Read A Sad Soul Can Kill You for Free Online

two pills. After he placed them on the living-room table, he took off his jacket and let it fall to the floor. Then he went into the living room, grabbed the blanket from the microfiber couch, and began folding it. After he was finished, he threw it on the back of the couch and the gust of air it created knocked the wedding picture of him and Tia off the end table.
    Lorenzo picked up the courthouse photo and studied Tia’s face framed by tiny locks of hair. They stood side by side, and he towered over her as she smiled into the camera. He remembered his parents attending the occasion, stoic witnesses, and then quickly leaving after the ceremony had ended.
    It had been a dismal affair with everyone returning to whatever they had been doing afterward, treating the whole thing as something on their to-do list that could now be crossed off.
    He gazed at his lean frame in the photograph, and then traveled up to the pathetic smile that was plastered on his face. That smile had made him look like a happy man, and he remembered praying to God that his union with Tia would somehow turn him into one.
    He sat down on the couch and thought about when he’d first met Tia thirteen years ago at a War concert. He’d sworn it had been love at first sight. She had been so beautiful and petite, and he’d loved how his six-foot frame towered over hers at five-foot four.
    They had maintained a long-distance relationship for a year, and then shortly after he had been introduced to Jesus, Tia had gotten pregnant. He could still recall her visiting him in Chicago, and how he had begun to share with her what he had learned about Jesus.
    â€œSee, we’re all broken,” he’d said. “And we all need fixing . . . and somebody to do the fixing.” That much he remembered saying to her. The rest he knew—whether he’d said it to her or not—was that something was missing, especially inside of him.
    â€œYou just have to trust God,” he’d said, and now she was going to church every Sunday without him.
    When he’d told her they needed to do the right thing, he’d meant it. But needing to do the right thing and wanting to were two different things in Lorenzo’s mind. Still, he’d asked her to marry him, and he remembered her saying, “If you want me here, then this is where I’ll be.”
    He continued looking at the photograph he still held in his hand. Their first year of marriage had almost been their last. He’d been controlling and insensitive, and had actually put his hands on Tia once. To make matters worse, she had been eight months pregnant at the time. Lorenzo didn’t know what had come over him. It was almost as if he had undergone a complete personality change once they’d gotten married.
    He’d slapped her—he remembered that much. But he was unclear about the reason why. He rubbed his forehead. The pills he’d taken earlier were starting to do their job. His mind was getting foggy, and he didn’t want to think about anything unpleasant. Still, he sat on the sofa, straining to remember what had happened.
    Tia had brought something home from the grocery store. What had it been? He closed his eyes and thought harder. Caffeine. That’s what it had been! She had bought a box of caffeinated tea bags—something he’d told her he didn’t want her drinking while she was pregnant. He opened his eyes. Had that really been the reason for his inexcusable behavior or had he put his hands on her due to his own inner frustrations?
    When he’d almost missed the birth of their daughter, that had been the last straw for Tia. “I can’t stay with you the way things are,” she’d said to him from her hospital bed.
    She was going to leave him. One life had begun while his was ending. He could not be alone again. He remembered getting on his knees in the hospital room, crying as he’d asked Tia to forgive him before