Chapter 36
Still a Flashback.........................
On Liam's first birthday...
Their little apartment was filled with something it hadn't known for a very long time.
Joy.
Not loud.
Not extravagant.
Just warm.
Honest.
Real.
There were no luxurious decorations.
No expensive venue.
Only colorful balloons taped slightly crooked against the walls.
Paper streamers hanging from the ceiling.
A homemade banner that read,
Fluke arrived carrying a ridiculously oversized teddy bear.
Junji came balancing too many food containers in both hands while complaining that the elevator almost made him drop everything.
A few close friends and families filled the apartment with easy laughter.
For one afternoon...
No one spoke about hospitals.
Or medicines.
Or survival rates.
They simply celebrated.
Celebrated a little boy who had unknowingly become everyone's miracle.
When the tiny cake was finally placed in front of Liam...
Everyone gathered around.
"One..."
"Two..."
"Three!"
The apartment erupted into cheers.
Liam blinked at the candle with complete confusion.
Then...
Without warning...
He shoved both tiny hands straight into the frosting.
Cream exploded everywhere.
Across the table.
Onto his cheeks.
Into his hair.
He stared at the mess for one second.
Then burst into the loudest, happiest laughter anyone had ever heard.
The room followed immediately.
—
That evening...
After the last of the guests had gone home...
The apartment became silent once again.
Sean quietly slid the balcony door open.
Cool night air drifted inside.
Without saying a word, Orm followed him.
They stood side by side on the small balcony overlooking the city.
Bangkok stretched endlessly before them.
Neither of them spoke.
Neither of them needed to.
This silence carried understanding.
Acceptance.
A quiet kind of love that no longer demanded anything in return.
Months ago...
Standing beside each other like this had felt unbearable.
Every breath had been heavy.
Every glance had been weighed down by guilt.
By obligations.
By promises neither of them had wanted the other to carry alone.
Tonight...
None of that remained.
Only peace.
Sean rested both hands against the cold railing.
His eyes wandered toward the sky where only a handful of stars managed to peek through the clouds.
Behind them, through the slightly opened bedroom window, Liam's soft breathing floated into the night.
A gentle reminder of the greatest blessing they had ever shared.
Sean closed his eyes.
Listening.
Memorizing it.
As though he wanted to carry that sound with him forever.
After a long while...
A tiny smile appeared on his lips.
It wasn't joyful.
It wasn't sad.
It was the smile of someone whose heart had finally made peace with its own ending.
"I think..."
His voice was barely louder than the wind.
"...it's time."
Orm slowly turned toward him.
Sean let out a quiet breath.
"You've already fulfilled every promise you ever made to me."
Orm lowered her gaze.
Her fingers curled tightly against the sleeves of her sweater.
Sean looked toward Liam's room.
His eyes softened almost instantly.
A father's eyes.
Filled with endless love.
"You gave me a family..."
His voice trembled.
"...when I had already accepted that I didn't deserve one."
He laughed quietly.
A broken laugh.
"I used to think dying alone was what I earned."
"But you stayed."
"...when every logical reason told you to leave."
His breathing became uneven.
"You sat beside my hospital bed through every chemotherapy session."
"You held my hand when I couldn't stop shaking."
"You smiled even after doctors gave us bad news."
"You memorized every medication."
"Every appointment."
"Every side effect."
"So I wouldn't have to feel scared alone."
His eyes slowly filled with tears.
"You protected my parents as if they were your own."
"You became the daughter they never had."
"You carried responsibilities that were never yours to begin with."
His voice broke completely.
"And somehow..."
"...you still managed to give me the greatest gift anyone has ever given me."
His eyes drifted back toward Liam's bedroom.
"My son."
A tear slipped down his cheek.
"You kept me alive..."
"...long enough for me to hear someone call me 'Daddy.'"
His shoulders trembled.
"You gave me mornings filled with tiny footsteps."
"Sticky little hands reaching for mine."
"Bedtime stories."
"First words."
"First hugs."
"Memories..."
"...that I never thought God would allow someone like me to have."
Orm's vision blurred.
She couldn't stop the tears anymore.
Every memory crashed into her heart all at once.
The hospital rooms.
The endless nights she spent praying beside him while pretending not to cry.
