Chapter 6
I didn’t want to leave him with any more delusions, so I fired back hard.]
“One’s your wife, one’s your ride–or–die buddy. Yet you’d rather trust someone you barely see anymore than either of us.“]
You keep saying the car shop told you it wasn’t bad, but you couldn’t drag yourself to the hospital to check on me.” “0
“Oh wait, you did show up–except somehow you got stuck in the kids‘ ward and couldn’t make it up one lousy flight of stairs.“] “Julian, we’ve been nothing but a toxic couple thanks to you never trusting me. Why fake being happy anymore?“[]
“Just sign the damn divorce papers and let’s both move on.“]
I hung up while Julian was still sitting there with his mouth open.
The calls wouldn’t stop coming, and my phone blew up with texts.
All saying the same crap–he still loved me, no way would he divorce me.[]
Fed up with his harassment, I blocked both him and Neil.
Just like that, my world went quiet completely.
When I got to the mountain village, the conditions knocked me on my ass.
No appliances–you had to burn wood just to cook or stay warm.
I didn’t chicken out, figuring no hardship would stop me now.
What bit me in the ass was how wrecked my body still was after the miscarriage. The cold hit me hard, and by the next day, I was burning up with fever.]
Thank God the villagers were good people who took care of me like I was family.
Once I was back on my feet, I dove into teaching and clicked with the locals.
That’s when I found out how rough they had it–barely scraping by just to keep their kids in school
Thinking about online fundraising, I figured I’d try to get these village kids some help.]
During my free Sunday, I started posting videos I’d made.[]
As! was logging off, I accidentally spotted Julian on camera–hair a mess, stubble all over his face–doing his best heartbroken act.
“Elena, I love you so much, and I loved our baby too.“]
“I didn’t realize what I had until you were gone. If I could do it all over, I swear I’d stick to you like glue.“]
“Elena, you’re everything to me. Just come back…“]]
His sob story totally worked on followers who didn’t know better.
The likes exploded to 100,000, with comments pouring in to comfort poor little him.[]
[How can such a hot, helpful guy not get a decent woman?]]
[What kind of bitch made our hottie suffer? Let me find out, and I’ll drag her all over the internet.]
(He’s a firefighter?! Saves lives for a living, but his wife is a total psycho. Let’s find her! Can’t let our hero have his heart broken.]
-0
Julian wasn’t just painting a target on my back–he was telling me I was nothing without him.]
Looking at everyone trashing me online, I couldn’t help but smirk bitterly.]
How the hell did I never see who he really was?
I clicked through a few more videos and found one where he pretended to “clear things up” about me
But it didn’t move me one bit. I reported his BS and closed the app.
Right then, I heard a kid yelling outside.[]
“Ms. Reid! Some hot guy’s looking for you!”
Capte
My heart dropped to my stomach. Had he tracked me down already?]]
After wrestling with it for a minute, I decided to just face him and hash it out.]
But when I opened the door, it was Neil standing there.]
Neil looked tanner and skinnier, and when he saw me, his face cracked into this huge, goofy grin.[]
That dorky smile immediately made me relax.
Just as I was about to let him in, he pinned me between the door and his chest.
His scrunched–up eyebrows made me freeze just as I was about to push him away.
“Elena, hiding in the mountains over some dude who doesn’t give a crap about you–seriously? Where’s your self–respect?“]
“If I hadn’t bugged every friend I know to find you, were you just gonna ghost me forever?“]
“That’s not true. I was gonna come back eventually…“[]
Suddenly, Neil yanked me into a tight hug.
