Ashes of Love I

And slowly, her smile faded away while she watched the picture turn into ashes right in front of her eyes. One tear after the other made its way down her face, dropping into the fire that destroyed even the last evidence of him being a part of her life. It hurt. Letting go of him and the memories associated with him was so painful. But she had to. Because it was still less hurtful than holding on. Because „sometimes holding on hurts more than letting go“.

She thought she would never even have to consider letting go of him. He was her one and only, her everything. The most important person in her life. She loved him with all her heart. And so did he.

For him, she gave up everything. Her whole life. She gave up on her family and friends. She gave up on her career and her dreams and hopes. Just to please him. To be the kind of woman he wanted. So that she could keep him by her side forever. So that she never had to lose him. And she made it. She spent the most precious years of her life with him right by her side. She was the happiest woman on earth; nothing could have ruined that. She dedicated her whole youth to him and was ready to give him the rest of her life too.

But then, just a couple of days after he had proposed to her in the most beautiful and perfect way possible, he didn’t come home from work. Maybe he just went to have dinner with his colleagues. Maybe he had to work overtime. Maybe there was a really bad traffic jam. And just maybe his phone’s battery died so he couldn’t text her. And then her doorbell rang. Maybe he had forgotten his keys. Hopefully, he had just forgotten his keys. But the moment she opened that door, she just knew that none of those maybes were true.

There wasn’t her fiancé behind that door. No. Instead, there were two police officers. She doesn’t remember clearly what happened after that. All she knows is that they said something about an accident. A semi-driver not paying attention, losing control, and crashing into three cars. And that he didn’t make it. He couldn’t come back home that day, and he would never again in the future.

She just dropped to the ground, weeping like there was no tomorrow. She doesn’t even remember how she got back into her bedroom or when she fell asleep. Or maybe she just fainted from exhaustion.

The next morning, she woke up and made breakfast for her fiancé like she always did. After that, she prepared his lunch for work and packed up everything. Just like she had done every day for the past ten years. Then she sat down in the living room and started crying.