Maybe Love is An Unexpected Injury

Dragging my suitcase, I hobbled away from the Laird estate.

Ten years ago, I had arrived with a full entourage, Tina personally welcoming me.

Today, I left alone and silent.

After a decade, nothing remained behind – only a small pool of blood on the ground, like a stain on Tina’s spotless life.

As I reached the street, I suddenly remembered the wedding ring still on my hand.

Pulling it off, I tossed it to the curb without a second thought.

When I loved Tina, this ring had been a precious symbol of devotion; now, it meant nothing.

I reached out, trying to hail a cab, but the pain I had been holding back crashed over me, bringing my body to its limit.

I felt myself lose balance and crumpled to the ground.

As my mind drifted, I could almost hear Tina’s voice.

“He only fell down the stairs! How could it lead to a spleen rupture this severe?

“Abused? That’s absurd! Has he bribed you to play along in this ridiculous act?”

Flashes of the past resurfaced. Back then, I had been that boy who’d fake illness just to have Tina’s attention.

I’d place the thermometer in hot water to feign a fever or draw bruises on my legs with ink.

How could I have known that, years later, all the imagined pain would come to life, magnified tenfold?

How could I have imagined that the boy who’d sought Tina’s notice at all costs would one day give everything just to escape her?

As the doctor’s voices faded, they rushed me to the operating room, and anesthesia coursed through my body, pulling me under.

Blurred memories surfaced like rapid-fire glimpses.

I saw myself pestering Tina, asking if she liked me; I saw her wearing a ring as we got our marriage license; I saw her abandoning me again and again for Vincent.

I should have known.

When she forgot my birthday that first year to work late with Vincent, her choice had already been made.

I would always be the one left behind.

But if that were true, then why agree to marry me?

Why stay in my life just to discard me?

My thoughts dissolved as the anesthesia finally took effect.

When I woke, the hospital room was empty, with bandages wrapped around me like a cocoon.

It was only after a long wait that a doctor entered.

He explained that besides multiple abrasions and bruises, I had severe gastritis and a ruptured spleen.

“Considering your injuries, surviving that fall is nothing short of a miracle,” he noted.

I managed a weak laugh.

After surviving the chaos of foreign streets, it was ironic to almost lose my life at Tina’s hands.

She truly was…the most formidable test of my life.

Throughout my hospital stay, Tina never once visited.

She must have been convinced that I was pretending.

The only visitor was Old Mrs. Laird, who came bearing two items that left me speechless: the divorce papers and my father’s will.