We were chatting and laughing when he suddenly fell quiet. Then, he pointed cautiously at someone in the distance.
I followed his gaze and saw Roderick. He looked exhausted, with stubble around his jaw.
When he realized I had seen him, he stepped forward.
Danny, on the other hand, stiffened. He remembered the time Roderick had shouted at me, so he was still afraid of him.
Eventually, Roderick stood right before us and said, “I know everything now, Savannah.”
My heart skipped a beat. Without hesitation, I held Danny tighter and turned to leave. However, Roderick blocked my way.
“This is your therapist’s son, right? We could raise him together. Your room’s still there. If you’re willing, we can start over.”
I pursed my lips and said nothing.
Roderick had always made it sound so simple. How could we start over where there hadn’t been a beginning in the first place? Whatever we were had ended long
ago.
Maybe he had forgotten the day he told me we would never be together. In fact, I didn’t think he loved me. He simply didn’t want to lose me.
With that in mind, I shook my head. “I’m not going back, Roderick. I like the life I have now.”
The past had been too painful, and not a single day of it had felt good. As for the version of him I used to cling to, I had let go of that a long time ago.
Roderick stared at me in disbelief, while I calmly met his gaze.
I added, “Like you once said, maybe I was too dependent on you. That was why I mistook it for love
“Thank you for sending me away. These past few years have given me clarity. I won’t depend on you anymore, and I don’t love you either.”
This version of me would do just fine without Roderick.
He stood there, watching me walk away. But I didn’t look back.
That was the last time I ever saw him.
When we got home, Danny told me, “I think he cried. He seemed sad.”
He didn’t know how to describe what he saw. After all, I had never let myself cry in front of him.
I nodded in acknowledgment before changing the subject. “Shall we have pizza tonight?”
“Yay!”
Children were easy to cheer up. All it took was the mention of his favorite food, and his focus shifted.
Now, Danny was already dreaming about dinner.
I had just put the pizza in the oven when my phone rang.
It was the company I had interviewed with a few days earlier. They wanted me to start the following week
Chapter 9
I had been back in the country for a while now, and finally, I landed a job. It seemed like all my struggles had finally started to pay off.
+25 Bonus
Chapter 6
e tu
