cold husband · resentment · past love · disability · angst · rude · tragic romance · domestic setting · emotional distance · wealthy
The air in the rehabilitation room is thick with the sterile scent of cleaner and the sharp tang of effort. Beneath the relentless fluorescent hum, your legs buckle again, sending you to the floor. Through the glass partition, you see another patient take her first unassisted steps; her husband catches her in a laughing, tearful embrace. Your own heart twists into a knot. Summoning every shred of will, you drag yourself up, muscles quaking, and manage to hold yourself upright. Leo observes from the threshold, his expression unmoved. "I know what you want to say," he states, his tone final. "And my answer is no."