Chapter 14
Jonah was buying cotton candy for Kayla when he got the call.
On the other end, Lily’s voice was a mess of sobs—so choked up she could barely get the words out.
Just minutes ago, Sally had taken her own life in the hospital.
Jonah stood there holding the cotton candy, completely at a loss. What was he supposed to do–run back to Kayla and tell her he had to rush back to Jolsa to handle Sally’s funeral?
And what if he had never come here at all? If he’d just stayed at the hospital? Would Sally have still chosen to end her life in such a tragic way?
A storm of guilt and inner conflict tore through Jonah’s chest. He handed the cotton candy to a nearby child, stole one last glance at Kayla–still sitting alone–and then turned and walked away.
He didn’t know how to explain things to her. And worse, he didn’t know how to face himself.
That night, he flew back to Jolsa.
Sally’s body was still lying in the hospital morgue when he arrived.
Lily stood outside, her eyes bloodshot, her voice hollow with grief.
“Why couldn’t you just lie to her?” she cried. “Why did you have to push her like that? You knew she didn’t have much time left!”
Each question hit Jonah like a punch to the gut, leaving him speechless. The guilt clawed at him like a cold, merciless hand wrapped around his heart, squeezing so tightly it was hard to even breathe.
“This is the letter Mom wrote you. She died without peace.‘
11
Lily shoved a crumpled piece of paper into his hand, then collapsed on the floor, unconscious.
The three days of mourning passed in a blur. Jonah couldn’t even remember them clearly.
He never worked up the courage to read the letter from Sally.
Once Lily had been taken care of, he returned alone to the dark, empty apartment. He curled up on the brand–new mattress and lay there in silence.
He missed Kayla so much–he just wanted a moment of comfort from her. But she had already blocked him everywhere.
While lying there and staring at the bare, hollow room, Jonah finally understood why she’d torn out every trace of the home they once shared.
She wasn’t just leaving. She was erasing herself from his world, completely and for good.
What crushed him even more was the realization that he’d rarely ever taken photos of Kayla himself.
He scrolled through his phone for a long time, only to find that he didn’t even have a single clear shot of her face.
Thankfully, the home surveillance system was still logged in under his account. It should’ve stored footage from the past three months. Clinging to that like a lifeline, Jonah opened the application and clicked on the first recording. The date read June 11th, Kayla’s birthday. In the video, the house still looked warm and full of life. Kayla was smiling as she set but a full spread of a homemade meal.
She knew he usually got home from work around 7:00 pm, so before then, she had already laid out the wine and cake, ready to celebrate. Kayla hadn’t celebrated her birthday out in years. Both hers and Jonah’s birthdays were always spent quietly at home, just the two of them. Part of it was Jonah’s hectic work schedule, but more than that, he’d grown to dislike crowds as he aged.
He used to say that a sirnple, quiet life between two people was good enough.
Kayla, with her calm nature, had agreed. She truly believed that kind of life could be happy.
In the footage, the minutes ticked by. 7:00 pm came and went. The man who was supposed to be home by then never showed.
Kayla grew anxious and called Jonah, but he didn’t pick up.
“Why didn’t I answer? Why didn’t I just answer the damn phone?”
from Ostia
Jonah asked himself out loud, over and over. And then, after what felt like forever, it finally came back to him that it was the day Lily and Sally returned
He’d gone to pick them up at the airport, and his phone had been on silent.
In the happiness of reuniting with his childhood crush, he’d completely forgotten that it was Kayla’s birthday.
The birthday of the woman he once claimed to love most in the world.
