He Made Me Feel Lost, So I Became Someone He’d Never Find Chapter 08
I went straight home from the airport.
The moment I walked inside, Ifroze.
My mother had already looped a rope over a hook in the ceiling.
When she saw me, her eyes suddenly reddened and she burst into tears.
“Elena, remember this! Victor Whitaker drove me to this!”
Then she kicked the stool out from under herself.
“Mom!”
Grant lunged forward, got her down, and freed her from the rope.
My mother’s face was ghostly pale, her eyes empty.
“Elena, I regret everything. I’m so sorry.”
“Your father fooled me. He was always praising that bastard of a daughter while finding fault with everything you did. That’s why I…”
“Mom, stop. You don’t have to explain anymore. It’s over.’
“I don’t blame you anymore.”
I wrapped my arms around her as she cried and held her hand tightly.
“Mom, you’re not the one who did wrong. Please stop punishing yourself. Don’t throw your life away because of them.”
“All right.”
She nodded firmly and stopped crying.
“I’m divorcing your father.”
“And I want that house back from that little bitch too. It’s marital property!”
The weight that had been sitting on my chest finally eased.
“As long as you’re okay, that’s all I care about. I’ll find you an attorney.”
When Tessa found out I was back, she tried everything she could to see me.
She even called my mother, but I refused immediately.
“No.”
Then she sent me a handwritten apology letter.
Most of it explained that she had always been extremely ambitious and had been looking for any opportunity to move up in her career.
That was when Camille had come along
Camille claimed she had connections with someone high up at Tessa’s company and could help her get promoted.
Tessa spent more than six months’ salary on an expensive gift for Camille, only to wait and wait without ever getting the promotion she had been promised.
Eventually, she realized Camille had played her.
At first, I couldn’t understand how the best friend I had grown up with could betray me so viciously for someone who had been a stranger to her.
Now I understood a little better.
Sometimes, you finally see someone for who they really are. Everyone else knows the truth too, yet they still take that person’s side.
When that happens, there is no point wondering why your innocence means so little to them.
Sometimes, what that person can offer them simply matters more.
When everyone around you has something to gain from the same arrangement, whether you were right or wrong stops mattering nearly as much.
At the end of the letter, Tessa asked:
[Elena, can we ever go back to the way we used to be, when we fold each other everything?]
I knew we couldn’t.
The next day, I was about to head out when I opened my car door and was hit by the scent of flowers.
The entire interior was filled with fresh blooms, glowing softly beneath the ambient lighting.
Grant appeared behind me and dropped to one knee.
He opened a velvet box, revealing a diamond ring sparkling inside.
“Elena, I owe you a real proposal. And I owe you a ring.”
“This proposal isn’t anything grand, because I finally understand that a relationship is between two people.
No matter how many people are there to witness it, what really matters is whether the two people themselves are truly connected.”
“Elena Whitaker, will you marry me?”
Hope filled his eyes.
“No.”
Grant visibly froze.
“Get all this garbage out of my car. Right now. I need to leave.”
“I have things to do. I don’t have time for this.”
Grant looked embarrassed, but he immediately got to his feet and started clearing everything away.
“If you don’t like it, forget it. I’ll plan something different next time.”
“I won’t disappoint you again.”
I said nothing.
He could try a thousand times, ten thousand times, and I still wouldn’t go back.
Someone who truly loved me wouldn’t keep making me cry.
The flowers were quickly removed.
I got into the car and held out my hand to Grant.
“My spare key. Give it back.”
Then I drove to a pet supply store and bought a pile of treats and toys.
I was going to visit my four-legged lifesaver.
If it hadn’t found me that night, I probably would have passed out from fear right there in the maze.
