Chapter 39
Months drifted by, one after another, like pages carried away by the wind.
Little by little...
Very slowly...
Lingling began finding pieces of herself again.
The nightmares still visited her on some nights.
There were mornings when getting out of bed still felt impossible.
There were days when she would stare blankly at the sky for hours, saying nothing.
But they were no longer every day.
She started eating without being reminded.
She began smiling-not the bright smile Orm had fallen in love with years ago, but something gentler. Softer. Fragile, yet real.
She returned to therapy every week without protest.
She laughed occasionally at her mother's terrible jokes.
Sometimes she even hummed quietly while watering the flowers in the backyard with her brother.
Tiny victories.
Victories no one else would have noticed.
But to Orm...
They meant the world.
Every improvement felt like watching the first flowers bloom after the cruelest winter.
And that alone made every sacrifice worthwhile.
Then one afternoon, while reviewing blueprints inside her small office, Orm's phone rang.
The screen displayed a name that immediately made her heart race.
The moment she answered, she heard the panic in her mother's voice.
"Orm... Liam has a high fever. He's been crying nonstop since this morning. The doctor wants to see him immediately."
Everything else disappeared.
The papers on her desk.
The unfinished drawings.
The conversations around her.
Nothing mattered anymore.
"My baby..."
Her voice trembled.
"I'll come home."
She ended the call with shaking hands.
Without wasting another second, she went straight to Mrs. Kwong.
The older woman immediately understood the situation the moment she saw Orm's tear-filled eyes.
"It's Liam," Orm whispered, struggling to keep herself together. "He's sick... I have to go back to Bangkok. He needs me. "
Mrs. Kwong gently cupped her face.
"Go."
Her voice was warm, filled with gratitude and sadness.
"Take care of our little Liam."
"Our..."
That single word almost shattered Orm.
She nodded repeatedly before quietly leaving the house.
But before heading to the airport...
Her feet carried her somewhere else.
One last stop.
She found herself standing several meters away from Lingling's office building.
It was lunchtime.
The familiar mango tree in the courtyard swayed gently beneath the warm Paris breeze.
There...
Sitting alone on the wooden bench...
Was Lingling.
A lunchbox rested on her lap.
Blueprints were spread beside her.
She wasn't crying anymore.
She wasn't staring blankly into space anymore.
Instead...
She was reading construction plans while absentmindedly eating.
The sunlight slipped through the mango leaves, scattering tiny patches of gold across her hair.
She looked...
Peaceful.
Beautiful.
Alive.
Orm stood hidden behind one of the nearby pillars, afraid to move.
Afraid that even the sound of her footsteps would disturb the peace Lingling had fought so hard to regain.
Her lips curved into the smallest smile.
"There you are..."
"So this is what healing looks like."
Tears blurred her vision almost instantly.
She wanted nothing more than to run toward her.
To hug her.
To kiss her forehead.
To tell her she was so proud.
That she had done it.
That she survived.
But she couldn't.
Not anymore.
Instead...
Orm gently placed her hand over her own heart.
"Happy healing..."
she whispered so softly that even the wind almost failed to hear her.
"I'll keep loving you from here."
She stayed there for several minutes...
Simply watching.
Memorizing.
The way Lingling tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
The tiny wrinkle between her brows whenever she concentrated.
The peaceful rhythm of her breathing.
She engraved every detail into her heart...
As if she feared she might never see her again.
Finally...
Orm wiped away her tears.
Turned around.
And walked away.
Without looking back.
Because she knew...
If she looked back even once...
She would never have the strength to leave.
Silently...
She whispered her goodbye.
"Take care of yourself, my love."
...
Mrs. Kwong and her husband personally drove Orm to the airport.
The entire ride was quiet.
No one spoke.
No one needed to.
Some goodbyes were simply too painful for words.
When they reached the departure gate, Mrs. Kwong pulled Orm into a tight embrace.
"Thank you," she whispered through tears.
"For loving our daughter this much."
Orm smiled despite the tears streaming endlessly down her cheeks.
"I'll always love her."
"It doesn't matter if she never knows."
She bowed respectfully before walking toward the boarding gate.
She never looked back.
Because she knew if she saw Lingling's mother crying...
She would cry even harder.
...
The months that followed continued carrying life forward.
