Chapter 4

When I woke, I was already in a hospital room.

The first thing I noticed was the smell of disinfectant.

There was a needle in the back of my hand, fluid dripping slowly into my body.

"You're awake?"

Abner's voice came from beside me.

I turned my head and saw him sitting by the bed, shadows under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept all night.

"What happened to me?"

My voice came out hoarse.

"The doctor said it's acute gastroenteritis, on top of a long stretch of irregular eating and too much stress. You need to stay a few days for observation."

Abner poured me a cup of warm water and helped me sit up.

"Thank you."

"There's no need to be polite with me."

He touched my head, the gesture easy and affectionate.

I froze for a second, but I didn't pull away.

The room was very quiet.

Abner worked on his laptop beside me, and even the occasional tap of the keys felt strangely reassuring.

I lay there staring at the ceiling, my mind blank.

Owen, Teresa, that phone call...

I took out my phone. The screen was still on the call log.

No missed calls. No unread messages.

Owen hadn't tried to reach me.

Maybe Teresa never passed on the message.

Or maybe she did, and he just didn't care.

Which answer hurt more?

I laughed at myself.

At a point like this, what was I still hoping for?

I opened the news app, and an entertainment alert popped up.

President of James Group makes a high-profile appearance with his new love. Wedding bells soon?

The photo was from the gala last night, Owen and Teresa standing together.

He was looking down at her, his gaze intent.

Teresa had her face tilted up, smiling sweetly.

A perfect match, made for each other.

The pain in my chest was so sharp I couldn't breathe.

So while I'd been in the emergency room fighting for my life, he'd been writing a love story with another woman.

I closed my eyes and threw the phone aside.

Eudora, that's enough.

That's really enough.

I stayed in the hospital for three days.

For those three days, Abner barely left my side.

He bought my meals, peeled fruit for me, sat and talked with me to keep me from getting bored.

His company kept him busy, so he simply moved his office into the hospital room.

I watched him sit by the window, focused on a call across the ocean, sunlight spilling over him.

And it struck me that maybe this wasn't so bad.

Owen never showed up. Not once.

No calls. No messages.

He vanished from my world without a trace.

The day I was discharged, Abner came to pick me up.

He handled all the paperwork, then said to me,

"Dora, come live with me."

I looked at him and didn't answer right away.

"I don't want you going back to a place that hurts you."

He took my hand, his eyes sincere.

"I promise I'll take good care of you."

I was quiet for a long time.

Then I nodded.

"Okay."

The day I moved, I didn't tell Owen.

I called a moving company, and over the course of one afternoon, I took everything of mine out of the apartment where he and I had lived together for five years.

Clothes, shoes, bags, books...

I set the keys on the shoe cabinet by the entryway.

I took one last look at the place I'd once called home.

Then I closed the door and left without looking back.

That night I moved into Abner's home.

His apartment was in a complex downtown, a penthouse duplex with a wide view.

The interior was minimalist, black and white and gray, a lot like him: calm and self-possessed.

He'd already prepared a separate walk-in closet and bedroom for me.

"Stay in this room for now. If you don't like it, we'll switch."

He didn't push me to share a room with him.

That respect loosened something in the taut string of my heart, just a little.

At ten that night, my phone started ringing wildly.

It was Owen.

I looked at his name flashing on the screen, hesitated, and answered anyway.

"Eudora, where are you?"

His voice was full of barely held anger.

"What do you mean by this? You took everything? Cleared the whole place out?"

"Didn't I already tell you?"

My tone was calm.

"I need to find myself a reliable future."

"So you moved in with that Henson man?"

His voice shot up.

"Eudora, what does seven years between us mean to you?"

"And what about you?"

I threw it back at him.

"What did our seven years mean to you? A chip you could trample however you liked, to buy someone else's dignity?"

On the other end, there was a long silence.

After a while he finally spoke, his voice tired and defeated.

"Dora, come back. Stop this."

"I'm not making a scene."

I said.

"Owen, we're over."

With that, I hung up and blocked him.

The world was finally, completely quiet.