Numb With Love #AtoZChallenge

Read previous parts here: One | Two | Three | Four | Five

She reached there on time but Mark had reached there before time. Dressed in a flower-printed day dress, she couldn’t help but notice that the cafe, their regular place of hangout, was eerily empty today. Other than the staff, there were only two people there, Mark and herself. This can’t be just co-incidence, she thought.

“Hi!” she let out a nervous hello as she took the seat on the chair Mark has pulled out for her. Always been a gentleman, she thought and smiled inwardly. She wouldn’t let her heart take over her mind today. It was her life, her future at stake today.
After the initial seconds of nervous silence, Mark broke the silence.
“Ella..”, his hand reaching out to hold hers. She took back her hand and look straight into his eyes. Her eyes spoke at lenght about the hurt she had gone through in the last few days but her words only said, “Why? Why, Mark? Why did you hide the biggest truth of your life?” Her voice almost broke as she asked him this question.
He handed her the glass of water and gulped down one himself. With all the strength he could muster, he spoke, “I will tell you everything.”
After a minute’s silence, as if gathering words, he spoke again,”You know Ella, nobody is that brave to let love go. Nobody is brave enough to speak about his/her own failures. I’m no different. Back then, I had no ambitions of my own. I knew as soon as I would finish my education, I would join Dad in his vast business empire. Businees skills came naturally to me and I was proud of it, rather arrogant because of it. I married young in my life, before even I knew what marriage actually means. We were high-school sweethearts. We were happily married and were soon blessed with a baby boy. Everything was picture perfect in my until everything was lost. One deal went wrong in my haughtiness and down went our ages old business. It was my fault. I accept this today, but at that time I was too arrogant to let any one know of my silly mistake. If only I had been brave enough. But then, I would have never met you”, he let out a short chuckle. But Ella didn’t react.
“So where was I? Yah, my mistakes. My Dad paid the price of my mistakes with his life. with business and Dad both gone from my life, I became an alcohoic in no time. This became the talk of the town and soon the reason of my divorce. Well, the true reason I lost my wife, now ex-wife, and my son was not just the loss of business and
the new alkly I had made with alocohol but my carelessness and the loss of my senses. In my pathetic state, one day, I had almost killed our son. And that pulled the plug on our already disintegrating marriage. I was miserable after the divorce and spent the next two years in rehabilition centre.” He could no longer go on. He took his head into his hands and drowned his face into them.
Ella reached out for his hands. Her eyes were red and cheeks wet. She cursed herself for making Mark go through everything all over again. When there eyes met, her eyes asked for an unsaid apology.
“I never wanted to hide anything but I was never strong enough to tell you this. I was not strong enough to break again because I feared you might leave if I ever told you the truth. You made me happy, I didn’t have the courage to let happiness fade away once again…I..”
Ella cut her words before he could complete them and said, “I was an idiot to have misjudged you. I’m sorry.”
“Just say that you will never leave me again. That’s the only thing my heart wants to hear”, he said pulling out the ring from his pocket.
She blushed as she nodded, she couldn’t find the words that would fit her emotions. She was numb with love.

~THE END~

Written for A to Z Challenge 2016

Theme this month: A story A week