Returning the Ten Years I Stole Chapter 07
Gwyneth’s eyes were bright, crinkling at the corners. She’d never smiled like this at Graham before. Or rather, she had smiled at him this way, but he had never paid any attention to her before.
Leanna came out of the kitchen and saw him staring at his phone. She leaned over to take a look.
“Oh, the post on Gwyn’s Instagram? She looks really good in that coat, doesn’t she?”
Graham locked his screen and put it on the table. “Yeah.”
Leanna just looked at him without saying a thing.
That night, he sat alone in the living room after Leanna had gone to bed. He turned on his phone, found Gwyneth’s Instagram profile, and began scrolling.
They were all photos of her in Lanton, whether at the library, the cafe, the Tames River, the Big Benny… And she was smiling very happily in every single one.
Occasionally, there would be the silhouette of another man, tall and lanky beside her, and Graham figured that the person had to
be Dean.
He set his phone down and closed his eyes.
He didn’t know why, but he’d been dreaming a lot lately. His dreams were also a mess. Gwyneth was in it, Leanna was in it, and there was also a strange room that he hadn’t seen before.
He tried grabbing onto it, but he just couldn’t.
Everything went well during Leanna’s follow-up at the hospital. The doctor said that she was recovering very nicely, and she only had to come back for scans every six months.
Leanna was as happy as a five-year-old. She grabbed Graham’s arm and exclaimed, “I wanna have barbecue for dinner tonight! Let’s celebrate!”
Graham smiled and agreed. “Alright. We’ll eat anything you want.”
Leanna ate her fill that night, and she couldn’t stop smiling happily throughout the meal. Graham looked at her, feeling a strange sense of unease.
But he also didn’t know why.
He had another dream that night. It was very clear and vivid this time, as though things had really happened that way.
He dreamed that he was at a bar, drowning his sorrows in alcohol. He was very drunk, and his vision was blurry.
Someone helped him stand, and she had a very nice scent on her. So, he wrapped his arms around her.
The scene then switched, and he was now lying in bed with that woman. He couldn’t see her face. All he knew was that he was the one who initiated things with her.
Then, he saw that the door had been left slightly ajar, and there was someone else standing outside it.
It was Leanna.
She was covering her mouth in shock, tears streaming down her face. She stared at them for a long time before turning to leave.
Graham wanted to scream, but he couldn’t make a sound. He wanted to go after her, but he couldn’t move a finger. He could only watch helplessly as Leanna disappeared down the hallway.
The scene changed again. This time, he was standing before Leanna’s grave, soaked to the bone. It was pouring, and he knelt before her grave, crying and wailing like a baby.
Then, he went home and trashed everything in the house.
He saw Gwyneth standing at the room door, her face pale and her lips trembling in fright.
“Gram…” she called softly.
However, he shoved her aside, rushed into her room, and began ransacking her drawers and wardrobe. Finally, he found a diary she’d hidden away. He opened it up and read every page, one by one.
“Gram cooked for me today. It’s so yummy! He’s the best brother in the world!
“Leanna is perfect for him. They’re made for each other. I should give them my blessings.
“Gram got drunk today. He hugged me and called out Leanna’s name. I know that he’s only ever thought of me as his younger
sister.
“If only that incident had never happened. Gram wouldn’t be upset, and Leanna would never have left.
“I hate myself so much.”
Graham threw the diary at Gwyneth’s feet.
“Gwyneth Rowland! You did this on purpose, didn’t you? You put it there so she could find it, didn’t you!”
She shook her head as tears streamed down her face. “I didn’t… I really didn’t…”
“Your love disgusts me, Gwyneth Rowland.”
Then, he saw her lying alone in a rented apartment. She was burning with a high fever and coughing her lungs out, but she didn’t have a single person by her side.
Her phone lit up with a call from him, but she never answered it.
And she never would again.
“Gwyn-”
Graham suddenly opened his eyes and sat up, covered in cold sweat.
It was still dark out, and Leanna was lying next to him in deep sleep, her breathing regular.
He gasped loudly and greedily, feeling his heart thumping wildly in his chest.
His dream was just too vivid. It felt as though they had all actually happened in real life.
He closed his eyes again, and the memories flooded his mind once more.
It wasn’t a dream.
He recalled everything.
He finally recalled everything that had happened.
He was drunk and out of his mind that night because someone had drugged him. Then, he’d gone home and raped Gwyneth. Meanwhile, Leanna stood outside the door and witnessed everything that happened.
That was the only reason why she’d left him so decisively. That was why she said that she didn’t love him anymore and that they weren’t getting back together.
