Chapter 3: The End?

Bryson woke up to the annoying sound of his alarm, which he found rather strange. Natalie would always be the one waking him up with her chirping voice, in fact, she would wake him up an hour before his alarm was due and he absolutely hated it the woman wouldn’t let him sleep. Turning his head side to side to get that faint after sleep sensation out of his eyes, he remembered the events of the night before…he wouldn’t admit it, but it was great to have some frustration for work and life lifted.

Getting up he made his way to the restroom to conduct his morning business.

Making his way downstairs he felt rather uncomfortable that the house was awfully quiet. Normally Natalie would be cooking him some breakfast whilst playing some soft tunes on the home stereo, but he quickly brushed it off, until he noticed something strange. Natalie was one to always leave her stuff lying around the house and he used to constantly argue with her over it, but this time was the house was rather tidied and sorted out, exactly how he liked it but not what he expected.

He needed to clear a hunch in his mind, so he went upstairs to her room…yes, they have separate rooms. After he took his shower last night, he come out to find her lying on his bed, he woke her up and took her to her own room.

It was empty.

Nothing, like no one, was staying there at all, wardrobe cleaned out, only a letter remained, it read:

My dear Bryson,

I’m so sorry for having to leave this way, but I can’t stand it anymore…the past 6 months have been hell for me. I know that initially, you didn’t have any feelings whatsoever towards me, but I thought that with the time we would spend together maybe…just maybe something might have happened.

It's not easy you know, being the only one having to put in all the effort in this relationship, having to make meals that you at times never eat, getting your suits before that all-important business meeting, or making your house a home.

In case you didn’t know last night was the best night of my life and it was always the final attempt I had resulted in all in the quest of making this loveless relationship work, I told myself if all failed, I would leave and never come back. Yesterday I felt used…I gave you myself as a token of the love I have for you, but instead, you insulted me and left me like a toy, but I won’t hold that against you.

I wish you all the best in life (not that you’ll need it anyway) and hope that we both find happiness at the end of it all.

Yours truly,

Natalie ❤

He let out a sigh when he finished reading the letter.

‘She really was hurt, wasn’t she?’ he asked himself. Yes, he didn’t love her nor like her, but she didn’t deserve to be treated the way she was.

Rage filled him at once, anger overtaking all his senses. He never intended to hurt her, but his approach was very disappointed. He had never felt so disappointed in himself; he was an expert at keeping business deals, yet he could not show a bit of respect to a woman who was willing to give him a chance.

Back to the hospital, Etienne awoke to the distinct smell of penicillin and quite uncomfortable back pain from sleeping while leaning on the hospital stretch bed. He stretched out his arms and got himself out of his morning fizz. He turned to see his grandma sleeping peacefully, her body relaxed, and her breathing rate was calm and collect as it showed on the heart rate machine. He got up and gave her a kiss on her cheek whispering:

"Don't worry granny I won't let anything happen to you; I promise". Giving her a slight hug, in which he was so immersed that he didn’t hear the door opening and footsteps drawing near.

"Wow, would you look at that?"

He turned to see someone whom he had not seen in a while, someone whom he looked up to, a person so great he was yet to meet someone like him ever again...