Engaged

Minerva’s POV

She was engaged to Damon, my soon to be father-in-law.

I glanced at Cyrene, who was under the flowerless tree. In her arms was my child, Hemera Lou.

It has been three months since I've been admitted to the hospital and I just managed to be discharged an hour ago.

The sky is gray, as gray as the stone that rests atop the bed where Derrick eternally rests.

I don’t care if it’s drizzling. I don’t care if I get wet as long as Cyrene and Hemera don't. I don’t give a damn if it will rain because, in my eyes, the world has long since been raining. Even with Darwin’s sunshine smile and moonbeam eyes, you can never keep rain from coming in my life. That no matter how bright the world is, one can never stop a rain from pouring. For after every rain, there is sunshine. And in every bright sunny day comes a cold and chilling rainy afternoon.

People keep saying that I should move on. Yes, I have moved on. I definitely have already let him go. But in the heart of a person who has experienced loss while being bombarded by the trials of life…it’s not easy. One can always heal a wound but you can never hide the scars.

It will rest there forever. You can cover it as long as you like but you can never erase it. It serves as a reminder, a warning, a gift. For you can never learn from your mistake if you didn’t make a mistake in the first place.

Just like Derrick, he had been my very first best friend, my first partner-in-crime. My first love.

Yet, just like every story, a beginning will always come to an end. That for every first, there will always be the last—either the last one or for the last time.

Present could never occur without the existence of the past…like Darwin and Derrick. Men who are rooted from one tree but are different in their own ways. Different men for other people’s eyes but they have loved the same woman in different times.

But I have loved them at the same time, now. Here in my heart lies two different men but of the same bloodline.

He was the past, and my Darwin had been the present and future. Derrick had started it, and it was him, my Darwin, who shall finish it—continued it. I feel thankful for any divine forces above that I was able to be part of the lives of these men. That I have met Darwin through Derrick. That even in dire times, Derrick secured my life by giving me as the collateral to his wealthy brother.

And so the woman who was paid to the billionaire wiped away her tears with the handkerchief that her first love gave to her as his last gift.

I am gravely sorry for Derrick. I am sorry that I wasn't there during his last breath—the last moment of his life. That I did not even manage to say my last goodbye, give my last kiss, and cry my last tears for him.

I may be able to wipe the rain in my eyes for now. But I can never cease my eyes from weeping again. It is the natural law.

“Why oh why, Derrick? Why did you sell yourself to Jocelyn?!” I ducked in the grass and just let the windows of my soul freely let all the waters out. Sunlight shone on my face as if to comfort me.

A shadow of a person stood at my side. My daughter is in her arms.

“Hush now, Minnie…” she spoke as she put Hemera in the stroller.

“Desperate times always call for desperate measures,” Cyrene remarked.

***

Cyrene’s POV

I told her what Jocelyn confessed to me during that ‘unprecedented live confession’ of hers in social media while I attempted to live stream a book review of mine in a particular novel.

It ended up disastrous on that very day. Really disastrous—two accidents occurred in a single day and I was having a hard time pondering if it’s purely coincidental or just unfeigned karma to Jocelyn Angeles, the former Mrs. Gray.

This place is quiet, obviously. This is a goddamn cemetery, of course. Me and Minerva’s voice are the only thing that echoed aside from the deafening silence.

“Derrick borrowing money from Darwin is not enough,” I continued, inhaling through my nose. “He even borrowed some money from loan sharks and it was also Jocelyn who ended up paying them as well.”

“But he didn’t manage to pay his brother first…”

“I guess so. Or maybe Derrick has something in mind,” I glanced at my side and she is still sitting on the grass. The sun is now shining, smiling at us. I guess it’s a sign that we should not drown our frowning when the weather—nature—itself is already telling us to cheer up.

“She must’ve loved him very much. Derrick...”

I cannot answer that because: 1) I don’t have the authority to answer. 2) I am not Jocelyn Angeles.

“I guess you should ask that to—“

“No. Never mind. Her actions speak for themselves.” I nodded. Minerva is a pretty keen observer after all.

“It’s a good thing though,” said Minerva. “That there is also another person who cares, who loves Derrick aside from me.”

I put Hemera on her arms as I stroked her cheeks. “The two of you are different. Jocelyn is obsessed with him and only wants him for herself. She’s a selfish woman who only wants to satisfy her greediness. Whereas you…” I brought a strand of her hair to her ear. “You are the woman that every man hoped to have. Derrick is lucky to have you. Darwin is pretty much luckier to have you. You and your daughter Hemera…”

Tears flooded her eyes and I couldn't manage to stop myself as well. I hugged her tightly. “Let him go, Minerva,” I whispered in her ears as I gave Derrick’s grave a glance. “Let him go and let a new man enter your life. Welcome him as much as you welcome Derrick. Love him as much as you love your first love.”

“Thank you, Cyrene. Congratulations as well,” she purred.

On that day, Minerva was finally able to walk away from his grave while letting go of any burden that he had caused. For he had always been carved in her heart, etched in her soul, and remembered in her mind.

“I remember you, Derrick.” I whispered my words to his grave one last time before trailing after Minerva and the crying baby Hemera, letting the wind carry my words to wherever paradise Derrick is now on.