The Road Back Buried in Snow

I did not know how long it had been when I woke up.

My attending physician, Dr. Tara Wells, looked at me gravely and warned me, "Do not let yourself get worked up again. Your surgery was very successful, but after surgery, the most important thing is to stay calm. Emotional swings that intense can cause you to cough blood and pass out like today. In severe cases, they can be life-threatening."

I stared at the ceiling and forced myself to control my emotions.

Joanna's message notifications kept sounding beside me.

I did not even have the strength to read them.

So I asked the housekeeper to read them for me.

The housekeeper cleared her throat awkwardly and spoke with care.

"Adrian is doing a little better today. The doctor said I am his medicine. As long as I stay with him, he will recover quickly. You have no idea how happy I am watching him get better."

"Adrian loves pear blossoms. It's been snowing these days, and all the white reminds him of them, so he's been overjoyed."

Then, as if afraid I would get angry, the housekeeper tried to defend Joanna.

"Sir, I think those are just polite words from Ms. Cross. This next sentence is probably what she really wanted to say. I will read it to you now."

"Mason, the strawberry cake from the west side bakery is very good. I will buy you one later."

"See? Ma'am still loves you the most. Even when she is beside that man, she is thinking about you."

...

After that, I could no longer hear what the housekeeper was saying.

I closed my eyes and let the tears slide down.

I was allergic to strawberries.

For someone with a heart condition, a serious allergic reaction could even be fatal.

I never touched strawberries.

The person who liked them had never been me.

It was Adrian.

My brows drew together. I bit my lower lip against the ache in my chest.

Dr. Wells added new medicine to my IV.

"Since you are in this much pain, I will increase the pain relief. Remember, do not get emotional."

When the medicine took effect, my mind cleared again. I nodded along with Dr. Wells.

"Don't worry. I won't."

I messaged my lawyer.

Draft a divorce agreement for me. I want to divorce Joanna Cross.

She was tainted.

I did not want her anymore.

Naturally, I would no longer let my emotions fall apart because of her.

For ten whole days, I ignored Joanna. Once I stopped paying attention to her, my body recovered quickly. The doctor said I could be discharged.

I moved into the studio where I used to run my counseling practice.

Then I sent Joanna the divorce agreement.

Her calls came in like madness.

I hung up again and again.

Half an hour later, Joanna knocked on the studio door.

The housekeeper had been following me and taking care of me the whole time, so I was not surprised Joanna arrived so quickly.

I opened the door.

This was the first time Joanna and I had seen each other since the surgery.

She froze in the doorway. The urgency on her face stiffened into pain.

"You... why have you lost so much weight? Did the housekeeper not take care of you?"

"I did not want to eat. I had no appetite." I mocked her. "Why are you here? What if Adrian gets upset and tries to kill himself?"

Joanna opened her mouth, but not a single word came out.

I turned and sat back down on the sofa. Just opening the door and saying a few words felt as if it had drained all the blood and energy from my body.

I could barely stand.

Joanna reached out to touch my face, but I avoided her.

"I will not divorce you."

Her tone left no room for discussion.

I lay down and replied weakly, "Suit yourself. Once we have been separated long enough, I can sue for divorce."

Joanna half-kneeled in front of me and took my hand.

"Mason, Adrian and I grew up together. I admit I once loved him, but now I only see him as a younger brother. I was sickly as a child. A fortune teller said I would not live past twenty-five. The only way to change my fate was to save lives all over the world and build good karma. Adrian went to Africa as a volunteer doctor to save my life. We had agreed that when his two-year term was over, he would come back and marry me, but then he disappeared. I searched for him for three years. I often think that if I had kept searching, maybe he would have come home sooner. Maybe those foreign monsters would not have tortured him until he lost his mind..."

Joanna paused.

Her voice choked. "I owe him. It is only guilt. I cannot watch him become this broken, confused person and do nothing. I have to save him. I am his medicine, do you understand? Mason."

My heart, which had not hurt for so long, was thrown into chaos by her words. I nearly fainted.

I struggled to speak.

"Nonsense."

But Joanna did not care what I said.

She held me tightly and said, word by word, "I will not divorce you."

Her tight embrace made it harder and harder to breathe. In the end, I could not even sit upright. I curled into myself.

Joanna panicked.

"Mason, what is wrong?"