My senses slowly awaken until I see Alice. It’s as if a shot of life has been injected into me.
I don’t feel anything anymore—neither pain nor the sadness that oppressed my heart.
I’m here, I have the right to live in this life, I have the right to be happy. I reach out to take her.
Having her in my arms, seeing her big eyes again, is an immense joy that makes me cry and laugh at the same time.
“Welcome back, Preciosa. We missed you,” Andrew says.
“Hi, welcome back, honey,” says Ingrid.
Danny is speechless. He is smiling and crying. So am I.
After a while, I panic.
“Baby, it’s okay. What’s up?” Danny asks me.
“Where’s Jeremy? How is he? He’ll be so furious with me.”
Danny hugs me. “Shhh, it’s okay, breath. Baby, Jeremy, unfortunately, didn’t make it.”
I begin to tremble. Tears run down my cheeks like a raging river.
“Wh...What? Oh, my God!” I’m speechless, shocked.
Ingrid approaches me and hugs me. “It’s okay, honey, don’t worry. We’re here for you.”
“I’m so sorry, Ingrid.”
“It wasn’t your fault. Unfortunately, the paramedics couldn’t do anything. Once they arrived, he was gone.” She begins to cry, too. “He’s in a better place now.”
I hug her. I can’t do anything else.
Hailey
Coming back home is harder than I thought it would be.
Zoë is my shadow, and she loves Alice.
Ingrid takes Alice to the nursery and returns to the living room.
I look around. Everything is as I left it.
Andrew, Danny, and Ingrid look at me. They wait. They think I’m going to have a crisis but...I feel at peace.
I’m sorry about what happened to him. But we could have avoided all this a year ago when I first told him about getting a divorce.
He always said, “Until death does us part.” Unfortunately, it did, though he didn’t deserve such a death.
I walk up to the fireplace and look at our wedding photos on the shelf.
I take the first one, the exchange of vows. We looked happy, and the tears begin to fall.
I drop the photo to the ground—the sound of breaking glass echoed through the room.
I take the second photo, our first kiss as husband and wife. I feel nauseous.
I drop it, breaking it into a thousand pieces.
