After the Last Tear: Rising from the Ashes of a Broken Marriage novel Chapter 78

If you looked at it from another angle, Nina was pathetic in her own way.She had spent years believing in an illusion.

Convinced that she and Pax were something more than childhood friends.That their bond was built on mutual affection, not just habit.

She had left the country thinking she had a place in his heart—a permanent one.

And when she returned，the boy who had once braved storms to pick her up at the airport, who had stood there waiting for her, drenched, breathless, eyes filled with devotion had moved on in just two days.

The world hadn't stopped for her.

The sharp wail of sirens cut through the air.

Red and blue lights pulsed against the glass storefronts, the reflections casting an eerie glow over the marble floors.

The paramedics moved quickly, their voices urgent but professional.

Nina was still conscious, her skin ghastly pale against the stark white of her dress.

The blood had already begun to seep through the delicate fabric, a slow, spreading stain.

Pax stood beside me, his expression carefully blank.

But his hands,fisted tightly at his sides.

The tension in his shoulders,and the way his jaw clenched just slightly.

He was worried.

He just wouldn't let himself show it.

I let out a slow breath, my lips curling into something faintly amused.

"Go."

It had all been about him, up to this point.

His hesitation lasted only a second before he stepped forward, but not before pulling me into a brief hug.

It was quick, but firm.

His scent lingered—clean, crisp, familiar. A faint trace of cologne mixed with something uniquely him.

"Cecilia, wait for me."

There was no need to keep it anymore.

I had booked a hotel near the airport to catch an early morning flight.

With my suitcase in hand, I slid into the backseat of a taxi, watching the city blur past the window.

Everything outside rushed by—buildings, streetlights, familiar roads—disappearing at a speed I couldn't control.

But I didn't look back.

I pressed a hand to my chest.

No ache,no hesitation.

Just quiet certainty.

Goodbye to the city that had been my home for twenty years.

Goodbye, Pax.