The mornings they smiled at each other simply because they had survived another day.
Watching Sean become Liam's father.
Watching Liam become Sean's reason to keep fighting.
Watching hope slowly bloom inside a man who had once been preparing himself to die.
The silence returned.
Only the distant sound of traffic echoed beneath them.
Sean slowly looked back at her.
There was no anger in his eyes.
No regret.
No resentment.
Only gratitude.
Endless...
Heartbreaking gratitude.
"But your heart..."
He smiled again.
"It never stopped waiting for someone else."
Orm froze.
For a moment...
She forgot how to breathe.
Some loves never truly disappear.
Time doesn't erase them.
Distance doesn't silence them.
Life simply teaches them how to whisper instead of scream.
They become quiet companions inside the heart.
Patient.
Faithful.
Waiting...
Not to be chosen.
Only to be remembered.
Orm's knees nearly gave out.
A sob escaped before she could stop it.
She covered her mouth with trembling hands.
"I'm sorry..."
Her voice was barely audible.
Fresh tears streamed endlessly down her face.
"But there was always a part of me..."
"...that kept waiting."
Sean's eyes closed.
His own tears finally spilled over.
Slowly...
He stepped closer.
As carefully as though she might break beneath the weight of her grief.
He lifted one trembling hand.
Gently brushing away a tear that continued to fall from her cheek.
"No..."
His voice was soft.
"Orm..."
"If anyone should apologize..."
"It's me. I've been so selfish."
He smiled through his tears.
"You gave me far more than I ever had the right to ask from you."
"You gave years of your life to a man who was already preparing for his goodbye."
"You sacrificed dreams that should have belonged to you."
"You stayed..."
"...because you couldn't bear the thought of leaving me to face death alone."
His lips trembled.
"And I was selfish enough to accept that."
He slowly shook his head.
"I don't want your apology."
"I don't want your guilt."
"I don't want you to spend the rest of your life honoring promises that have already been fulfilled."
His voice broke into a whisper.
"What I want..."
He smiled through the tears.
"...is for you to finally live."
"I want you to laugh without forcing it."
"I want you to wake up every morning beside the person who makes your heart feel at home."
"I want you to be loved the way you've always deserved."
"I want you to stop surviving..."
"...and finally start living."
Orm completely broke.
The sob she had been holding back escaped from the deepest part of her soul.
She cried so hard her entire body trembled.
Sean didn't try to stop her tears.
He simply opened his arms.
Just as he had done countless times before.
And for what he knew might be one of the last times...
Orm stepped into them.
They held each other tightly.
Not as husband and wife.
Not as two people clinging to a future that no longer existed.
But as two souls who had saved each other in different ways.
They remained there for a long time.
Crying quietly beneath the stars.
Holding on...
While slowly learning how to let go.
Orm had stayed Sean's life believing she was the one who would save him.
She never imagined...
That in the end...
The man she had tried so desperately to keep alive...
Would be the one who finally set her heart free.
—
Several months later...
Their divorce was quietly finalized.
There were no arguments.
No lawyers exchanging bitter words.
No accusations.
No anger.
Just two people sitting across from each other in a room that felt impossibly silent, waiting for the final signatures that would officially close the chapter they had once called a marriage.
Outside, life continued as if nothing extraordinary was happening.
But inside that small room...
Time seemed to move differently.
Orm stared at the documents resting in front of her.
A few simple pages.
Black ink on white paper.
So ordinary.
Her fingers trembled as she picked up the pen.
Not because she regretted the decision.
She didn't.
This was the right thing to do.
Sean deserved to live whatever time he had left without carrying the unbearable weight of guilt.
And she deserved the chance to finally stop surviving...
...and start living again.
She signed her name.
Across from her, Sean quietly signed his own.
When the final signature was written...
Silence settled between them once again.
No one spoke.
Because there was nothing left to explain.
Everything that needed to be said had already been spoken during countless late-night conversations...
During hospital visits...
During whispered prayers...
During the endless nights they had spent hoping the morning would bring better news.
The staff politely excused themselves, leaving the two of them alone.
Sean slowly reached across the table.
He gently took Orm's hand into his own.
It was the same hand that had held his during chemotherapy when the pain became unbearable.
The same hand that had wiped away his tears after another disappointing test result.