believe what I was seeing and hearing.“Used and abandoned by mentally unstable women, just like you are, hence, the unbearable smell,” she responded with a smirk.“I am not doing it,” I declared, firmly crossing my hand over my chest defiantly.She might think that she could actually do whatever she wanted to do to me, but she didn’t know that I was stubborn and unyielding.The only reason I had pandered to everythi

ALEXAFive years ago…After spending months at the hospital, hearing, “He has been discharged and free to go,” was the best news I heard.For months, I have been right by Mark Ronaldo’s side, praying that he should wake up from his coma. The doctor had had hopes, but after two months, things had begun to look better.Ivy came back to Paris and tried to ruin things the very first moment that Mark woke up, but he hadn’t said much about it ever since, and so I took Mark home.“I think you should hire house helps, Alexa. It is going to be overwhelming to look after him all by yourself,” my dad had told me.“He is my dad and I have been looking after him singlehandedly ever since. I am not going to leave him in the hands of strangers now,” I had responded.And my dad had respected my wish.Anyway, we left the hospital and drove all the way to Mark’s in absolute silence. He was well enough to be discharged, but not totally healed up. The doctor did say that it would take another month or tw

ALEXAFive years ago…Taking care of Mark Ronaldo in his house was more difficult than I ever imagined. The mood swings became incessant.He was erratic, rude, and very distasteful.I could barely satisfy him.He allowed me to stay in his bedroom after that night, but he left a strict warning.“On no account should your body ever touch mine.”And I stuck to that.As long as he allowed me to stay in the room to keep close watch on him, I didn’t mind. The doctor later told me that after we spoke, he had to call Mark to properly explain to him the severity of his situation, and that if he wanted to get well, he would have to let me take care of him.The doctor’s mistake had been not explaining things properly to Mark, and that was because he didn’t think Mark would resist assistance.However, things didn’t get better.It had been almost a week now and Mark was not treating me any better. He snapped at practically nothing. He was always acting as though he couldn’t stand the sight of me.

ALEXAFive years agoThe first tear slipped out of my eye the moment I entered the kitchen.The pain was just unbearable.Worse, I could hear Ivy’s laughter from the living room, and I could bet that Mark was smiling as well. Only God knew whatever the heck they were talking about that sounded funny.Two weeks I had been with Mark Ronaldo since he got discharged from the hospital and returned home, and not once had he been kind to me, or even as much as shared a joke, and now this.My phone rang, disrupting my thought. When I saw that it was the doctor, I picked up.“Doctor Jones, good afternoon,” I greeted with deep pain in my heart.“Alexa, how are you?” He asked me.“I am fine,” I lied.Heaven knew I was far from fine.“Are you sure? You sound really dull and downcast,” he noted. “Is something wrong?” He asked with deep care.“No, Doctor Jones, nothing is wrong,” I insisted on lying.I just couldn’t bring myself to telling the doctor, who was almost a stranger, or even anyone else

MARKFive years ago…“Don’t drive fast,” I told Ivy as she drove out of my house.“Why? You used to like driving fast, Mark,” Ivy said lightly, almost making me upset.“I got into coma because of a car accident and you are asking me this kind of question?” I asked her, displeased that she could say something like that.I didn’t even recall how I used to like my driving, but certainly not fast at the moment. The thought of even being inside this car was already life-threatening for me, only that I wasn’t saying this to anyone because of pride.“Jeez, I was just teasing, Mark,” Ivy said.“Just drive slowly,” I instructed her firmly.“Of course, Mark. I am neither stupid nor insensitive,” she responded.She was the one who suggested that she wanted to take me to my doctor’s appointment when she came around yesterday, and I accepted because she was the most familiar face around me before the accident.I was still trying to get used to seeing Alexa all the time around me, especially on my