The subtle transition arrived when Allison discovered clumps of hair on her pillow the moment she woke up. She gazed at them silently as she gathered them in her hand, her mind blank. When Matthew walked up to her and saw this scene, a deafening silence fell across the room, and only the low sounds of the medical equipment and the humming of the air-conditioning could be heard. They both knew that this would be coming, but the moment it began, Allison felt like her whole world was slowly crashing down on her. From then on, whenever she brushed her hair, whenever she washed, whenever she woke up… the loose hairs kept falling out, and through time, she couldn’t handle it anymore. “Do it,” Allison told Matthew quietly one day. Matthew froze in place as he stared at her with cautious yet sad eyes. “Lise… are you sure about this?” Allison shut her eyes as she tried to contain her emotions. “…I’m sure, Mattie,” she finally said, trying to put more conviction into her tone like she trul
Allison lay awake in bed and couldn’t fall asleep, but she didn’t open her eyes.When she peeked for a bit, she saw Matthew sitting nearby with his back facing her, his head leaning against the phone he was pressing to his ear. He was talking to someone, and she knew who it was.He was speaking in a low voice, but because the room was quiet and he thought she was asleep, bits and pieces of their conversation drifted into her ears.“How have you been? Yes… there were some… last I heard, it was…”“I see…”“Everything okay… when is the… I see… when I checked there was…”“Yeah… fine… she’s doing okay… it’s been really rough… the treatments… exhausting…”Matthew kept on talking in this quiet tone, and his voice was noticeably gentle, as though he were talking to the most precious thing in the world.Allison knew just by that tone that he was speaking to Lily.A bitter sensation swelled up in her throat.“I’m okay,” Matthew was saying, and he seemed to be more comfortable now since he was t
It started one night when Allison was getting ready for bed. How ironic. Perhaps it was because of that particular phone call, but she was slowly growing aware of the danger of Matthew leaving her, and she realized that she wouldn’t be able to bear it if that happened. When she remembered the sadness and longing in his voice as he talked to Lily, she felt a familiar heartache that was reminiscent of her feelings towards him during the time she left. She had missed him terribly and regretted it so much. However, she had no choice but to keep on going. She lived the rest of her life like an empty shell of her former self, only going through the motions and wishing that death would come for her sooner. How ironic that the heavens had granted her wish and given her more pain to endure instead. That was why they always said to be careful with what you wish for. Though Allison frankly couldn’t give a damn, because she had grown used to pain, anyway. The days leading towards her death w
Allison’s change was starting to confuse Matthew.Nowadays, she seemed to cling to him even more than usual. When he thought about it now though, it wasn’t actually that unusual. Weeks ago, whenever she talked to her doctor or even when the nurses approached her, she would grab his arm tightly and never let go until they were gone, which puzzled him greatly because it wasn’t that long ago that she screamed at him, saying she never needed his help.But now, not only did she retain that habit, but she also insisted that he stayed with her at all times, even panicking whenever he merely went outside or talk on the phone. Her sensitivity levels seemed to have heightened, and when he asked her doctor about it, the doctor assured him that feeling emotional and having mood swings were common during cancer treatment.“She’s going through a very difficult time right now,” the doctor had explained to him gently. “The loss of hair, the drastic changes to her physical appearance, the anxiety conce
“...So that’s what we’re going to do?” Lily asked softly. “All right, then.” Matthew couldn’t even begin to describe how much he missed Lily. He missed her voice, her presence, their warm conversations together... he missed them all. One year ago, they’d been like two broken souls who met each other by chance and noticed the respective scars in their hearts. At first, they started out with wariness, but after a few drinks, they became comfortable with each other’s company as they vented out their sorrows by talking. It had been a simple meeting, but it turned out to be the start of their own love story. Having exchanged phone numbers after that day, they began meeting up at the same bar, but this time in a private VIP room where they could talk to their heart’s content. It had relieved Matthew greatly to finally have someone he could talk to, someone whom he could unconsciously trust with his burdens. “I wonder why it’s so easy to talk to you about my problems...” Matthew had ment
“What, are you crazy?!” Bryce’s tone was filled with shock and bewilderment. “Why would you tell the Chairman the truth? Aren’t you already aware of what he’s capable of?!”Matthew said nothing, and that seemed to stir up Bryce’s annoyance even more.“Matt, he’s more than capable of tracking you down there and taking you away by force,” Bryce said seriously. “You know how much the Chairman hates bad publicity. He already let you off easy with your divorce years ago, but if you plan on getting strike two, the Chairman will get really angry this time.”“I’ll talk to him, Bryce,” Matthew said quietly. “I can’t just leave Allison here all alone… She needs me.”“Your company and Lily need you, too,” Bryce reminded him. “Why would you care so much for someone who didn’t even try to contact you for six years already? She was the one who left you and broke your heart, yet you’re placing her feelings above everyone else?”“Bryce,” Matthew said solemnly. “Don’t talk about her like that. Don’t yo
As the days passed by, the two of them were slowly changing. As they spent more time with each other, the comfort that was once there between them years ago now rose to the surface, rising from its dormancy. Sometimes, it felt like they were back in the past again, before they got married.Like they were teenagers again.“Do you still remember our promise back when you turned 18?” Matthew asked her one day while preparing for her to take her antibiotics.“Our promise?” Allison asked, sitting up weakly in bed with a slightly confused expression on her face. “Oh… that one?”“Yeah.” Matthew went to her bedside and gave her a glass of water along with a medicine pill. “Still remember?”Allison nodded slowly. “When we turn 30…”“…we’ll go somewhere far away,” Matthew finished in a soft voice. “Like the beach.”A tender smile curved Allison’s lips. “We’ll sit on the sand and watch the sunset…”“Wait for the stars to appear at night…”“And then we’ll make a wish on a shooting star.” A poigna
“I met her at a bar.”Allison’s eyes grew wide in shock. “A—A bar?” she repeated, unsure if she heard it right.Since when did Matthew like coming to bars?Were there a lot of things that she didn’t know about him, after all?“Yeah, I used to drink a lot back then, when you…” Matthew’s voice trailed off before he could finish his sentence, and the atmosphere between them suddenly shifted into a heavy kind of awkwardness. “Well, yeah. At that time, I would usually take Bryce with me so he could drive me home. I stopped drinking there after a few months though with the decision that I’d bury myself in work instead. But five years later, I came back to that same bar to drink away my stress, and then I saw her.”Allison swallowed heavily, but she forced herself to listen. After all, she hadn’t seen Matthew in a long time, and there were probably a lot of things that happened to him during this period.She wanted to catch up to him.She wanted to be a part of his life again.For about two