Chapter 35 #3
she cried.
"So... so am I..."
Fluke stood frozen.
His own eyes blurred as he looked toward Sean.
Only then...
Did he finally recognize him.
The realization hit him like a train.
Sean...
The man they had quietly blamed all this time...
Was dying.
Sean noticed the realization crossing Fluke's face.
Despite everything...
He still managed a faint smile.
A smile that somehow carried no resentment.
Only acceptance.
Fluke couldn't hold back anymore.
"I'm sorry, brother..."
His voice cracked.
Sean simply nodded.
"I know."
And somehow...
Those two simple words carried more forgiveness than either of them believed they deserved.
The four of them remained in the garden for hours.
No one cared how much time had passed.
No one noticed the changing sky.
Orm finally told them everything.
Everything she had buried inside herself for months.
Sean's diagnosis.
The inheritance.
The impossible condition attached to it.
Liam.
The choice no woman should ever have been forced to make.
Her desperate visit to Lingling's apartment before her wedding to Sean.
The goodbye she never wanted to say.
The nights she waited until Sean had fallen asleep before quietly locking herself inside the bathroom...
So no one would hear her breaking apart.
She confessed how she had cried until sunrise.
How she had hugged Lingling's old hoodie just to remember her scent.
How she kept Lingling's confession letter to her bag or pocket wherever she go.
How she still whispered "I love you" into the empty darkness every single night...
Even knowing no one would ever hear it.
By the time she finished speaking...
The garden had become painfully quiet.
No one had dry eyes anymore.
Junji reached across the table and gently held both of Orm's trembling hands.
Her voice barely rose above a whisper.
"I'm sorry we judged you..."
"I'm sorry we believed things without asking..."
"I'm sorry you carried this all by yourself..."
Orm lowered her eyes.
A bittersweet smile curved across her lips.
"I thought..."
"I thought I had to."
Fluke slowly shook his head.
"No."
"You shouldn't have."
His tears finally spilled freely.
"But you did."
He looked at her with a mixture of admiration and heartbreak.
"And somehow..."
"You still chose everyone else's happiness before your own."
Orm instinctively rested a hand over her swollen stomach.
Her fingers moved gently across the place where Liam was resting.
"I couldn't let anyone lose."
Her voice trembled.
"So..."
"I decided..."
"...I would be the one to lose instead."
No one answered.
Because there was nothing left to say.
Some sacrifices were simply too heavy for words.
The silence that surrounded them no longer carried blame.
No anger.
No resentment.
Only understanding.
Only grief.
Only love that had arrived far too late.
For the first time in months...
Orm no longer carried the truth completely alone.
Outside her family, someone finally knew.
Someone finally understood.
Someone finally saw the weight she had been carrying with trembling hands all this time.
And for the first time since she walked away from the love of her life...
The burden resting on her heart became just...
A little lighter.
—
The seasons continued to change.
The world never stopped moving.
But for Orm...
Time had ended the day she walked away from Lingling's apartment.
The clocks still ticked.
The sun still rose.
People still laughed.
Life still happened around her.
Yet a part of her remained standing outside that apartment door...
Waiting for someone she had chosen to leave behind.
She hadn't moved on.
She had simply learned how to breathe while carrying unbearable pain.
—
One quiet dawn...
After another exhausting night at the hospital...
Sean finally fell asleep following another grueling chemotherapy session.
The room became silent except for the steady rhythm of the heart monitor.
Orm sat beside the window.
The first rays of morning sunlight slipped gently through the curtains.
Slowly...
She rested both hands over her swollen stomach.
A gentle kick answered her touch.
Then another.
A tiny reminder that hope still lived inside her.
Her lips curved into the smallest smile.
"Good morning..."
she whispered.
"Good morning, little one."
"You've been so brave for Mommy."
Liam kicked again.
Soft.
Gentle.
Almost as though he already recognized her voice.
The tiny movement was enough to undo her.
Tears quietly spilled down her cheeks.
Not because she was unhappy.
Not because she regretted him.
Never.
She cried because Liam had unknowingly become the only reason she still found the strength to greet each new morning.
Whenever she believed she had nothing left to give...
He reminded her that someone was still waiting to meet her.
Someone innocent.
Someone who knew nothing about sacrifice.
Nothing about heartbreak.
