Chapter 4
“My mother has passed away, and I’ve repaid your kindness. Let’s call it an end, Isaac.”
Isaac’s temples twitched after he read through these words. Then, he rolled the note into a ball and tossed it into a bin.
Unconvinced, he snorted. “She’s up to these silly ideas to trick me again. Emily Steiner, you sure have some guts!
“I was trying to deal with the situation, tired from speaking to Megan on your behalf. She’s not going to charge you for homicide, but you have no gratitude at all and even said that you’ve repaid me.
“Are you trying to scare me?”
He thought I was threatening to break up with him in the same manner after a jealous fit in the past. When that happened, I’d hide in a corner of the house, observing his reaction secretly.
Hence, he marched upstairs, yelling my name, “Emily Steiner, cut it out! I’m not mad at you anymore. I’m hungry. Get down here and make me some food. I’ll forgive you once I’m full.”
However, the only reply he received was his echo in the empty house. His anxiety intensified, and he recalled the disappointed and vengeful look in my eyes before.
He couldn’t remain composed any longer and pushed the bedroom door open.
The next second, he felt the words stuck in his throat. The cozy bedroom, which I decorated, was now empty and cold.
Everything that was mine–clothes, shoes, and the couple stuff–was gone. I had left nothing behind.
Only the wedding ring lay silently on the bedside table.
Isaac’s body turned colder with every passing second as the great panic of losing me washed over him, and even his voice was shaking.
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Chapter 4
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“This is impossible. How could she bear to leave me? Miranda promised me Emily’s hand in marriage…”
Alas, he recalled Miranda Rowland, my mother, and his panic was replaced by relief.
“That’s right. Emily is just throwing a tantrum. She always listens to Miranda’s advice, and Miranda is so fond of me. As long as Miranda speaks up for me, Emily will make up with me. I’m sure we’ll get married.”
Gripping onto hope, he returned to the living room downstairs and called Mom’s number, but the number was invalid.
Again and again, he checked that he had dialed the correct number and recalled my abnormal attitude these past few days until he remembered me shrieking hysterically, along with the indifference he assumed at the so–called prop.
The scene kept replaying in his mind.
“Isaac, those are my mother’s ashes!”
नया
His phone fell to the floor with a thud, and he stumbled backward in fear and disbelief.
He saw the other note on the table and was in a daze for a long while before picking it
with trembling hands.
up
When he saw the death certificate, he couldn’t help but shiver and quickly checked the deceased’s name. Upon seeing my mother’s name, he felt as though he was struck by an asteroid.
Panic–stricken, he muttered in a trembling voice unwittingly, “This is impossible. Miranda can’t be dead. Emily made up that story. No, this can’t be real…
“Miranda’s death is a huge matter. If it was real, she would have told me about it. But now I didn’t even know when was the funeral
He stopped mid–sentence again. Suddenly, he remembered the text I sent him a few days ago asking him to attend a funeral.
Whose funeral was it? It was Mom’s funeral!
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His knees gave way, and he toppled to the floor.
While he was struggling to breathe, he wondered what he had been doing at that time. How could he have ignored such an important text?
Anxiously, he searched his memory and recalled it all of a sudden. At that time, he had just bought breakfast for Megan, and they had enjoyed it together in an amorous atmosphere.
Although he had seen the text, his reply was simply, “Okay.”
He had replied perfunctorily.
He widened his eyes. How could he have done that? He was chatting idly with Megan the whole time and didn’t remember the funeral at all.
Then, another detail came into his mind–Megan was clinging to him, hugging him brazenly in the hospital ward. “Isaac, my chest hurts. Massage it for me, please…”
Isaac slapped himself. For some unknown reason, he hadn’t been interested in matters related to Emily that day.
While he was heading out to take a smoke, he had thought in frustration, “Emily was so stubborn. Why didn’t she say something nice and take the initiative to make up?”
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