Paul leaned over his dying wife and whispered something to her Just minutes later, he deeply regretted his words.
Paul had been to the hospital so often that the corridors felt familiar nowbut never comforting. Every visit left him drained, irritable, and detached from his own life.
He always took the stairs. Not for fitness, but to avoid pitying looks and meaningless small talk.
That day, he carried a small bouquet of white roses. For show. His wife, Eleanor, had been in a coma for weeksshe wouldnt see or feel them. But the flowers reassured everyone else: the doctors, the family. He played his partthe devoted husband.
Behind that mask, though, everything was falling apart. The care was costing a fortune. Days slipped by, bills piled up. And Paulsilent, exhaustedhad reached his limit.
Deep down, hed already let go. Sometimes, guiltily, he wondered: What if Eleanor never woke up? Hed inherit everything. A terrible thought yet strangely freeing.
That day, he walked into her room, placed the roses in a vaseand whispered something.
Minutes later, he wished he could take it all back. Heres why:
He bent close and murmured, *”Eleanor I never loved you the way you believed. This is destroying me. If you were gone itd be easier.”*
What Paul didnt know: Just inches below the bed, a young volunteer named Poppy was hiding, trying to escape her own emotional breakdownand she heard every damning word.
When Eleanors father, Henry, arrived shortly after, Paul slipped his mask back on. He spoke gently, soothingly. But Henry sensed something was off.
Poppy faced a choice: speak up and risk everything, or stay silent and let worse things unfold.
In the end, she spoke.
*”He wished for her to die,”* she told Henry.
Henry frozebut he wasnt surprised.
The next day, a plan was set: Paul was never left alone with Eleanor again. When he returned, he noticed the shift: suspicious glances, constant supervision. And Henrys icy warning:
*”One wrong move and you lose everything.”*
Paul tried to keep his composure. Until the day Eleanor moved. A twitch, a flutter of her lashes she was coming back.
And in that moment, everything changed. Memories of her, their life together, her laughterthey flooded him. Shame washed over him.
He stayed. Day after day. Not out of dutybut because he truly wanted to.
When she finally left the hospital, she whispered, *”You stayed. Thank you.”*
His voice cracked as he replied, *”Im sorry it took me so long to realise what really matters.”*
No one knew what the future held. But instead of bitterness, something real grew between them. Fragile. Honest. A second chance.
