The Red Light I Couldn’t See, The Love That Was Never There Chapter 07
The week after Sophie left was not an easy one for Ethan.
On the first day, he even felt relieved.
The delivery boxes Sophie used to leave everywhere were gone from the living room, and he no longer had to
clear her half–finished drinks off the coffee table.
The whole apartment was tidier than before.
He spent the afternoon working in his office.
After her fever broke, Lily went back to her own place, making a point of stocking his refrigerator before she
left.
“I was afraid you’d starve.”
She said it with a smile.
Ethan scrolled through his phone and gave a distracted hum.
By the second day, the apartment had begun to feel too quiet.
Usually, Sophie would have been home from work by then.
She would either be puttering around in the kitchen, making something inedible, or curled up on the couch
watching a reality show and laughing like a maniac.
He used to think the noise was annoying. Now the silence suddenly felt unfamiliar.
He picked up his phone and scrolled through our messages.
The last message was one Sophie had sent.
“Are you coming home for dinner?”
Above that was the argument about how he’d left her waiting at the hospital.
Even earlier were dozens of random updates she’d sent him about her day.
The stray cat outside her office, the new mug she’d bought, and a little girl in an old–fashioned dress she’d
passed on the street…
Back then, he usually replied with “Yeah,” “Oh,” or “Got it.”
Now, looking at those messages, he suddenly felt an emptiness he couldn’t explain.
On the third day, he opened Sophie’s profile and typed a few words into the message box.
“When are you coming back for the rest of your things?”
The cursor blinked for several seconds. Then he deleted the message one word at a time.
By the fifth day, he couldn’t sit still any longer.
He put on his coat and took a rideshare to Sophie’s office.
He’d picked her up after work there many times before, and the young receptionist knew him well.
Every time she saw him, she’d smile and call, “Mr. Cole, back again?”
This time, her expression turned awkward when she saw him.
“Hi. I’m looking for Sophie Hart.”
“Sophie Hart?”
The receptionist blinked.
“She quit. She finished the paperwork last week.”
Ethan stood motionless.
“She quit? Where did she go?”
“Well… we don’t know either.”
“She didn’t say where she was going. She just finished the paperwork and left.”
Ethan thanked her and walked out of the building.
He stood on the steps, pulled out his phone, and dialed Sophie.
“The number you’re calling is busy.”
He hung up and tried again.
“The number you’re calling is busy.”
He tried once more.
“The phone you’re calling is turned off.”
He paused, then opened his messaging app instead.
As soon as he sent the message, a red exclamation point appeared.
“You can’t send messages to this account.”
He’d been blocked.
Standing outside the busy office building, Ethan suddenly remembered what Sophie had said the day they
broke up.
“I’m serious.”
“We should break up.”
He hadn’t believed her then.
Now he was starting to panic.
