Leonard walked into his house and saw Beatris and Sara sitting on the sofa having a conversation.

He would have walked past them if but he noticed Beatris' red and swollen cheek not to even mention her black eye.

*This certainly has Norman written all over it.* He thought with a sigh.

"Hey, Beatris." Showing some concern seemed inevitable as he forced the smile on his face. "Honey."

Sara looked up at him angrily.

Leonard felt so guilty. All of this was his fault. If only he was man enough to tell Sara that there was only one woman he'd ever love. If only Norman didn't have to cover up for his cowardice. But this had gone too far. Too far!

However, Elaine was not ready for a relationship. She wasn't even sure about her feelings towards him and as much as it hurt him a lot, he knew he couldn't ruin what he had with Sara because he'd only end up with nothing.

*I'm a selfish bastard!*

"How're you feeling?" He turned to face Beatris who had hardly acknowledged his presence.

"Not good obviously," Sara spoke up for her. She seemed pissed with everything that was going on.

Beatris looked from Sara to Leonard. "Actually, I'm fine. I should be used to this already." She forcefully smiled, placing a hand on her cheek.

"You mean this is not the first time he hit you?" Sara yelled as she got up from the chair even through the difficulty. "I can't take this... I can't." Tears had blurred her vision as she watched Leonard critically till the guilt could actually be read off his face.

"Sa-" He'd hardly completed his statement before she walked away angrily.

"I'd be right back." Leonard said with an exasperated sigh, before hurrying after his wife to their bedroom.

He gazed around the neat white painted room with the purple cloth covering the windows and letting very little sunlight penetrate it. Sara sat on the large bed sobbing quietly.

"Sara, you don't have to be so dramatic. If you're acting like this, how do you expect Beatris to feel?" He complained.

She got up as soon as she'd heard his voice. "I'm not being dramatic." She sniffed. "He's hurting her, Leo. I can't stand it! The worst thing is, that man is your friend! I can only imagine how hurt Beatris is right now." She let out another round of sobs.

Leonard walked forward and touched her cheek. "I promise you, I'll talk to him. Okay?"

She nodded as he wiped her cheek dry and embraced her from a possible distance due to her protruded belly.

He walked out to meet a rather uncomfortable Beatris who was pacing about with a worried look on her face.

"Is she okay?" She asked.

Leonard was amazed at Beatris strength. If she wasn't this resilient, she wouldn't have lasted a minute with Norman. But his friend did know how to reach everyone's limit. "She gets very emotional these days," he said with a smile to lighten the tension that was building up between them.

He walked back to his initial seat and sat there staring at Beatris who played with her short black curls.

"I'm sure Norman didn't mean to do any of this." He was hurting a lot because of the catastrophe he was causing in Norman's family.

Beatris looked up at him, disgust almost evident in her eyes. "I know he's your friend but I can't... I can't let him hurt me again."

"I'm sorry. I-I'm not trying to upset you," he said apologetically seeing how angry she already was.

Beatris sighed before nodding. "It's fine."

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"Norman Patterson I'm so tired of you! How could you do that to a woman you claim to love?" Leonard attacked Norman as he barged into his bedroom unannounced.

Norman got up immediately and stared at him for a while before getting over the shock.

"What do you want?" He asked irritated.

"Your wife is in my house. Your wife is at my house! Do you have any idea how uncomfortable that makes me feel?" Leonard asked angrily.

Norman chuckled. "What's your point?" He got serious again. It was obvious Norman wasn't ready to have a conversation.

"What is wrong with you? Don't you love her? How could you hurt her like that?" He asked.

"I don't love her," his friend replied casually.

"Then why the fuck are you married to her?" Leonard asked, enraged. What the hell was wrong with this man?

Norman folded his arms and walked forward till he was only a few inches from the angry man. "I don't remember walking into your house and telling you what to do or how to feel." He took out his finger and poked his chest. "You're a screwed up person, Leonard. You can't fix me!"

Leonard scoffed as he took few steps back to avoid the venomous man. "What you're doing is wrong!"

