The Dragon Prince's Bride
Chapter 238. Is it hard?

Chapter 238: 238. Is it hard?

Only the goddess knows how much she had missed him. Only she could understand the intensity of her desperate yearning for her husband. For the past months, she had thought him to be dead, for the past months, she’d led a life that felt like the worst kind of hell a person could face.

For those months, only the goddess could explain how she had survived and carried on this long. And just when she could no longer hold on, when she could no longer take the yearning, somehow the man she thought she would never get to see again, the man she so desired had appeared in front of her and although he hadn’t believed a word she said to him at first, he was telling her now that he believed her.

That even though he was right to suspect and doubt her, he was going to trust her and was even asking her for forgiveness for ever doubting her.

How could he be the one apologizing when he was the one who almost lost his life? In fact he had lost it, because she had believed so. So how could he apologize when she was the one at fault?

He sought her forgiveness and she did the same. She asked that he forgave her for bringing this entire problem upon them. She asked that Hee forgave her for all the lies she had told, for ever harboring a lover outside of their marriage. Because even though she didn’t go all the way with Lyle, the fact remained she was in an adulterous relationship with him, which was not only an insult to her husband but a disgrace too.

She begged that he forgave her for not telling him earlier about their child and for putting its life in danger.

In the early hours of the evening of that day, sitting in a small room, inside a rundown cottage, in an accursed forest where the souls of the damned cried endlessly, Barak and Neriah finally let go of all the lies that surrounded their marriage, both deciding to forgive the wrongs that each had done to the other because neither of them could deny that the love they felt for each other had surpassed the hate they must have harbored at one point.

Now, quietly Neriah lay on the bed with her stomach facing up and her hand firmly locked in with Barak who is seated on the hard floor by the bed side. Sometimes he’d stare at the big bump that has caused so many changes in the body of his wife and other times he’d just lazily stare into her eyes.

"Is it hard?" Barak asks. "Has it been hard?" He asks while staring at her stomach.

"Some nights I cannot sleep." She confesses.

"And?"

"And it’s so heavy, my legs hurt all the time. My waist is always hurting." Explaining to him suddenly makes her remember the many nights she wanted someone to complain to.

No, what she really wanted was him. She wanted to complain to him about all the parts of her body that were aching, and now that he is right next to her, tears well up in her eyes as she remembers those times she wanted to vent at him for getting her pregnant and then leaving her all alone.

"You must have suffered a lot alone." His hand reaches for the side of her face and his thumb caresses her cheek.

"You do not know how much it hurts. I can’t turn anyhow I want. I cannot move anyhow I want. When it got too hard sometimes I just sat in front of your portrait."

"You must have cursed at me a lot." He lets out a soft chuckle.

Neriah nods and he laughs only to restrain the laugh as the pain in his body reminds him of his current state of health. "Sometimes I cursed at you, most times I just prayed and begged that you returned to me. I’d sit there in front of your portrait crying for hours because I missed you so much and because my body was in so much pain and— and— I just wanted you back."

Watching her complain and cry in front of him now once again reminded him of how much of a baby she could be. And thinking of how she must have suffered carrying this heavy load in front of her all this while despite her petite stature made his heart ache.

For the longest time, he doubted her. But right now, he wanted to leave all doubts behind him. He wanted to believe every word she spoke, even the most silent words. Even the words that sounded like lies, he wanted to believe them all.

"I should have been there." Barak says and places a kiss on her hand that he’s been holding.

"But you’re here now." Her hand in his own tightens its grip as she stares into his eyes. "Don’t leave me again." She says those words in the most sincere manner he’d ever seen and heard her say a single thing.

He lifts his hand to touch her face and the pain by his side engulfs him, causing him to pause his action for a moment, trying to fight the pain, taking in deep breaths and when the pain subsides a little, his hand touches her cheek, "I won’t." He says with a tired smile.

Neriah wanted to ask him too. How has it been? Has it been hard? Have you been in pain? But then even without asking, she could tell, she could see that indeed, Barak must have suffered over the months she just sat at home crying like a fool.

"Barak..." She calls him and he hums a response. Slowly, she lifts herself to a sitting position then in an even slower motion, she climbs down the bed and goes down on both her knees before him, taking both his hands in her own.

She looks into his eyes and asks, "Won’t you kiss me?"

A plea...

One that he couldn’t for the life of him refuse, so despite the pain he feels in his body, he pulls her close to him and a sincere smile crawls up his lips as he asks, "How can I refuse?"