Chapter 5: The Weight of What I Missed
While I had been nursing my pride, Maya had been fighting for her life in silence.
I thought her distance was coldness. I thought her tired eyes meant she had given up on us. I thought the divorce was proof that love had simply failed under the weight of loss.
But she had been carrying a terror too large for one heart.
And I had mistaken sacrifice for rejection.
The guilt settled over me like a suffocating shroud. I saw every moment again with cruel clarity. The unanswered calls. The way she slept too much. The way she turned away when I spoke about the future, not because she didn’t want one, but because she feared she would not be in it.
“You didn’t have to carry this alone,” I choked out.
Maya leaned her head against the wall.
A single tear slid down her pale cheek.
“I didn’t want you to remember me as a patient,” she whispered. “I wanted you to remember me as your wife.”… Continue Reading ⬇️