My Love Until the Last Goodbye (Mary and Maximus) novel Chapter 12

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Seeing that she had fallen asleep, Maximus took a seat on the sofa beside the bed. He watched the face of the young woman before him. It ha been a long time since he had stopped to really look at her. Physically, his wife was no longer the same “girl” he had first met. Now she had a more mature face, one marked by weariness and sadness. As he observed her, a pang shot through his heart. A strange, uncomfortable sensation squeezed his chest as he noticed the bandages on her arms. One of her wrists was particularly heavily bandaged–where she had made the deepest cut. He understood clearly that everything that had happened was his fault. 

Why did things come to this? he wondered as he watched her. 

When he heard her talking to his grandmother, her voice sounded anquished, but beyond that, he could hear the determination with which she spoke about the divorce. 

Why do I feel upset just hearing the word divorce? It’s what I’ve wanted ever since I got married,” he thought, imitation flickering across his face. 

Frustrated, he leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes, massaging his forehead to ease his headache and fatigue. Sitting there gave him the opportunity to recall details he had long overlooked- details about how this girl had always been kind to him. 

He clearly remembered how, after they met, she tried hard not to be a burden. She would prepare breakfast for him, and in the evening, she would wait for him with dinner. Even before they were married, and when they weren’t romantically involved, it seemed like she did this to make up for her stay at the mansion. She made an effort to learn the language so they could talk. At first, it was amusing to see how she mixed up the pronunciation of some phrases or words, but still, she wouldn’t let embarrassment get the better of her, and she diligently tried to learn and improve her vocabulary. 

Sometimes, when Maximus had free time, she would teach him a few phrases in Hesperian. She always had a friendly, relaxed attitude, telling him how important it was to learn the bad words first. She laughed when she explained their meanings and how to use them. 

He remembered how he realized she liked him. Every time she saw him, her face lit up with a big smile, and she would blush just from looking at him. Mary had looked very different at 17–she was a young girl, full of grace and life, filled with dreams, some achievable, others pure fantasy. He never told her, but that freshness had drawn him in. He loved her innocent gaze, which was also full of a yet–to–be–discovered mischief 

She had come into his life, changing many things. When he went to the office, she would cut flowers from the garden, put them in a vase with water, and carefully place them in his study, where he spent most of his time after returning from work. 

At first, he thought the flowers had always been there and he had just never noticed. But then he remembered that the mansion staff wasn’t allowed to enter his study except to clean. The only one who didn’t know this rule was the new tenant. 

The flowers lasted one or two days at most, but she was always attentive, replacing them regularly. She took this task very seriously and wouldn’t let any wilted flowers remain. One day, he finally decided to ask her why she put the flowers there. She replied, without a hint of remorse, in her limited Valentian, “The room feels scary. The flowers change its appearance, and I like it better that way.” 

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Chapter 0012 

+25 BONUS 

He thought that if it had been anyone else, that response would have been enough to have them thrown out of the mansion. But with this girl, there was no other choice but to accept her actions.