When it was over, I could not fall asleep for a very long time and looked at the moonlight outside the window while feeling a pang in my heart.
Just as I was finally about to fall asleep, I heard Theo moaning painfully beside me. I quickly turned on the bedside lamp and sat up to check on him.
His head was covered in sweat, his eyebrows were tightly furrowed together, and pain was written all over his face.
"What's wrong?” I was terribly anxious. "Where does it hurt?”
Theo opened his mouth slightly. "It hurts.”
"Where does it hurt?" I grabbed my phone while anxiously asking.
Theo's breathing quickened. "Wanda, don't. Don't—"
I finally realized that he was having a nightmare and quickly shook his arm. "Wake up, Theo. Wake up.”
Theo slowly opened his eyes and reacted for a few seconds before pulling me into a tight embrace. He was so strong that it hurt me. "Can you please don't go, Wanda? Please, I beg you, don't go."
I pursed my lips and could roughly guess what he had dreamt about. I put my hand on his head and comforted him softly, "I'm not leaving. I'm here."
"Don’t go!" He kept repeating these words as if he could not hear me.
When he had calmed down a little, I helped him to bed and drew out a piece of tissue at the bedside table to wipe the sweat on his forehead. "Go back to sleep.
Don't worry, I'll be here."
He nodded and pulled me into his arms. He took a deep breath. "You're my life, Wanda. You can’t leave m e or I'll die."
It was then I knew that I was not the only one struggling in pain. In the last three years, life was easier to get by with Munchkin by my side, but Theo could only suffer in the dark by himself.
I felt sorry for him and hugged him like an octopus." I'll not leave as long as you need me. I'll never leave."
He was not the only one who was lonely. Theo and I were like two puppets that had sunk down at the bottom of the ocean. We needed to hold each other to survive the darkness that was engulfing us.
He said, "Every time I woke up at midnight in the past, the room would be empty and the space beside me would be cold, so cold it was as though you never existed. Sometimes, I would think that you were never there in those years, that I had made you up in my head because I was too lonely.
"I didn't even have the courage to step into the house i n Salt City. Sometimes, I'd be put in a trance thinking that I was dreaming. There were many times I wondered if I could hold you again if I die in the dream and then wake up."
I felt a lump in my throat and held his hand tighter." I'm sorry."
Theo let out a self-deprecating smile. "I've had many teachers. They all taught me how to survive in the business field and how to negotiate with people, but none of them taught me how to love someone. I was afraid of hurting you, so I refused to get close to you. I apologize for my foolishness."
His words sent tears to my eyes. I sniffed and said," Theo, I don’t know how to love someone either. I'm a very selfish person."
All these years, I probably had never truly put myself i n his shoes.
I loved him, but my way of loving him was not right.
When Theo swapped Cindy's and my DNA report back then, the main reason was that he was afraid he would not be able to hold onto me anymore once I became Grayson and Petra’s daughter.
If I had not been so bent on getting away from him and told him what I really thought, our child would not have died, Cecilia would not have died, and my biological parents would not be spending their days in remorse.
On this night, we embraced each other as each of us confessed and repented.
Theo said, "I don't want another three years of that. It's too long and too lonely."
Tears wet my eyes. "There won't be another three years like that. We’ll be together for the rest of our lives."
He hugged me tighter. "Do you love me?"
I smiled, both certain and serious. "I love you."
A chuckle came from above my head, accompanied by the sentence, "I love you too. I love you very much."
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