He Comforted Their Child While I Recovered Alone Chapter 08

He Comforted Their Child While I Recovered Alone Chapter 08

In my second month abroad, I had my fourth leg surgery.

It didn’t magically fix me.

Learning to walk again afterward, I still fell. I still lay awake all night in pain.

But here, nobody treated me like a burden.

The old woman in the bed next to mine would push my water cup closer without being asked.

Every time my physical therapist helped me up, she’d actually ask if I wanted to keep going.

I learned, for the first time, that accepting help doesn’t mean you owe someone your whole life.

The day I finally walked the length of the rehab hallway on my own, Grayson was standing at the end of it.

He’d lost weight. There were dark circles under his eyes from too many sleepless nights.

I stumbled, and he reached for me on instinct.

My therapist got to me first.

Grayson’s hand froze in midair.

That was probably the moment he remembered how, five years ago, I’d cried and begged him to walk that

hallway with me.

How he’d said, back then, that he couldn’t be there to catch me forever.

Now he’d flown halfway around the world to find me.

And I’d already learned not to throw myself at him anymore.

After my session, he stopped me outside the hospital.

“Addie, I’m here to take you home.”

I asked, “Which home?”

His lips moved, but no words came out.

My parents had thrown me out of the family.

My husband had handed our baby and our marriage over to my sister.

There wasn’t a single door left open for me in that city.

Grayson lowered his head.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know it’s too late to say anything now. But I really did love you.”

“When you had a fever, I sat up with you all night. When you were scared of thunderstorms, I drove three

hours back just to be with you. When you said you wanted a home, I worked myself to the bone to buy that

house.”

“All of that was real.”

I looked at him, calm.

“And after?”

Grayson’s eyes slowly went red.

“After that, I did something wrong.”

“I couldn’t admit that I loved you and destroyed you with my own hands at the same time.”

“Every time I saw your leg, it felt like a reminder of how low I’d sunk.”

“So I ran to Piper and Beckett, and told myself running was love, and staying by your side was some kind of

mercy I was doing you.”

“I thought as long as I didn’t file for divorce, as long as I kept rubbing your leg and showing up for your

recovery, it didn’t count as abandoning you.”

“Really, I just wanted proof I hadn’t turned into a completely terrible person.”

It was the first time in five years he’d laid the truth out this clearly.

He didn’t blame Piper for seducing him. He didn’t blame our parents for playing favorites.

But hearing it, all I felt was calm.

“Grayson, I never once doubted that you loved me.”

“What hurt the most was that you loved me, and you still chose to hurt me, over and over.”

“If you’d never loved me at all, I wouldn’t have spent five years making excuses for you.”

He reached for me, then froze when I stepped back.

“Give me one more chance. Please.”

“I’ll fix everything. I’ll clean up every mess.”

I shook my head.

“You can’t fix my dead baby. You can’t undo the three consent forms I signed alone.”

“When I needed you most, you were with them.”

“Now that I don’t need you anymore, you finally showed up.”

Grayson’s tears finally fell.

He didn’t push it any further. He just pulled the already-signed divorce papers out of his pocket.

“I understand now.”

“This time, I won’t push you to come back.”