"You don't get to tell me what to do. Get out of my house!" Norman said staring blankly at his friend.

"Are you asking me out of your house?"

"Did I stutter when I said it?" Leonard couldn't understand his friend's reaction. Norman had never treated him like this before. He was calm and was definitely not acting on impulse.

Leonard shook his head. "I do not understand why you're hell-bent on pushing anyone that cares about you away. But If you keep acting like this, everyone is going to leave you and you'd die sad and lonely," He cursed.

He laughed and Leonard watched him puzzled by his unexpected reaction. "Get the fuck out of my house, Leonard. I don't care what you think."

He wanted to reply but as he'd opened his mouth, no words seemed to come into his head. "Don't say I didn't warn you." He said angrily before walking out of Norman's bedroom.

"You don't really care about me. No one does. And... I don't care. I am happy. Norman is happy. He doesn't need any-fucking-body," Norman rummaged the words before collapsing into his bed and shutting his eyes tight. But at the thought of having to live through his nightmares, his eyelids flickered open. "Norman is not happy," he whispered his confession to no one. He wouldn't ever know what it felt like to be happy.

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Leonard walked into his house and Sara had welcomed him with an embrace. Her eyes asked him a lot of questions and he was bothered.

"How's my baby doing?" He asked as he placed a kiss on her protruded belly.

"Good. Did you talk to Norman?" She asked.

"I did and he asked me to get out of his house. Sara, I don't know...I don't think there's anything we can do to save that marriage." He'd already given up.

Before Sara could say any other thing, he'd pecked her on her cheek and walked away. Norman's reckless behavior was not new, it was only much worse. He believed that somehow, his best friend had managed to spiral out of control.

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Norman walked into his sitting room. His eyes were red, his hair overgrown and all over the place. Even his beard was not shaved. He looked rather unkempt.

However, he didn't seem to be the only dirty thing around. His house was literally a mess.

The chairs were placed at odd angles, one had been damaged with a saw. The glass table overturned and broken, packets of junk were scattered all over the floor, leftover biscuits and chocolates littered the whole place and produced an unbearable stench.

He walked to a chair and sat there before opening another packet of chocolate and eating it up, leaving stains all over his mouth.

Two weeks had passed. Two weeks of sitting in solitude and waiting for his wife or Leonard or anybody to walk in through that door. Two weeks of waiting in pain and in vain.

No one cared about him. No one loved him even with all that he'd given and sacrificed for them.

If you keep acting like this, everyone is going to leave you and you'd die sad and lonely.

Leonard's words echoed in his ears and he knew that his best friend was right. He was indeed going to die sad and lonely.

He couldn't let that happen. He couldn't let his brother win after all he'd been through.

Get out of my room, you little bastard!

You disgust me. Don't talk to me!

You're worthless! You're worthless!

"No!" Norman yelled out as he put his hand on his ears to prevent Mac's hurtful words continuously reverberating through his ears. Tears streamed down his cheek as he slowly slipped to the ground. "I'm worthless." His voice came out as a barely audible whisper.

The petrified man crawled like a mouse towards the first aid box. He had to end all of this. He couldn't take the pain anymore. The heartbreak. The loneliness. The cold seeping through his veins.

He took out all the pills he could find. They were a great number and a sick smile crept to his face. This could stop his pain. This would make him feel better and maybe hurt less.

He hurried back and sat down with a glass full of water in one hand, the different pills that decorated his other hand, and an unwavering smile.

*Norman, don't do this.*

*But I have to stop the pain. I can't live with it, I can't...*

He felt hot tears trickling down his cheek as he threw the pills in and felt them slipping down his throat with a gulp of water. There was no turning back now.

For about five minutes, he didn't feel anything, and then suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his lower abdomen. It was so severe that he'd fallen to the ground twisting and turning nervously, convulsing.

He suffered so much and as he whimpered fruitless pleas for help, he got faint and fainter. Soon enough, the pain started fading away. Little by little, it dissipated till the seemingly ceaseless torture was a bygone.

*Smile, Norman. It's over.*

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