can you hear me
1001 Words
Moment into my thought, the door slammed open again after few seconds, and Vincent walked in,
I stepped towards him, tears blurring my vision. “Vincent, please… we can’t end like this. We can fix this. I can fix things.
desperation spilling out of me.
“I love you. I stood by you when you had nothing. I waited for you every night. I believed in us!”
“And that’s exactly the problem,” he said coldly. “You believe too much.”
My sob broke free. “What about our family?”
He looked away.
“Sonia is pregnant.”
The words landed like a gunshot.
I stopped breathing.
My heart shattered into pieces too small to gather.
“You… promised her?” I asked weakly.
“ l am going to stay by her side,” he admitted firmly. “I won’t abandon my child.”
Something ugly and painful rose in my chest.
“What about our child?” I whispered.
He frowned.
My hands trembled as I reached into my purse and pulled out the small brown envelope.
“The test result,” I said, holding it out. “That’s why I came to your office today. I’m pregnant too,
Silence.
Then he laughed.
A short, mocking sound.
“You expect me to believe that?” he said. after everything?
It’s the truth! I cried.
Please just look at it. Just read it!
“I’m not interested in your lies”
he snapped. You think you can trap me with this?
I felt something inside my chest c***k completely.
I would never lie about this, I whispered.
“You’re emotional. Unstable,”
Exactly why you’d say something like this.
I clutched the envelope to my chest, sobbing. “This baby is yours.”
His gaze hardened.
You have twenty-four hours, Sign the divorce papers and leave my house.”
My breath hitched. “And if I don’t?”
“I’ll make sure you walk away with nothing,” no marriage. no child. no dignity.”
The room fell silent.
He opened the door.
“Get some rest” he said over his shoulder. “tomorrow, this ends.”
The door closed behind him.
I fell to the floor, l clutched the envelope like it was the only thing I had left.
My baby.
My marriage.
My future.
All gone in a single day.
“-”
Two days later, Scotland greeted me with cold air sharp enough to sting the lungs. The sky hung low and gray, pressing down on the city like a held breath. I stepped out of the terminal with a single suitcase trailing behind me, its wheels rattling against the pavement, sounding far too loud in the hush of my thoughts.
I walked.
No destination. no map. Just forward.
Stone buildings rose around me, ancient and indifferent. The streets smelled of rain and damp earth, and every footstep echoed as if the city itself in comparison to the numbness spreading through my chest.
Vincent’s face kept surfacing uninvited, his smile on their wedding day, the way his fingers once traced lazy circles on my wrist, the promises whispered in the dark as if they were secrets meant only for the two of them. Each memory struck like a bruise pressed too hard.
I tightened my grip on the strap of my bag.
How many times have I bent myself smaller to fit into his world?
How many apologies had l offered for things l didn’t break?
I swallowed pride for him,
stitched my heart back together again and again always hoping this time would be enough.
My feet kept moving, though l have no memory of choosing a direction.
Shop windows blurred past my vision, warm lights, laughing strangers, couples leaning into each other as if love were simple.
My reflection flashed briefly in the glass: pale face, hollow eyes, lips trembling like they were holding something back.
The weight in my chest finally cracked.
A sob tore free, sharp and humiliating. I pressed my hand to my mouth, but the sound escaped anyway, unraveling into something raw and unstoppable.
Tears spilled down my cheeks, hot against the cold air, blurring the world into streaks of gray and light.
I didn’t stop walking.
My mind spiraled, replaying every moment I should have left and didn’t.
Every time l chose hope over dignity.
Every time she told herself love required endurance.
The sound of traffic grew louder engines humming, horns distant but constant. Somewhere ahead, lights shifted. red. yellow. green.
I didn’t see them.
My ears rang, filled with the echo of Vincent’s voice from our last conversation flat, exhausted, final.
The way silence followed after he left the room, heavy and absolute.
That silence roared now, drowning out everything else.
I stepped forward.
The curb vanished beneath my leg
There was a sharp blast of horn, sudden and furious, followed by the screech of tires fighting the road.
Time fractured.
For one suspended moment, the world narrowed to sensation alone: the sting of cold air rushing past my face, the metallic taste of fear on my tongue, the sound of my heartbeat slamming against my ribs like it was trying to escape.
I turned my head.
But too late.
Impact came like an explosion.
My body lifted, weightless, as if the ground had rejected me, violent, all-consuming before thought could form. The sky spun, and the noise of the world collapsed into a single, crushing roar.
Then nothing.
Just silence.
Somewhere far away, a voice shouted, another followed, footsteps pounded, red and blue lights sliced through the gloom, painting the wet road in frantic color.
I didn’t move.
A figure knelt beside me, hands hovering, afraid to touch. “Can you hear me?” a voice called, urgent and shaking.
My lashes fluttered once.
Then stillness.
The sirens grew louder, closer
and just as the darkness closed in completely, a single thought flickered through my fading consciousness:
Vincent.
And then, everything went black.
- Writer
