“Do you hate me…?” he whispered hoarsely, voice breaking. “You didn’t even give me a chance to fix my mistakes. You just… left. Without a word. How could you do that to me?”
The words fell apart between his gasps.
He cried openly now—chest heaving, breath stuttering—until he could barely breathe at all.
The nurse looked at him, pity filling her eyes.
She couldn’t believe it.
How could someone love a woman so deeply that he would cry like this? And he was her husband—how could he break down so pitifully?
A strange ache filled her chest as she wondered why that woman had left a man who treasured her this much. It was painful to realize that men like him existed… and that women could leave them so ruthlessly.
The nurse twisted her fingers together before speaking again, still looking at him with sympathy.
“I… I also saw her a few weeks ago. Here. At this hospital.”
James’s head snapped up.
“What?” His voice was raw.
The nurse swallowed.
“When her parents died,” she continued gently. “They were in a car crash.”
His entire body went rigid.
“She was sitting alone on a chair outside the ward,” the nurse said, her voice trembling slightly now. “She cried so hard for nearly an hour. I had never seen anyone cry like that—it felt like her whole world had collapsed. She was shaking, couldn’t even stand properly when we first told her.”
The nurse paused, emotion flickering across her face.
“But then…” she shook her head in disbelief. “After an hour, she wiped her tears. Stood up. And started arranging everything on her own.”
James felt something inside him crack.
“She handled the cremation. The funeral. Every detail so calmly,” the nurse said quietly. “There wasn’t a trace of tears left on her face.”
Her gaze returned to James, heavy and searching.
“I was shocked. The same woman who couldn’t stop shaking when we gave her the news… was suddenly doing everything by herself as if nothing had happened.”
James’s body tightened, muscles locking as if seized by an invisible force. His chest constricted, each breath growing harder than the last as the nurse’s words sank in.
The nurse, unaware of the storm she was unleashing, continued softly, lost in her memory.
“I remember that day clearly,” she said, her eyes distant. “I even walked up to her and asked if she was okay, if there was anyone I could call to help her. But she said there was no one—no family left—and that she would take care of everything herself. All her relatives had died that day.”
The nurse shook her head, pity clouding her eyes. “She looked so sad. Completely distraught.”
She paused, then continued, almost hesitantly. “I asked her about her husband. After all the effort she had made, all the begging and fighting to marry him… he must have been someone devoted, loving… she deserved that at least. But she just… pointed to the news playing on the TV.”
Her gaze drifted, replaying the image in her mind. “There was a man in a suit… hugging another woman. An actress. What’s her name…” She frowned slightly. “Kylie something. Right—Kylie Brown.”
She paused, a shadow crossing her face. “The man’s face wasn’t clear, only his back—but it didn’t matter. I could hear the reporters, and I heard her saying to that man, ‘I want to be with you, no matter what it takes. And he didn’t answer her. He didn’t speak, but he didn’t refute her words either.”
The nurse’s eyes filled with pity as she recounted it.
“And then that poor girl told me—that’s my husband.”
