Her comeback

Two

"Mom?" Panic rose into my throat upon hearing no reply for the second time. A forceful blow hit me when I saw the bed empty. I died inside.

"Honey?" A frail voice whispered from the single sofa and I ran to her and wrapped her tight into my arms. I feared that this must be the last time I would be able to hug her that I clung to her so tight like a fearful child who found her mother after losing her way.

Relief washed over me. "Honey, you're going to suffocate me." Mom complained with laughter. I set her free as color returned on my cheeks and kissed her balding head with tenderness.

I almost passed out from fear after I thought she finally stopped fighting her stage three cancer. She's the only one I've got now after Dad passed away a year ago due to chronic illness. I can't afford to lose her. The thought kills me already.

"I-I thought! I-I thought you—" My tears gushed forth as I kneel in front of her. The pain was so great that I can't barely breathe.

"Hush. Stop crying Phoenix, I hate to see your beautiful eyes wet with tears." The thin sagging skin that nourished me with amazing love for almost twenty-three years wiped the tears off my cheeks.

"The first time I saw you cry—the moment you were born—I promised myself to always wipe the tears from your exotic green and brown eyes. Yours was the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen..... and the rarest. And I promised to myself to pamper you with love despite your rare condition."

Mom's lips curved into a blissful smile that melted my heart. Her soft tender touch caressed my messed up hair to untangle the knots. "So stop crying. I want to have a clear view of the green and brown eyes of yours." She added and stared at my eyes that suffered from Heterochromia Iridis.

The softness of her tone stopped my tears as I got up from kneeling on the floor. "It's already late mom, you should be asleep." I took the photo album from her lap and helped her get up from the sofa. Mom was so light that I could carry her into my arms without difficulty.

"I won't cry anymore mom."

"Promise?"

"I promise Mom."

I took her pinky finger and sealed my promise. She let go a smile so bright that my worries magically faded. She made no protest as I tucked her to bed.

"One of the happiest moments in life is to let go of the things you cannot change. During the process, you will lose someone painfully but only that way you will find your real self."

I lulled her to sleep and kept her wisdom into my heart knowing it was the only treasure I could carry all the time with me. It was not long before mom drifted off to sleep. I listened to her soft snore as I watched the rise and fall of her chest.

"I love you." I whispered and kissed her on the cheek. My lips stretched into a smile as I heard her respond 'I love you too' in her sleep.

I occupied the single sofa and took the leaning guitar on the wall. My fingers pulled the zipper open and my baby out of the case with gentleness. It was a gift from Mom when I was eighteen and I cherished the guitar with the same gentleness mom gave me.

I pulled the string. The first sound it created was so magical, I nearly closed my eyes while a comforting warmth spread on my heart. Serenity appeared on my blissful countenance when I opened my lips.

You made me feel as though,I was enough

We danced the night away,

We drank too much,

I held your hair back when

You were throwing up

Then you smiled over your shoulder

For a minute, I was stone-cold sober

I pulled you closer to my chest

And you asked me to stay over

I think that you should get some rest

Say you won't let go.... Sadly, it was no longer a promise but a sad song.

Ace finally let me go.... And so I must.

______

*The next morning*

"Please don't leave mom please!" My desperate plea could be heard up to the eighth room in the hallway.

Horrible sobs filled the room and I clung tight to her cold fingers in anguish, not wanting to let her go. Mom was so thin her sagging skin clung to her thin bones in a heart-wrenching way, the scene crushed my heart into tiny bits. She was so fragile that I did my best to handle her wrinkled hands with great care in fear of unintentionally breaking them.

"I'm sorry Honey." She whispered in a barely audible whisper, a single tear slithered down her agonized face and breathed her last. Her fingers trembled, then it froze and drifted down like a withered plant.

An ear-shattering scream tears down my throat. A fierce terror clutched through my heart and drained the color off my cheeks. "Please don't do this to me, mom." I pleaded over and over again until my voice turned into a barely audible whisper and until I could no longer hear my voice.

"Please don't leave me! Please don't leave mom..... "

The last of my draining strength faded and I tumbled on the floor. For the very first time in my life, I wish I was dead too.

I woke up with the muffled sound of my voice against the cushion of mom's hospital bed where I remember leaning forward and falling asleep fast. I gasped for some air before I ended up dying of suffocation. The spot where my head rested was soaked with my tears. I suddenly wondered how long I'd been crying in my sleep

My heart still raced inside my chest as if I ran in a marathon. And the same fear that I was engulfed in my nightmare still raged inside me. The red long sleeve I wore was drenched with sweat from the surreal dream that left me drained of strength.

Mom's tormented gasps followed by the jolt of the bed took my undivided attention and I rose on my feet, forceful enough for the steel chair to be flung behind my back.

