He Wanted My Bestie Reborn Me Said YES—So Why Regret Chapter 09
Ethan went pale.
“Meredith, I made mistakes. I know that. But I’ve really changed. After you disappeared, I never
stopped looking.”
I countered, “If Jessica had vanished, wouldn’t you have looked for her too?”
He choked on his reply.
I answered for him. “Whoever it was, you’d have searched. You’d have loved. That’s who you are,
Ethan.”
In the last life, it was Jessica. This time, me.
It was just stubbornness that kept you tethered.
How much love? Who can say?
He wanted to argue, but something seemed to twist inside him.
Then his shoulders sagged, and his eyes filled with pain and regret.
“Meredith… I’m sorry.”
I sighed. “Go home, Ethan.”
“But you kept the pearl necklace I gave you,” he said stubbornly.
I thought for a moment. “That thing. It broke while was cleaning out junk. I threw it away.”
He trembled.
I said, “Show him out, Donovan.”
Donovan Shaw, the fisherman’s nephew who’d pulled me ashore, took him by the arm.
Sometimes he couldn’t get a word out; sometimes he understood me instantly.
But Ethan pulled free again, his voice cracking. “Meredith, give me one more chance. I’ll do
anything-”
I was watching the fireworks about to ignite in the distance over the bay.
When Donovan finished tidying my stall and came to stand beside me, Ethan’s voice rose.
“Meredith and I have known each other for years. What makes you think you can come between
us?”
I smiled. “If time measured true feelings, you wouldn’t have fallen for Jessica.”
He stood there, dazed.
Donovan and I walked toward the fireworks display
With a series of booms, brilliant colors bloomed over Keyhaven.
Donovan raised his hand to shield my head.
I looked up. He mumbled, “Afraid sparks might land on you.”
I laughed out loud, watching his face glow red in the firelight.
After that, Ethan seemed to settle nearby.
Every day I set up my stall at the boardwalk market he’d follow. An extra pair of hands didn’t
bother me.
But he wasn’t good at crafts.
Just like I’d never fit into his and Jessica’s world.
Now he was the one who didn’t belong.
Donovan and I cleared our booth with practiced ease. When I looked back, Ethan stood there
helpless.
I smiled. “See, Ethan? I’m not as clumsy as you all thought.”
Pain flickered in his eyes. He barely whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Half a month later, Jessica showed up.
It was a rainy day, on and off.
Few customers. I was about to pack up during the summer rain shower when a pale hand stopped
Jessica.
Thinner. More haggard.
The moment she saw me, her eyes reddened.
“Meredith… thank God you’re okay. Otherwise-”
Her words drowned in tears and rain.
I let her sit under the awning. After a while, she said “You shouldn’t have saved me. You should have let me die out there.”
“That wouldn’t have made me feel better.”
She covered her mouth and sobbed. “Can you forgive me? I swear I’ll never make that mistake
again.”
I didn’t understand why she and Ethan both begged for my forgiveness.
To ease their guilt? To pretend the past could be erased?
I said nothing. When I turned, Ethan stood at the booth entrance.
No umbrella, soaked through, hair plastered to his face.
He hadn’t made a sound-just stood there, pitiful and miserable.
I let out a long breath and spoke to both of them.
“That’s not possible. This time, I’m choosing my own life.”
I gave them one last look, then walked away under my umbrella.
No one followed.
Donovan was waiting a short way off. I stepped under his large golf umbrella.
All the things said and unsaid were washed clean by the rain.
And when the rain stopped, the sun came out again