Therapy remained part of Lingling's routine.
Work gradually became another form of healing.
She buried herself in calculations, structural analysis, site inspections, and endless engineering projects.
For the first time in years...
She found purpose again.
Her brilliance couldn't stay unnoticed.
Within only a short time, the engineering firm promoted her.
Colleagues admired not only her intelligence but also her dedication.
Project after project carried her signature.
Bridges.
Public infrastructures.
Sustainable developments.
Disaster-resilient buildings.
Every structure she touched became a masterpiece.
Soon...
Her designs began winning prestigious engineering awards across Europe.
Then internationally.
Her face appeared in architecture and engineering magazines.
Television interviews followed.
Industry conferences invited her as keynote speaker.
People called her one of the most brilliant structural engineers of her generation.
Thousands applauded her success.
Only one person cried.
Every single time.
Back in Bangkok...
Orm would quietly watch every interview.
Every award ceremony.
Every magazine feature.
Every newspaper article.
Sometimes she would gently trace Lingling's smiling face on the screen with trembling fingertips.
Then whisper...
"I knew you could do it."
"I never doubted you."
Tears always followed.
Not because she was sad.
But because she finally saw the woman she loved...
Living again.
That alone...
Made every broken piece inside Orm worth it.
Inspired by Lingling's progress, Orm poured herself into her own life as well.
She devoted every ounce of love she carried to raising Liam.
She became both mother and father whenever life demanded it.
At the same time...
Her career as an architect flourished.
Her buildings began receiving national recognition throughout Thailand.
Developers specifically requested her designs.
Her philosophy was simple.
A building should never merely stand.
It should embrace the people living inside it.
Like Lingling...
She, too, succeeded.
She smiled.
She laughed.
She celebrated victories.
But no achievement ever replaced the quiet space Lingling still occupied inside her heart.
She simply learned...
How to live with the emptiness.
...
Late at night...
After Liam had fallen asleep...
Orm would open an old sketchbook.
One page remained blank for years.
She had always been too afraid to draw it.
Tonight...
She finally picked up her pencil.
A dream.
A promise.
A conversation that happened years ago during one of their exhausted late-night sleepovers after work.
They had been lying side by side on the living room floor, too tired to even move.
Half-asleep.
Half-laughing.
"What if..." Orm had mumbled.
"...we're still single when we're thirty-five?"
Lingling laughed softly.
"Then I'll marry you."
Orm threw a pillow at her.
"You wish."
"I do."
Lingling smiled.
"You'll design our dream house."
"And I'll build it."
"Our forever home."
It had only been a joke.
A silly promise between two women who thought they had all the time in the world.
But Orm remembered every word.
So she drew.
She designed a warm two-story home wrapped in sunlight instead of extravagance.
A house that looked elegant without trying too hard.
Floor-to-ceiling windows welcomed the morning light because Lingling loved waking up with the sunrise.
A spacious engineering workshop stood beside a peaceful architecture studio, connected by a glass hallway so they could always see each other while working.
A cozy library filled with engineering manuals, architecture books, and children's storybooks occupied one corner of the house.
There was a large kitchen because Lingling always insisted she wanted to learn baking, even though she constantly burned cookies.
Beside it was a long wooden dining table built for family dinners, laughter, birthdays, and lazy Sunday breakfasts.
Behind the house stretched a wide garden overflowing with blue hydrangeas-Orm's favorite flowers and Lily of the Valley that Lingling's favourite.
A giant mango tree stood proudly at its center, casting cool shade over a handcrafted wooden swing.
Nearby sat a tiny treehouse where Liam could spend his childhood creating imaginary adventures.
There was a small koi pond because Lingling once said watching fish swim made her feel calm after stressful workdays.
A spacious porch overlooked everything.
Just enough room for two rocking chairs.
One for her.
One for Lingling.
So they could grow old together while watching sunsets.
Every room held traces of them.
Every wall carried silent dreams.
Every line she drew whispered the same words.
Not a mansion.
Not a palace.
Just...
Home.
A place built by an architect...
Engineered by the woman she loved.
When the final line was complete...
Orm gently placed her hand over the blueprint.
For the first time in years...
She allowed herself to imagine them inside it.
Lingling making coffee in the kitchen.
Liam running barefoot across the garden.