Back in the present, I gripped the hem of my coat tightly, my fingernails digging into my palm to stop my hands from shaking as I stepped toward the bed.
“Magnus…” My voice was calm, but my heart ached. “Thank you for saving me. But… let’s go through with the divorce.”
I heard him suck in a shaky breath.
I didn’t dare turn around, but I could hear the rustle of the sheets, the sound of his hand reaching out–only to fall limply against the mattress.
Then his voice, quiet and broken, “Eve… I’ll always be your Brother Magnus.”
Three months later, the media was ablaze with rumors.
Magnus had personally thrown Seraphina out of the company. Some said she embezzled funds, others claimed she framed a colleague. Whatever the truth was, none of it had anything to do with me anymore.
By then, I had moved into my new apartment.
The walls of my study were covered in bar exam notes. I had decided to take the civil service route. When I wasn’t studying, Sven took care of the rest.
“You just focus on passing,” he always said. “I’ll handle everything else.”
The night before the exam, he sat curled up on the couch beside me, helping me review practice questions. His pen scratched steadily across the page as dawn slowly broke outside.
When I reached for my bag the next morning, he slipped a piece of chocolate into it and gently brushed a finger across my tired, tear–stung eyes. “You’ll do great. I’m taking you out for something amazing after that! No stress, alright?”
I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed being cared for like that. But I was nervous. Deep down, I still was.
After the final bell rang, I walked out of the exam hall into the sunlight. I hadn’t even made it to the gate before I saw him.
1324 Mon 26 May Hu
to the gate before I saw him.
Magnus.
He looked thinner, his suit slightly oversized now. One of his jacket sleeves hung loosely empty. But he stood there, holding a bouquet of lilies.
The same kind he gave me on my eighteenth birthday. The first flowers I ever received.
“Congratulations,” he said, his voice rough but sincere. “I knew you’d do it. My Eve always
does.”
The tears came without warning.
I couldn’t even speak.
He stepped forward, gently wiping them from my cheeks, just like he used to when I cried about something silly, or stubbornly refused medicine as a child.
Behind me, I heard Sven’s car horn and the distant buzz of cicadas.
I took a deep breath. “Thank you,” I whispered.
“I have to go. He’s waiting for me.”
I walked past him, but after a few paces, I turned around.
Magnus was still standing in the same spot, sunlight casting a soft halo around him. “Thank you, Brother Magnus,” I said one last time.
The wind tousled my hair, carrying away the last fragments of a decade–long obsession.
It was over.
(The End)
