21
Finally, my soul could break free from Terry.
He returned to our old home with my ashes, searching for memories.
The bare walls of our living room shocked him.
Frantically, he scoured the house, finding our wedding photo shattered in a
storage corner, my face viciously scratched out by Katherine.
PART 2
10/12
91 7%
Everything had changed.
Terry realized he had no photos of me left.
He collapsed, clutching my urn, tears streaming silently.
He played the cancer documentary on his phone.
Seeing my gaunt face, he broke down completely.
“I’m so sorry, Wendy,” he sobbed.
“It’s all my fault. I regret everything. Marrying you was my dream–no one forced me.”
Once, this sight would have shattered my heart.
Now, his remorse just made me sick.
Of course it was his fault. As Katherine said, my suffering stemmed from his silent approval.
His repeated “I’m sorry” meant nothing.
It took Katherine’s betrayal for him to remember my worth.
I couldn’t stand his face any longer.
I sensed my mother’s soul calling from afar.
As my spirit faded, I felt an unfamiliar lightness.
Nothing held me to this world anymore.
Wendy Lowe disappeared, at last.
22(Afterword)
Terry knelt before Wendy’s ashes, feeling something vital slip away
forever.
He glanced around, a sudden realization hitting him.
“Wendy still hasn’t forgiven me,” he whispered.
He stocked up on booze, locking himself away.
Alcohol became his lifeline, and only in his drunken haze could he see the face he yearned for–a face he knew was just a mirage.
Sir Shane had washed his hands of him.
Terry drifted through life, losing all sense of time until he violently coughed up blood.
For the first time, he left the house, begging his mother to take him to the hospital.
PART 2
hospital.
When the stomach cancer diagnosis came, Terry’s face showed an eerie
relief.
Linda wept, probably regretting her role in arranging their marriage.
Already on the last page
“What a curse I’ve brought into this world, she muttered bitterly.
Terry endured the hell of chemotherapy, finally experiencing Wendy’s ordeal.
As death approached, he lay in his hospital bed, broken.
“Wendy, I had no idea it hurt this much,” he whispered, dialing a number long unused.
It rang, unanswered.
In the end, pain and despair claimed Terry, his eyes closing one last time.
The End.
PART 2
