When There Is Nothing Left But Love

“Ashton, I’m your wife. Don’t go thinking that you’re making life hard for me, because you’re not. We’ll both grow sick and die when we’re older—that’s just life, and I’m just doing what I promised when I married you.”

He gazed at me, his eyes swirling with emotion. After a long while, he finally let go of me.

The doctors said that Ashton could have some liquid food if he wanted. Cameron brought some soup over, and I fed it to him slowly, carefully blowing on every spoonful to make sure it wasn’t scalding hot.

He didn’t seem very hungry, but every time I brought the spoon to his mouth, he shot me a look and opened his mouth anyway.

Eventually, I managed to get him to finish half the bowl. Cameron sat quietly in a corner, watching us.

After I finished feeding the soup to Ashton, Cameron passed me another bowl of soup, her eyes swimming with bright tears.

She said, “You should have some yourself, too. Don’t go starving yourself just because you have to take care of Ashton.”

I looked up at her, seeing the look of sadness and heartache in her eyes. Almost subconsciously, I stretched out my hand for the bowl, before realizing that I still had Ashton’s unfinished bowl in the other hand.

The effects of the medication began to sink in just after the meal. Ashton finally gave in and fell asleep.

forced down a few spoons of the soup. When I put down the bowl, unwilling to eat anymore, she looked sorrowfully at me. “You need to eat more than that

another few spoons of the soup until I was

the bowls and stood up to leave. She turned to me, still looking

up. Before I could stop myself, I blurted out, “What was going through

had put up a brave front in front of others, asserting that not knowing my birth parents didn’t make me worse off than other people. I

parents and acting cute, envy coursed through my veins. Afraid

her body shaking with

a composition that won a prize. The title of the composition was ‘My Mother’. Grandma was very pleased and asked me to show her my writing, but I refused to do so. I even refused to show it to Macy, who went to school with me back then. I intended to burn that piece of writing as soon as I could, but I couldn’t bear to do it

would be like Macy’s mother. Macy’s mother liked nagging at her—she used to stand by Macy’s bed and yell at her to wake up, sometimes until Macy

so upset that she

I was wrong, alright? Give me another chance. This time, I’ll do

heart clench painfully. I had longed for my mother day and night as a child. When I finally grew up,

love you feel towards your own child. Grandma always said that we must have a bit of sunshine in our hearts no matter how dark the road ahead is. However, I couldn’t keep up that optimism all the time. Honestly, neither of you is to blame—the only thing you ever did wrong was to give birth to me. I used to hate the both

wicked people, but neither were they good ones either. As parents, they had done me a great deal

a pretty lucky person, I supposed. Ashton had finally opened up his heart to me, and my parents weren’t the heartless monsters I