“Em, please. If you don’t want to talk to me, then don’t. I understand. But at least let him explain. Listen to him once. Don’t just shut him off like that,” she almost pleaded. “You don’t know what you mean to him, Em. That man is nothing without his Rosebud.”

My heart clenched. Gulping the thickness in my throat, I walked out of the kitchen without another word.

The warm water trickled down every curve of my body, soaking me into its heat, relaxing the knots of my shoulders. But it couldn’t soothe me, the pain in my chest. Though it washed away the tears that fell down my cheeks relentlessly.

It hurt. It pained so fucking much! As if someone was physically churning a dagger into my heart again and again. A choked sob left my mouth. Clutching the place over my heart, I slid down the glass wall of the shower and hugged my legs to my chest.

“Why did you do it? Why?” I whispered, letting the tears free.

It felt like the wound I got that night had been scratched anew. I felt the same agony I endured years ago. And the irony was, the incident I’ve suffered for so long for wasn’t even real. It was all a sham. A joke. A cruel joke life had thrown at me. Not life—my sister and the boy I loved.

They say they did it for my own good. To save me from getting hurt. But did they really save me from getting hurt? No, they only threw me into the ocean of tears I’d flown every night in silence after that night. They had thrown me to the disgust I’d felt dating so many guys who I didn’t even feel any connection to. The kisses I’d shared, even if it hurt my own heart. The man who was always there for me, I’d hurt him in the process. I could never return his love.

And all of this happened because he thought it’d be good for me by pushing me away, breaking my heart.

To push you away from me.

It’d felt like I’d been struck by thousands of arrows the moment he said those words. The moment I knew how easily they broke my numerous dreams, intense emotions, and years of love in just a moment. Even after knowing everything.

“Don’t! Don’t you dare try to explain anything. You’ve done enough already! Leave me alone!” I’d snapped at his face when he’d tried to stop me from leaving last night.