The Twin's Last Martian Wish

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rapped my arms around myself, trying to stop the shivers that had nothing to do with the temperature. Inside, I could hear their muffled la

austion was bone-deep, a constant companion for five

voice sta

lcony. He looked surprisingly out of place in his perfectly tailored suit, a half-empty glass

cker of something unreadable in hi

small smile. "Just

e city. "The air's cleaner inside, and probably

a silent witness to my quiet suffering, to Gisele's publi

d, though my teeth ha

I never understood why you put up with it. The public

remarkable woman, Ada. Talented, intelligent.

ton, a lovesick fool clinging to a billionaire who barely acknowledged my existence. He remembered the public frenzy w

, a familiar answer that satisf

an anyone I know. You even picked up morning-after pills for

sterile aisles, my heart a hollow drum, my hands trembling as I handed the pharmacis

d, his voice softer now. "You deserve better. You al

an ache that never truly disappeared.

I told Jovan, the words

inally going to throw a tantrum. After five years of saintly pa

really did. Everyone saw how much you loved him. How you put up wi

strange lightness in my voice. The misu

er Julian. Everyone thought you were a little mad with grief, maybe trying to hold onto a par

ew yourself at him after Julian's death? People said you were despera

e, every whispered judgment. They ha

he distant city lights. "Every insult, every humiliatio

"Why, Ada? What

was Julian." I reached into the pocket of my dress, my fingers closing around the

es wide with disbelief. "M

dening me. "It's highly classified. Only direct family members of astronauts can

rs of the locket. "He was a candidate. And I wasn't his wife. We

Julian, brilliant, kind, full of dreams, gone in a flash,

for the memorial flight," I said, my voice thi

ently. His usual cynicism was g

other. A direct family member. If I married him, I'd become his spous

. for Julian?" His voi

to spite his family, I think. To show them he could do whatever he wanted. He did

ed him?" Jovan asked, a strange m

. The devoted, heartbroken woman who clung to the memory of her lost love by marrying his ide

ed, shaking his head. "You end

ly. "It was his dream. Our dre

I said, my voice trembling with a triumph that was purely my own. "Today, five years are

shed tears, but also with an unyielding

bare of all pretense, hung heavy between us. The man he thought he knew, the quiet,