The Red Light I Couldn’t See, The Love That Was Never There Chapter 09
After Lily left, Ethan searched everywhere Sophie might have gone.
The spot beneath the flowering tree where they’d met.
The theater where they’d watched their first movie.
The beach where they’d made their relationship official. He searched all of them.
But he couldn’t find her anywhere.
At last, he dropped helplessly to the ground. Then his eyes lit up as if he’d remembered something.
He pulled out his phone and booked the next train to her hometown.
Four hours later, he stood outside her house.
It was an old apartment building.
The paint was peeling in places, and one of the motion–activated hallway lights was broken.
He stood outside for a full two minutes before finally raising his hand to knock.
Footsteps sounded inside, and the door opened a crack.
It was Sophie’s mom.
She looked at Ethan. Surprise crossed her face, then her expression hardened.
Her hand closed around the edge of the door, instinctively starting to pull it shut.
“Ma’am!”
Ethan shoved his hand into the gap. His fingers were squeezed white by the door, but he refused to let go
“Please, let me see Sophie just once!”
“I know she’s here!”
Sophie’s mom frowned at him.
“Go home. Sophie doesn’t want to see you.”
“Ma’am, I was wrong. I really was!”
“Please let me see her once. I’ll explain everything to her in person.”
“Explain what?”
Sophie’s mom’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was steady.
“You made her drag a suitcase home alone in the middle of the night while her leg was still bleeding.”
“I don’t care what happened between you two. If you were the one who put her through that, don’t come
looking for her again.”
“Ma’am…”
As he spoke, soft footsteps sounded behind her.
Sophie walked to the door and saw Ethan’s hand trapped in the gap, his knuckles red from being crushed.
Sophie drew a deep breath and patted her mom’s shoulder.
“Mom, I’ve got this.”
Her mom looked back at her.
In the end, her mom released the door and stepped back into the living room.
Sophie opened the door and stood in front of Ethan.
Something in his eyes lit up the instant he saw her.
“Sophie…”
“Why are you here?”
Her voice was calm, as if she were speaking to a stranger.
Ethan froze for a second, then stepped forward.
“I came to take you home.”
“Which home?”
“Our home.”
Looking at his face, Sophie suddenly felt exhausted.
“Ethan, we broke up.”
“I know you’re still angry, but listen to me!”
He grabbed her hand in a panic.
“I’ve thought about a lot of things lately. I was wrong before. I shouldn’t have kept ignoring your feelings
“Come home with me, and from now on…”
“From now on, what?”
Sophie cut him off and pulled her hand free.
“You’ll still be the same. You can’t change.”
“I can change!”
“When was the last time you said that?”
Sophie looked at him, almost absurdly amused.
“You said you’d come to my follow–up appointment the time before last. What happened? And the time before that, you said you’d take me on a trip. What happened then?”
Ethan opened and closed his mouth, unable to answer.
“You can’t change, Ethan, because in your heart, I was never important.”
“That’s not true!”
“Then was Lily important to you?”
He went completely still.
“You say you only treat her well because she’s my best friend. But be honest with yourself. Did you really see her as nothing more than a friend?”
“You went hiking with her, took her to the cat cafe, and ran back to take care of her when she had a fever.”
“What about me? You couldn’t even be bothered to come to my follow–up appointment for temporary color
blindness.”
Sophie looked at him and suddenly realized she wasn’t sad at all.
She only felt lighter, relieved to have finally said everything that had hurt her.
“You don’t have to answer.”
“Because I don’t want to know anymore.”
Sophie reached out and gripped the edge of the door.
“This is where we leave things. Don’t come looking for me again.”
The door closed.
Ethan stood outside, staring at the closed door for a long time without moving.
Then he slowly crouched down and buried his face in his hands.
His shoulders shook.
