Chapter 10.2
After six years, Josh looked nothing like the man I remembered. Always neat and tidy, he now had messy hair, a scruffy beard and a dull, lifeless gaze.
When he heard the noise, he turned and looked at me quietly, his eyes glistening with tears.
The woman with short hair in front of him didn’t resemble the gentle Natalie he once knew.
He smiled, “Natalie, you’re finally back. I’ve been waiting for you all this time!”
I placed the flowers at Grandma’s grave and carefully wiped her tombstone. Even after six years, thinking of Grandma’s death still made me feel heartbroken and angry.
I said, “Josh, I don’t think there’s anything left to say between us! You saved my life, but you caused Grandma’s death. There’s
too much resentment between us. The best
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thing now is to never see each other again!”
He crawled over to me, gripping my sleeve tightly, “Natalie, I was wrong. I really was wrong… I’ve been looking for you for years, but I couldn’t find you! I tried to commit suicide, but I still have my mother to think of… For the past six years, I’ve lived a life worse than death. This is god’s punishment for me!”
Seeing his miserable state, I felt no sense of vengeance or pity, as though I was looking at a person who no longer mattered.
I said again, “Josh, the only thing you regret is that I found out about you and Tatiana! If I hadn’t discovered it, would you have. turned back? Would you have regretted betraying me? You wouldn’t! Don’t ever come near my grandmother’s grave again. Six years ago, we severed all ties!”
That day, the image of Josh’s hunched back was the last I saw of him.
A year later, I was promoted to lead a new
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laboratory and just before I left, I heard the news that the head of the Arkin Group had fallen to his death.
Staring at the obituary with that once familiar face, the wind seemed to blur my vision.
As the plane slowly took off, the evening sky blended with the lights of the city. Life is long and the story is far from over.
(The End)