Reunion Is Difficult Chapter 08
“You…”
Amanda trailed off, looking as though my supposed heartlessness had shattered her.
I reached back and took Anya’s hand. My voice was calm as I said, “Amanda, it’s over between us. How I live my life and who I choose to spend it with has nothing to do with you anymore.”
Amanda’s lips trembled violently, as though she were desperately holding something back.
I did not look at her again. I turned around and walked away from the rooftop.
We had walked some distance when I realized my body was trembling slightly.
Anya stayed beside me. She spoke tentatively, as though testing the waters.
“Leigh, in Rosavia, taking a woman’s hand like that means you’re courting her. You’re supposed to make things official afterward.”
I stared at her in complete confusion.
“What?”
She nodded with a perfectly serious expression.
“Oh, get lost.”
I lightly tapped the top of her head with my phone.
“In Rosavia, kissing someone on both cheeks is considered a polite greeting, and now, you’re telling me holding hands is practically a proposal?”
She burst out laughing, completely unfazed that I had seen through her teasing. Then, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a red rose.
“Congratulations on ending a terrible relationship. I grew this myself. It’s not like an ordinary rose.”
I accepted the flower with a smile. Then, as though nothing had happened, I returned to the laboratory and continued the experiment I had been working on.
Meanwhile, Amanda was unraveling.
My words echoed over and over in her mind.
“I didn’t hit him that day. Check the security footage.”
She suddenly recalled the exact sequence of events that day.
Before she had realized what was going on, Kevin was bleeding.
His cry of pain had shattered all her composure.
She had not listened to a word of my explanation. She had simply blamed me without question.
Could Kevin really have staged the whole thing?
Amanda began to tremble. A crushing sense of panic rose from deep within her and spread through her entire body.
“Jerry.”
Amanda immediately called her assistant, Jerry Cook.
She sounded as if she was on the verge of having a breakdown.
“Get me Kevin’s medical reports and the security footage from that restaurant. I want everything
checked right now!”
Her voice came out hoarse and ragged.
She was terrified.
What if she had really misunderstood it? What if she had blamed me all wrongly?
Half an hour later, Jerry responded, along with a short clip of the security footage.
In the video, Kevin glanced around before discreetly bursting a packet of fake blood hidden in his palm. Throughout the entire exchange, I had been leaning away from him defensively.
“Ms. Gordon, his medical reports were falsified.”
Jerry’s voice grew quieter.
“Mr. Burg bribed a doctor to issue a concussion diagnosis in advance.”
For the next five minutes, Amanda’s mind went completely blank. Her tears came before she could even process what she had learned.
An overwhelming wave of regret flooded her limbs, numbing every nerve.
She had been wrong.
She had been terribly, unforgivably wrong.
Of course.
It had only been a minor scuffle. How could it have produced that much blood?
How had she failed to see something so obvious?
Amanda wanted to find me and apologize.
She wanted to admit that she had been wrong and that she had misunderstood me.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
The institute had closed for the day.
I had blocked her new number as well.
That day, she searched every florist in Merrichester. It took her twenty-four hours to find ninety-nine yellow roses.
It was the dead of winter, far from tulip season.
It was the dead of winter, far from the rose season.
But she really needed them.
She was desperate to earn my forgiveness.
Yellow roses were a plea for forgiveness.
She stood outside the institute in a daze without eating or drinking anything as she waited for two days and one night.
Only then did she finally see me return.
She did not know that our research team had been away in Aldermere on a field study.
