雨水 [26] / [35]
A few minutes later, a bunch of men wearing black suits came nearer to us. Hans made a gesture to them with his eyes. One of them made a gesture to me to follow them. I knew what that meant. That was the last time I ever saw her.
"That is such a sad story,”
Cynthia said after a long pause.
"Now I can talk about it. But yes, it was such a terrible tragedy. It's been an obstacle in my life, especially to my relationships, ever since.”
Cynthia wanted to reach out and hug him. It was so terrible, and she felt so strongly towards him in that moment, but the kind of feeling itself, the nature of it, was unclear. She grabbed his hand instead, looked him in the eyes, and said.
"That wasn't your fault. It may be true that you weren't a perfect partner, but who the hell is? Everyone falls short, but you were the one punished most for it in the end. It's always a two-way street.”
She paused, adding her last words with care,
"Maybe it was for the best."
He looked at her, tears in his eyes, and she squeezed his hand.
"She wasn't right for you, or you for her. It's a tragedy what happened to your child. But now, at the very least, you can make a clean break with the past. I'm not telling you to forget it, or not to grieve for it. You should. Let your heart feel that pain. Process it. Let it see the light of day. That's all part of healing. But just make peace with it, and move forward.”
She couldn't erase the thought that if she had let Alexander talk to her, and resolved the misunderstanding surrounding Adeline's existence back then, maybe this whole story could have been a lot different. But it was useless to assume that now. No one can rewrite history.
The door bell rang. They were both stunned, and almost jumped.
"I wonder who that could be?”
Alexander got up to see who it was.
"It's Ed and Anna!! Why on earth did they come without telling us?”
Cynthia answered slowly,
"He said that he wanted to visit you some time, since he hadn't come to see you in the hospital. So I said that you were staying at my place and I told him he could come visit."
"Ah, so they already know that we are together.”
Alexander felt at ease about this. He thought it would be awkward if their coworkers knew Cynthia and he were staying together. But it's fine if Cynthia regarded it as nothing. Alexander opened the door.
As soon as Ed saw Alexander's lined, haggard, unshaven face, and the dark shadows encircling his eyes, he made an involuntary “ewww” sound out of sheer surprise at seeing Alexander's condition.