The Winter Bride (TSBS-2) COMPLETED

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.
― Steve Maraboli

Neil Harris

"I am sorry."

The apology rang in my head for as long as I sat there, leaning my back to the door.

For almost two hours, I battled with myself, restraining myself from running off to her. As soon as I heard no sound from inside, I stood up and dared to open the door.

The scene hurt me more than it should. Everything about her hurt me, surprising me to the point of losing my sanity.

Sliding my arms under her, I lifted and cradled her to my chest. Feeling her cold skin on my hands, I stood still for a while, soaking in her scent, watching her red face dry with tears.

My body agonized for her touch as soon as I let her off on the couch. Picking up the quill draped on the armrest, I placed it over her. When morning comes, she would probably regret dosing off with dry tear marks.  With a wet towel, I wiped her cheeks cautiously yet a slight shiver came from her, but she did not wake up. I wonder how tired she had been to be completely unaware of my action. Quietly, I sat before her, taking in her bare face, memorising every curve and line of her beautiful face.

It was my choice to bring her into this mess. My selfish desire kept her by my side. The memory of her pale face and bruised jaw appeared in my head. I met her for the first time on that night in the office. It was ill-fated from the beginning. I thought I would storm into her life and turn it upside down, but who knew she had the ability to do that to me. She came like a tornado and wrecked me up. It was better me than her.

Before the morning came, I was back in the silence of my room, lost in my thoughts when the persistent knock came.

The door opened to the face of my obnoxious sister. I almost forgot she was still in this house.

"Morning, but I can see you had no sleep." She chirped, shaking her head at me like I did something wrong. All my life, I could never get used to her moods. She was an astonishing creature whose moods could take a 360 turn overnight.

"I should get going now." She continued, ignoring my silent response like always and brushed her hand over my hair. Kate was tall enough to reach my head, thus, as an older sister, she was always taking advantage of her height and patted my head as if I was still a child to her.

"Ho—" I cleared my throat and swiped away her hand. "How will you get back?"

"I'll ask Marco to drop me at the airport. I need to get back to my other child." She grinned, stating the obvious and I rolled my eyes. "Aren't you going to ask me to stay? Come on, you never do."

"Your family must be missing you." I answered in the same usual way and she sighed.

She shook her head and waved away her hand as if to say it was not worth getting into an argument early in the morning. She leaned her head over my shoulder and peaked inside the bedroom to check. I knew who she was looking, and could see the questions in her eyes, but I had no intention of letting her know anything.

"Where is she? What are you going to do now?" But Kate was blunt enough to get straight to the issue at hand.

"Aren't you going to be late for your flight?"

"Ah, little brother, why do I even try?" She let out an exasperated sigh, but her eyes crinkled as she left me an affectionate smile and touched my face. "I hope you make the right choice."