Unable to conceive the truth of that sentence, he stood there frozen. Time stopped. The air felt heavy. The phone fell from his hands and in a second, memories played a slideshow. The truth felt unbearable to him. He felt his body turn pale. He felt the pain rushing through his body. She was no more. She wasn’t there. That woman who showed him life, she wasn’t there anymore. The whole world seemed empty before him. Depopulated. At heart he knew, every single day, that a world without her was impossible. But never, not even when she expected him to invite her into his life, he could do it. His fears- fears that she never understood, pulled him back. He couldn’t lose his soul again! He feared his past. Those blood-stained memories of murder haunted him. It guided him often. To defile her soul with the burden of his worthless life was to him the gravest crime. But that woman, he knew, would have healed his wounded soul and yet he could never gather the will to do it. And today, time laughs hard at him; at his silly fears. He felt the darkness around grow thicker. He smiled at the folly he made; and regret filled the voids of his thoughts. But this time, he decided not to let his woman down. He remembered her vow; and then slowly walked to the kitchen. Yesterday a new kitchen knife had found its place in the rack. A meaningful gift. The last one.