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From Scorned Wife 39

From Scorned Wife 39

Chapter 14 

Ryder’s stomach problems had been getting worse for years. 

I used to nag him constantly about skipping meals and living on coffee, but he never listened. 

Now it had finally escalated to stomach cancer. 

Stage two, thankfully. Serious, but not a death sentence. 

After the surgery to remove the tumor, Ryder looked like he’d been through hell. 

When I visited during his recovery, he was just lying there staring at the ceiling: 

“All this time in here… it’s like everything finally clicked for me.” 

“I think I’ve been emotionally fucked up for way longer than I realized. I kept pulling away from you to see if you’d chase me, but then when you did, I couldn’t handle it. I didn’t think I deserved to be loved, so I’d shut down and hurt you instead…” 

His voice cracked: “Jess, I ruined the best thing in my life because I was too damaged to see what I had. Getting sick like this… maybe it’s what I deserve.” 

Even after all the pain Ryder had caused me, watching him break down didn’t feel like justice. 

It just felt sad. 

I shook my head: “Focus on getting healthy. Don’t beat yourself up about ancient history.” 

He nodded toward a shoebox on his bedside table. 

Inside were my old love letters from high school, painstakingly taped back together with scotch tape. 

‘I spent hours trying to fix these. I thought maybe… if I could put them back together…” 

I pulled one out and held it up to the window. 

The afternoon sunlight revealed every crack and tear where the tape was holding the fragments in place. 

no reveal mapal 

‘See this? Once something’s torn apart, you can try to rebuild it, but those scars are permanent.” 

He closed his eyes: “Yeah. I get it now.” 

Maybe that was the moment Ryder finally accepted that we couldn’t rewind the clock. 

Some damage can’t be undone. 

From Scorned Wife

From Scorned Wife

Status: Ongoing

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