Chapter 256: Lost
Days flowed into one another, a seamless web of ti where the sun rose and set with breathtaking regularity. The clouds, ever-changing, painted the sky in shades of dawn, dusk, and noon, marking the passage of each fleeting mont. Mornings gave way to afternoons, which lted into nights, and before it was truly felt, two months had quietly slipped away. The passage of ti felt like the turning of a page, each day more agonizing than the other for those who waited for the light in their lives to return.
A silhouette stood before the balcony, his figure shrouded in the soft glow of the setting sun. His gray eyes were filled with despair as he watched the delicate flowers slowly drift off the branches of the nearby trees. The spring breeze swirled around him, tousling his neck-length hair and sending a shiver down his spine. Life, he thought, was so fragile, so fleeting, slipping away before one even had a chance to hold on to it.
He’d lost in life. Neil thought, recalling the past few months without Mia in it and how agonizing every each day had been for him. Beside him, Jas and Liam stood in a heavy silence, their concern for him palpable.
Liam, unable to bear the quiet any longer, finally broke the silence that had followed his question. "When do you plan to go see them, Neil?" His voice was soft but insistent. "The twins will be out of the incubator today. You can’t continue to pretend they are not your children or that you don’t know of their existence. They need you, and Mia wouldn’t have wanted you to ignore them like this. Mia wouldn’t be—"
"Mia is not here!" Neil snapped, his fingers tightening around the balcony railings as he fought to control his emotions. The pain in his voice was raw and unfiltered. "Don’t tell
what to do. If Mia wanted
to be with our children, she wouldn’t have abandoned
like this..."
Liam felt his heart tighten at the sight of his friend’s anguish. Neil’s transformation over the past two months had been alarming. His once vibrant eyes were now sunken and hollow, his cheeks gaunt. His beard, left unshaved for months, had grown wild and unruly, and his hair, longer than it had ever been, hung in disheveled strands. He looked a decade older, his clothes hanging loosely on his lean fra as if he’d borrowed them from soone much larger. He’d spend all of his days in the hospital, not once stepping out to see the outside world or be the man he once used to be.
For the two months and three weeks his children had been in the incubator, Neil had not gone to see them, nor even acknowledged them as his. Every ti people brought them up, he changed the topic or left the place, as if the re ntion of them was taboo and a reminder of how he had failed his wife. Liam had made sure to always keep them out of his mouth whenever he was near Neil, but he couldn’t anymore—not when the kids would be out of the glass and would need their parents.
"Neil, you wouldn’t want to miss this mont for the world. Mia wouldn’t want you to miss this. Do this for her and be there for them. You—"
Neil cut him off by raising his hand for him to shut up. Jas placed a reassuring hand on Neil’s shoulder, but the gesture was t with a flinch. "Xavier, we’re just worried about you," he said gently. "We know this is hard, but you can’t do this to yourself. The twins need their father."
Neil’s gaze remained fixed on the horizon, his heart aching with every breath. "I don’t know how to be a father without her," he whispered, his voice barely audible over the rustling leaves.
Liam stepped closer, his own eyes glistening with unshed tears. "You don’t have to do it alone, Neil. We’re here for you. But those babies need their dad just as much as you need them. Mia would be happy to know that you went to see them. You rember what happened the last ti you told her you hadn’t seen your children, don’t you?"
Neil’s grip on the railing loosened slightly, the weight of his friends’ words beginning to pierce through the haze of his grief. He rembered what had happened. Last month, his wife had fallen into a vegetative state where she would randomly open her eyes or make slight movents with her hands. He’d been so happy that she was improving, only to be told by the doctors that all her gestures were subconscious and that she wasn’t aware of them.
The doctors had encouraged him to talk to her more, saying it might help her recover faster. But the day he brought himself to talk to her about their children, her condition had worsened drastically. He’d told her that he hadn’t gone to see them and that he would only do that once she woke up, but those words had been t with a response that knocked the soul out of him.
He had sat beside her that day, his fingers lightly gripping hers as he talked to her, the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor providing a semblance of comfort. Suddenly, the familiar sounds changed when he told her about their children; a strange, guttural noise had escaped her throat, and the heart monitor’s lines began to drop erratically before flattening entirely. Panic had surged through him, montarily paralyzing him. He didn’t know what to do, his mind racing with fear. Then, instinct took over. He’d jumped to his feet and scread for the doctors while pressing the ergency button, his voice echoing through the sterile hallways. Within monts, the room flooded with dical personnel, their urgent movents a blur as they surrounded his wife, initiating life-saving asures.
It had taken them hours to bring her back, and since then, the doctors had limited his ti with her, saying he might cause her more harm than good. Neil had been so angry that he’d sworn never to bring up the topic of their children as it wasn’t helping her recovery. He’d made sure he himself avoided hearing about them, but now he seed to realize sothing he’d overlooked before.
Mia had fallen into a worse state because he told her he hadn’t seen their twins. Could it be that she was unhappy about that? Perhaps he should see them and bring them to her. The doctors had advised him to talk to her about things that might interest her more and make her fight for life. He had been a terrible father and husband for the past few months. Liam was right; Mia wouldn’t like this, she would never approve of him ignoring their children like they were nothing to him when in truth, they ant the world to him.
The breeze continued to blow, carrying with it the scent of blossoming flowers and the bittersweet reminder of all he had missed and was about to lose if he didn’t do anything. He should stop this and go see them. Though he told himself that, he was exhausted. He was drained and burnt out completely. He closed his eyes, allowing himself a mont of vulnerability, the reality of his situation sinking in.
As the silence settled once more, Neil knew that he had a choice to make—a choice that would shape not only his life but that of his children as well. And though the path ahead seed unpredictable, he could feel the tentative stirrings of resolve within him, urging him to take the first step of being a father.
"When are they going to be out of the incubator?" He asked, his eyes still closed.
"They are already being taken out of it as we speak." Replied Liam.
"I want to see them."
With that, he straightened up, pushing past the weight of his exhaustion and grief. His children needed him, and Mia would want him to be there for them. It was ti to start being the father and husband they all needed.
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