Broken Yet Untouched by Mark Twain 9
Chapter 9
“I’ll quit smoking. I’ll quit drinking! We can start trying for another baby tonight. We’ll have a child better than Nika!”
The next moment, I slapped him across the face.
“Nathaniel, if you ever insult Nika again, I swear I will kill you.”
Nathaniel looked up at me, our faces close.
He searched my eyes desperately, trying to find something, anything, in
vain.
In an instant, he looked utterly broken
“Vivi, do you really not love me anymore?”
I looked at him with pure disgust.
I didn’t see the driverless car accelerating at full speed toward the company entrance until it was too late
“Vivi, look out!”
Before I could react, a powerful force shoved me aside.
When my mind cleared, I saw Claud lying in a spreading pool of blood.
Nearby, Nathaniel was also critically injured, his legs crushed.
He was still trying to reach for me. “Vivi… It hurts… It hurts so much…”
I paid him no mind. I scrambled to Claud’s side instead.
I screamed his name, voice ragged, beging him to wake up.
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But the man who always knew how to lighten the mood when work overwhelmed me, who learned to massage my temples when family stress gave me migraines, didn’t respond.
I didn’t care about the blood. I knelt beside him, repeating his name over
and over.
Nathaniel seemed to stop feeling the pain from his shattered legs.
He just stared, dazed.
The physical pain was nothing compared to the one tearing through his chest.
He felt as if he had lost something-something he could never get back.
***
After the accident, I handed Claud’s evidence over to the police.
Their investigation revealed the crash was a hired hit, arranged by Estelle.
A now-unhinged Estelle was sentenced to death.
At the trial, she still smiled at me.
“I’m Nathan’s wife. You’re the other woman! You homewrecker!”
Nathaniel received a life sentence.
He lost both legs and was publicly disgraced by the media coverage.
Even if he were ever released, he could never paint again.
Broke and crippled, he faced the harsh reality that a dignified life might be out of reach, but that was no longer my concern.
Before beginning his sentence, he requested to see me one last time.
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Chapter 9
1288 Vouchers
When I saw him again, his eyes were sunken, his cheekbones protruding. In just six months, he had aged two decades.
The accident had damaged his internal organs. He was often connected to a catheter, and a sour, unpleasant odor clung to him.
He covered his face with his hands. “Vivi, I’m so sorry… If there’s another life, would you give me a chance to make it right?”
Looking at the hollow shell of the man before me, I could picture the living hell his remaining years would be.
At that moment, the weight I had carried for so long finally lifted.
I shook my head gently. “Nathaniel, don’t drag a mistake into eternity. No matter what comes after this life, my choice is Claud.”
I would wait for him.
As I left, I heard Nathaniel’s broken sobs.
I felt nothing.
My daughter had been avenged.
I didn’t join my daughter as I had once thought I might, because Claud had risked his life saving me.
I would live fully, for the sake of my daughter and Claud, to experience the world they could not.
***
Four years later, returning from a trip to Iceland, I went to the long-term care facility where Claud had been.
But the room was empty. The man who had been in a coma for four years was gone.
I searched the entire facility.
For a full hour, I found nothing.
Finally, I sank in the hallway and sobbed, overwhelmed.
Then, a pair of warm arms wrapped around me from behind.
“Vivi, next time I get upset and try to walk away, you have to come after me.”
I went still.
Then I reached for his hand.
I had finally found the one who would always, and only, choose me first.
Joseph King is an editor and storyteller who ensures every chapter is clear, polished, and engaging for readers.
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