One Last Call Before Goodbye Chapter 08
The aged iron door separated two worlds.
Inside, traces of Darlene lingered everywhere. Outside stood the truth Marshall had reached far too late.
Louise was visibly stunned when she saw him. “W-What are you doing here?”
Staring at her haggard face, Marshall asked, his voice low, “Louise, where is Lena?”
Instead of answering, she stepped aside to let him in.
He walked inside. The moment he stepped into the living room, he stopped dead.
There was a black-and-white photo in the center of the room.
In it, Darlene had shed the unpolished youth of her teenage years. She wore a gentle, faint smile, like the last thin snow melting in spring sunlight.
Marshall stood frozen, his heart crushed by an invisible hand.
He walked toward it. Each step was a blade beneath his foot.
Louise closed the door. She pulled a thick stack of medical records from the cabinet and held them out.
Her voice was barely a whisper. “See for yourself. You studied medicine. You’ll understand these better than I do.”
He took the records and flipped through them, page by page.
Diagnosis reports, chemotherapy logs, targeted drug prescriptions, and hospital discharge summaries… Every single page bore one name: Darlene Connell.
Her pale face, her sudden coughing fits, and the way she had passed out, so weak… All those moments that had puzzled him these past few days now made sense.
Those were her pill bottles. She was the one with cancer.
The truth was, he had noticed those barely perceptible signs. But he hadn’t cared. Or rather, he hadn’t dared to.
His eyes went red-rimmed. He gripped the medical records so tightly the paper crackled beneath his fingers.
Louise brought out the ceramic figurine, now glued back together, and handed it to him.
“Lena accidentally broke it. She glued every piece back together, one by one.”
A pause. Then she added, “She said to give it to you. If you ever came here to see her again.”
Marshall took the figurine. His thumb traced the uneven, pitted cracks.
His memory was pulled back to Darlene’s twentieth birthday.
Flushed and nervous, he had pulled the figurine from behind his back. “Lena, happy birthday.”
“Wow, it’s adorable! Thank you.” She had taken it, her eyes bright as stars.
“Glad you like it.”
“I absolutely love it. I’ll treasure it.” She had held the figurine to her chest, her smile crinkling her eyes.
Back then, she had been so full of life, so radiant, with that unstoppable energy, always reaching upward.
And now, all that was left of her was a black-and-white photograph.
Clutching the figurine, Marshall said, his voice scraped raw, “Louise … can you tell me more about Lena?”
Louise was silent for a very long time. Finally, she nodded.
“You remember how you two broke up?” she asked.
“Yes.” He dropped his gaze.
“She hinted at it before. But I used work as an excuse to avoid facing it.
“Until that day she stopped me at home. She said it had been five years, that she’d had enough. That she wanted to end things with me.”
Louise shook her head. “No. That silly girl never stopped loving you. Not for a single moment.”
She brushed her fingers gently across Darlene’s face in the photograph. A tear slipped down and landed right at the corner of Darlene’s lips.
“You had trouble getting your startup off the ground in the early days. It was because of Mrs. Hendrix. Behind your back, she put the word out. She made sure every supplier shut their doors on you.
“She went to Lena and told her you would never succeed as long as she was still in your life.”
Marshall’s pupils contracted.
“Lena knew your persistence, your effort, better than anyone. She didn’t want to watch it all go to waste.” Louise’s voice began to tremble.
“The day you two broke up, I went to pick her up. That was when I found out she had just been diagnosed with stomach cancer.
“That silly girl… She told me with a grin, ‘I’m so glad we split. Otherwise, I would have just been a burden to him.'”
Louise lifted her head and looked at Marshall, her eyes red all over.
“I’m not telling you this to make you blame yourself. I just want you to know, Lena never stopped loving you.
“She loved you far more than you ever knew.”