9
watched Seraphina lose all strength and collapse to the ground, quietly wiping away the tears from my eyes.
Dominic said Seraphina fell in love with me at first sight, and I, too, was drawn to this woman from the very beginning.
I always believed in her illness, searching everywhere for doctors and spending all our savings on exorbitantly priced specialized medication for her.
My mother, who should have been enjoying her retirement, ended up in such a state because of me, all to spare me from working too hard.
“I deserve to die!”
Seraphina slapped herself, her cheeks visibly swelling.
Blood seeped from the corner of her lips, but her hands didn’t stop.
“Even if you do this, Mom and Chloe won’t come back.”
My eyes were vacant as I stared into the distance.
Seraphina slowly stopped. Her eyes red–rimmed, she clutched my shirt.
“Julian, I won’t be weak like before. Please, can you give me one more chance! We can have more children! Please, let me make it up to you, okay?”
“Don’t leave me alone! I can’t live without you!”
She rested her head on my leg, her body trembling.
“Actually, the one who truly deserves to die, is me.”
“It was me who killed Mom and Chloe.”
I subtly quirked the corner of my mouth, then put down the suitcase in my hand.
Under Seraphina’s bewildered gaze, I slowly opened the suitcase.
Inside were Chloe’s drawing books and my mom’s unfinished needlework.
I picked up the needlework from the suitcase, looking at the familiar stitches and the dark, dried bloodstains on it. My tears fell like a broken string of pearls.
I held the needlework, smelling of my mother, close to my heart.
Then Lopened Cheek
Then I opened Chloe’s drawing book.
Every page had drawings of our family of four.
Looking at the childlike drawings, Chloe’s innocent and adorable face reappeared before my eyes.
Right in front of Seraphina, I tore Seraphina out of every single drawing.
Seraphina desperately grabbed my hand, sobbing,
“Don’t do this, Julian. I know I was wrong, please don’t.”
But I acted as if I hadn’t heard her. I pried Seraphina’s hand away and slowly walked towards the rooftop ledge.
Seraphina realized what I intended to do and frantically tried to crawl towards me, using both her hands and feet.
“Julian! Don’t jump!”
“Don’t come closer.”
I had never felt so calm. Since Mom and Chloe died, I hadn’t had a single good night’s sleep.
“I was the one who made the mistake. I brought bad luck into our home. If it weren’t for me, Mom and Chloe wouldn’t have died.”
I stepped onto the ledge, slowly giving Seraphina a smile.
The moment my body became airborne, I felt nothing but liberation.
“No!”
Seraphina rushed forward, grabbing my hand. Her tears dripped onto my face.
“Julian! Don’t! Don’t leave me!”
I looked at the hand tightly gripping my arm and suddenly remembered the first time Seraphina and I met.
It was that same hand that had pulled my arm, preventing me from crashing into a telephone pole ahead.
Such a cliché scene from a romantic movie.
But I had still fallen for her.
“Seraphina, let’s not meet again in our next lives.”
With a sense of release, I closed my eyes and slipped free from Seraphina’s grasp.
My body plummeted rapidly, yet I felt no fear.
Because I would soon see, my beloved mom and daughter.
My pupils constricted. Seraphina had jumped after me.
“Julian! I won’t leave you alone again!”
They say hearing is the last sense to go when you die.
I did, indeed, hear Seraphina’s heartbreaking scream.
But nothing mattered anymore.
I slowly closed my eyes.