Nothing about impossible choices.
Someone who deserved a mother capable of smiling again.
Even if she had to learn how from the very beginning.
So every morning...
She chose to stand.
Even when grief clung to her ankles like chains.
Even when her heart begged her to stay on the floor.
Even when every sunrise reminded her of another day she had to live without the woman she still loved.
Because love...
Real love...
Sometimes wasn't measured by the people we managed to keep.
Sometimes...
It was measured by the promises we continued to fulfill...
Even after our own hearts had been shattered beyond repair.
—
The labor came without warning while Orm is in her apartment packing fresh clothes for Sean.
It was just past dawn when the first contraction struck.
At first, Orm thought it was another wave of discomfort-the kind she had learned to endure throughout the pregnancy.
She quietly inhaled.
Exhaled.
Tried to convince herself it would pass.
But minutes later, another contraction came.
Stronger.
Sharper.
It stole the air from her lungs and bent her forward, one trembling hand instinctively cradling her swollen stomach.
Fluke was the first to notice the change in her face.
"Orm?"
She looked up, her complexion drained of color, tears already pooling in her eyes.
"I... I think..."
Another contraction ripped through her before she could finish.
Fluke immediately sprang into action.
"Junji!"
Within seconds, the entire apartment erupted into controlled chaos.
Junji grabbed the hospital bag they had prepared weeks ago while Fluke carefully supported Orm as another painful contraction shook her body.
"It's okay," Fluke whispered, trying to remain calm despite the panic tightening in her own chest. "We're going now."
Orm could only nod.
She could no longer speak.
Every wave of pain demanded every ounce of her strength.
—
The drive to the hospital felt endless.
Orm sat in the back seat, gripping the handle above the window until her knuckles turned white.
Her breathing grew more uneven with every passing minute.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Not because she was afraid.
Not because of the pain.
But because there was only one person she desperately wished was beside her.
Her heart whispered the name over and over.
Silently.
Desperately.
Like a prayer that would never be answered.
Not because she wanted Lingling to witness her suffering.
Never that.
If anything, Orm would have gladly carried this pain alone forever if it meant sparing the woman she loved from seeing her like this.
But...
In another life...
This wasn't supposed to be a lonely journey.
This wasn't supposed to be a hospital hallway filled with unfamiliar footsteps instead of the one person whose hand had always made everything bearable.
In another life...
Lingling would've been sitting beside her in the car, gently rubbing circles over her trembling hand.
She would've whispered,
"You're doing so well, Ormy."
She would've kissed her forehead between contractions.
She would've cried every time Orm cried.
She would've laughed through her own tears just to make Orm smile.
And when the baby arrived...
They would've met him together.
As mothers.
As soulmates.
As the family they had once dreamed of becoming.
But that life...
Was no longer theirs.
—
Sean was still confined in another wing of the same hospital.
His body remained weak.
The injuries he had suffered had yet to fully heal.
When Fluke called him and told him Orm had gone into labor...
He didn't hesitate.
"I need to go."
The doctors immediately refused.
"Mr. Nakamura, your condition-"
"I don't care."
"You shouldn't even be out of bed."
"I said..."
His voice cracked.
"...I need to be there, please."
Because no matter how broken his body was...
Orm had been carrying a burden far heavier than his.
Eventually, after much insistence, the doctors allowed him to be wheeled toward the maternity floor under strict supervision.
He waited outside the delivery room.
Unable to do anything.
Unable to ease her pain.
Unable to take even a fraction of it away.
All he could do...
Was listen.
Every muffled cry escaping through the closed doors shattered something inside him.
Hours passed.
One contraction after another.
Each one stealing another piece of Orm's strength.
Each one demanding more from a woman who had already sacrificed so much.
The nurses praised her resilience.
The doctors encouraged her.
But none of them knew...
She wasn't drawing strength from herself anymore.
She had already emptied every part of her heart long ago.
The only thing keeping her going...
Was love.
Love for the tiny life she had promised to protect.
Love for the future she wanted him to have.
And love for someone who wasn't even there.
Between exhausted breaths...
Orm whispered only one name inside her heart.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Then-
A cry.
Small.
Fragile.
Beautiful.
The very first cry of a newborn echoed throughout the delivery room.
For a brief moment...
Everything became still.