"I-I can't breath." She complained and I died inside.

I ran to the nurse station with my heart on my throat. I didn't even know how I was able to fetch the nurse and return to mom's room without collapsing to the floor in panic.

I saw the nurse's face turn pale after she checked mom's pulse and glanced at the monitor with a worried look on her expression. Words weren't necessary to explain the critical condition of the patient as I watched the nurse whooshed past me to call the doctor.

I knew mom was like a ticking time bomb and it could be her time any moment. I tried to prepare myself when her time comes but every time I saw her like this I just crumbled into pieces. I can't live without her... She's the only one I've got now.

The Doctor arrived and the last thing I knew I was whirled out of the room while paralyzed with fear and forlorn. Outside, I stared at the door without blinking even after it was slammed shut in my face. The thought of being confronted with Mom's untimely death stabs my heart.

My sobs filled the corners of the small chapel as my shoulders shook with the intensity of my emotion. I just stopped crying when I finally got tired from kneeling on the pew for almost half an hour.

"Your Mom is stable now. She's sleeping and miraculously in good condition after a critical ordeal."

The Doctor's news filled my eyes with tears upon my return. It was obvious he had a rough morning, his half-open eyelids and the dark bags under his eyes said that he spent sleepless nights attending to his patient's needs until morning. But despite everything, he managed to let his lips stretch into a sympathetic smile before leaving.

I watch the rhythmic rise and fall of Mom's chest as she lay unconscious in her bed. Somehow the fear that froze me subsided after knowing she tricked death once more.

It was nine o'clock in the morning when I kissed Mom goodbye and hurriedly left the hospital so I could sneak in into the Grayson Mansion and retrieve my belongings while my husband was away.

I strictly informed the maids never to inform Ace that I was there to take the last few of my things which consists solely of my clothes. Everything inside the room was all his property and I don't have plans to bring anything valuable owned by the man who rendered my first heartbreak.

I don't want something from Ace that would serve as a constant reminder of how he wounded my heart leaving a lifetime of scar that I will keep as a souvenir of how he ruined my life.

I gathered the things which belonged to me and stuffed them in my bag while repeatedly reminding myself to leave all the jewelry he gave as a gift during rare occasions. I don't want to look in the mirror and see them for it will make him more loathsome in my eyes.

Hurried footsteps sounded on the floor mingled with a woman's laughter greeted my ears when I was about to leave. I slammed the door none too gently and sat on the edge of the bed and let go of the breath I wasn't aware I was holding.

A nagging curiosity got over me and I pushed the button using the remote control and turned the eighty-inch flat tv screen on so I could monitor Ace on the advanced CCTV. I just want to confirm what my intuition has been telling me.

With my heart in my throat, I watched as they entered the kitchen to take some expensive wine from the cellar which Ace forbade me to even touch. I turned the speaker on full volume so I could hear the conversation going on between them.

"You looked stunning Angela." Ace said breathlessly, eyeing her from head to toe.

His eyes sparkled with admiration mingled with lust as his tongue licked the last drop of wine without taking his gaze off her.

He never once complimented me. The thought filled my heart with uncontrolled jealousy.

"Thank you." His secretary responded, batting her eyes in mischief as she gently bit the bottom of her crimson lips after a demure sip on the wine.

Ace set his wineglass aside and trotted in her direction and slithered his muscular arms around the tiny waist urging Angela to step closer until no air couldn't even pass in between.

"So where's your ugly wife?" Angela flung her arms around his neck tight like a snake.

"Forget about her, she's a total bore. She already left"

"Really? How was she in bed? I'm just curious?" Her vile tongue licked the bottom of his lips.

My fist curled into a tight ball. The Secretary's angelic name does not suit her one bit. She was a snake in sheep's clothing.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Let's not talk about my now ex-wife. You wouldn't want to hear boring stuff anyway."

A soft chuckle escaped Angela's lips and pulled him closer.

Finally, When Ace kissed Angela's lips I almost died. My fortitude crumbled to the floor and shattered into millions of shards, in the middle of the room I started to cry.

My heart was punched, mocked, kicked, hammered, and pulverized as I watched him kiss her passionately.

I died for the third time since that day. I shakily turned the tv off, unable to take the scenario anymore. With my bag behind me, I hurriedly left the room after my husband and his mistress drifted to his room for another round of passionate lovemaking.

I run out of the gates with my raging emotion at its peak of bursting into a volcanic rupture. I don't care where my feet will carry me. As long as I'm far away from this hell hole, I don't care.

I hastened from the view of the gigantic Greyson Mansion like an escaping mental patient before I finally changed my mind and resort to cold-blooded murder.

I could kill them both if I choose to. However, killing an animal will make me no different from them. I left before I turned into a murderer.