Chapter 10 — Where Sunset Falls

"But what about you? You tricked me into signing a divorce agreement, blocked all of my contacts, and then flew abroad alone to travel. Like an idiot, I traveled all over the world to find you, asking everywhere to see where you were. Hearing that you were in Europe, I immediately booked a plane ticket. I booked the ticket and wondered, the first thing I would say when I met you..."

He looked at me.

"Khuong Niem, is it fun to spin you like a pinwheel? Isn't it fun?!"

I silently looked at him. Disappointed, disappointed, broken. I sat down in the chair opposite him.

“Luc Thoi Yen, do you know, the third time I went to the hospital alone, it was for surgery?”

12. He was stunned.

“On the night of September 15, I was alone at home. When I got up to go to the bathroom, I suddenly felt dizzy, fell in the bathroom, and then... couldn't get up again.” I narrated calmly.

"I was lying on the cold ground, feeling something flowing down, I knew what it was. I tried to resist and get up, called 120, then called you again, but you didn't answer. I kept calling, still didn't answer. I called a total of seven times, but you didn't pick up even one call."

Luc Thoi Yen looked at me blankly.

"Then the ambulance came, I got in the car alone, went into the operating room alone. While lying on the operating table, I kept telling myself, maybe you will suddenly appear, maybe you will push open the door of the operating room and walk in. But you didn't come."

"Coming out of the surgery room, I sat alone in the hallway. I called you a few more times, but you still didn't answer. Later I found out that it was Tham Du Du's birthday. I went to celebrate her birthday, turned off the phone, because I didn't want anyone to bother me."

Luc Thoi Yen's face immediately turned pale.

“Nim Niem… I don't know, I really don't know… If I knew, I would never…”

“I really don't know.” I looked at him: "Because from beginning to end, you never knew where I was, what I was doing, whether I was alive or dead."

I looked at him and burst into laughter.

"It's very strange, when I couldn't call you, I didn't feel anything. I'm not a child, going to the hospital on my own is not a big deal. But later, when I learned that you turned off the phone because you were busy celebrating her birthday, I suddenly felt that it was even more painful than a miscarriage."

Luc Thoi Yen stared at me like a lost soul.

"While lying on the operating table, for some reason I remembered the first year we were married. There was a time when I had a fever and called you in the middle of the night. You rushed back from the party, without even taking off your vest, standing by the bed to take care of you all night. You told me to go to sleep, and you seriously told me: *Khuong Niem, you must remember, as long as you need me, at any time, I will be by your side.*"

The corners of his eyes were red.

"I started to reflect on myself. You know, for the past three years I've been reflecting on myself. Every time you left me alone with her, I wondered if I wasn't gentle enough, if it was because I understood things so well that you didn't feel the need to worry, if I was asking for too much. But when I came home alone from the hospital, looking at the empty room, in that moment, I suddenly felt liberated."

"I don't know when, the person who said he would always be with me, had someone else in his eyes. That person would forget me because of another woman, it would be over. Time after time, he left me in the middle of the road. But I think, that's probably your choice. You will never be able to transform into someone who needs protection like Tham Du Du. Arguing or being angry now has no meaning anymore. There's no need for the two of us to make each other suffer any more."

Luc Thoi Yen looked at me blankly.

“So… since that hospital stay, you've been preparing to leave me?”