Chapter 26
“Emily, truly really didn’t know how to love you. It wasn’t until you left that I realized what it meant to feel like there’s a hole punched right through my heart I swear!‘ll never make the same mistake again Can you please forgive me?”
I listened for a long time and my expression stayed calm. Then I spoke softly “Ken. I’m tired
His eyes tensed instantlylike someone had just clutched his heart in a fist
“I don’t want to stay in a relationship without any status.I don’t want to be your secret lover anymore.T
My voice was gentle but steady as I continued. “I fell in love with you when I was twenty years old. Back then, I didn’t know any better.I thought just being by your side and watching you grow even more successful was my purpose”
“You said you didn’t want to go public too soon,so I waited I waited for your career to stabilize waited for you to have time I waited for you to acknowledge me.. but in the end all I got was you dumping soup on me for someone else and slapping me in the face.“%
I placed my hand on the table my palm was a little cold. “Ken,that slap was truly brutal However,it woke me up.”
Ken shook his head hard “No Emily, that was. I had lost control I did not think at all..?
“know you didn’t mean to,“I cut him off “Yet you did it
In that moment,it was like he suddenly lost his voice. His lips moved but no words came out.
I looked at him and gave him a smile. “You say you love me.However,before you ever loved me you learned how to ignore,doubt and erase
mer
“So now,there’s no need to fix things.“I stood up,my voice quieter than air. “You’re in love with the version of me in your memory but I’m not that woman anymore. The woman I am now doesn’t love you anymore.”
I walked toward Charles. He stood up,draped my coat over my shoulders thoughtfully and gently held my hand!!
“Let’s go I said.”
Ken finally reacted. He shot to his feet and said brokenly, “Emily!Are you really just going to walk away like this?”
I turned slightly,my gaze directed at him.“Ken,a person can’t spend their whole life making excuses for someone else.” With that took Charles’s hand and walked away
Behind me,the sound of table and chair scraping and bumping against each other sounded, followed by Ken’s barely audible whisper,“I’m sorry.
One by one the lights in the caféwere turned off. The staff politely reminded him several times,but Ken just sat there, motionless.
The only thing playing on a loop in his head was what I had said
“When you threw soup on me and slapped me in front of everyone for someone else that was the moment the place I had for you in my heart went empty
It wasn’t until he saw me walk out with another man’s hand in mine that he realized I wasn’t coming back Seven years of love were over just like that.
When Ken finally snapped out of his daze,the caféhad already closed.
Like a madman he raced back to the office. The entire building was dark under the night sky,but the fury burning inside him was almost uncontrollable.
He accessed the system override and forced the retrieval of all the surveillance footage,especially from my office. He watched the video,frame by frame anxiously.
In the footage, Hazel walked up to me with a smile and said something After she said a few words,her face contorted. It seemed she deliberately moved closer to me…then she yelled.
The coffee on the table spilled and it landed with such precision that it landed on her own clothes and caused the computer screen to
shut down.
Then Hazel slapped herself hard, touched up her makeup and stormed out to accuse me of hitting her
That day, he did not even check my reaction He just listened to Hazel’s side of the story. Then slapped me right in front of everyone.”
