Chapter 4
288 Vouchers
The missing pieces of my memory gradually began to fall into place.
He wasn’t a stranger, nor was he some business associate of Sebastian’s–he was our college senior, Jared Kaplan.
He had pursued me aggressively back then, to the point that it constantly made Sebastian jealous.
But I was so consumed by my feelings for Sebastian that I never even spared Jared a second glance.
“How could it be him?” I wondered.
I tried to get out of bed, but my head felt like it was filled with lead. Dizzy and disoriented, I couldn’t take a single
step.
As Jared grabbed at my clothes, pulling and tearing with increasing force, I scrambled to turn over, arching my back to resist while reaching for my phone on the nightstand.
I finally managed to get a grip on it and frantically–dialed Sebastian.
But the call wouldn’t go through.
Just as my thin blouse was on the verge of being torn apart, the call finally connected–but it wasn’t Sebastian who answered. It was Courtney.
“Having fun?” she said smugly.
“Sebastian and I sure are. He’s already fast asleep.
“I actually told him not to bother with you, but he was so mad about you pushing me and nearly causing me to mis- carry. He insisted on getting even. I really couldn’t stop him.”
“What did she mean?”
“Was it Sebastian who sent me here?”
I suddenly remembered–after we got married, he’d already worked with Jared to humiliate me more than once. He even laughed while watching.
Sebastian wasn’t human. He was a monster.
I don’t know where the strength came from, but I managed to kick Jared off me and bolted for the window, throwing one leg outside.
“If you take one more step, I’ll jump!” I shouted.
“You might be sick, but I doubt you want to deal with a murder investigation.”
0.0 %
12:28
Chapter 4
Jared immediately backed off, spitting on the floor.
“Fine, fine, I get it. You win, okay?” he said angrily.
1 288 /Vouchers
“Quit pretending to be all pure. We messed around in college, too. I wasn’t even that into it.”
“College?”
Then it hit me. The night before Sebastian made things official with Courtney, Jared had invited us all out for dinner and karaoke.
Everyone said they were going back to their dorms early because they were tired.
But I had woken up the next morning in a cheap hotel room, sore and aching all over.
Before I could even figure out what had happened, Sebastian was already making a grand public display of love for Courtney, covering the dorm entrance with roses and confessing to her on the campus wall.
They started dating, and soon their sweet moments were plastered all over campus.
And me? My young, naive love hadn’t even had the chance to bloom before it withered completely.
I had been so devastated that I never even stopped to question what had really happened that night.
Realizing he’d said too much, Jared fled the room in a panic.
I went back to my rented apartment, pulled out my packed suitcase, and placed the signed divorce papers on the table.
I took one final look at the place I’d called home for three years. I cut the love knot into pieces and threw it in the trash before walking out the door without once looking back.
Meanwhile, Sebastian was still lying in Courtney’s bed when he woke up in the middle of the night.
He suddenly remembered the hurt look in Emma’s eyes when he had cruelly accused her of carrying someone else’s child. The memory struck him like a blade to the chest.
He thought to himself, “Even if all this was about getting back at her for what happened in college, it’s enough now. This ends here.”
“Courtney,” he said quietly, “I’ll take care of our baby. But my wife will always be Emma.”
Saying it out loud felt like a huge burden being lifted off his chest.
He raced home, eager to finally tell Emma the truth about his business success and win her back, to restore what was left of their marriage.
But when he opened the door, the apartment was empty.
Not even her toiletries were left behind. Just a crumpled bedsheet and the silence.
His heart sank. Then he spotted the divorce agreement on the table, signed and finalized, and next to the trash can- shredded pieces of the love knot.
40.9 %
12:27
Chapter 3
288 Vouchers
“Sebastian’s been treating me like a queen. He won’t even let me lift a finger while I’m pregnant,” she whispered in my car, like the devil himself.
And here I was, thinking about all those years I’d stood by him without complaint. Cooking for his buddies, pinching every penny to support him–what a joke.
Not only had his business succeeded, he’d made a fortune…
But he never spent a dime on me.
I ran out of that hotel like my life depended on it and fled straight back to our dingy apartment.
I clutched the half–finished divorce papers in my hand and signed my name without hesitation.
It wasn’t much, this little apartment, but I’d poured my heart into making it a home–hanging up his favorite Picasso print, and fixing the old clock he liked.
I did it all to make him comfortable. But now I realized, the thing he didn’t want to see in this house was me.
While packing, I found an old red string tucked deep in the back of the closet.
A clumsily tied knot–the love knot I’d made back in high school for a craft class.
After school that day, Sebastian had asked for it so earnestly, promising to treasure it forever.
Now it was covered in dust and tossed aside like trash.
The only thing he kept carefully in his desk drawer was a diary–every page filled with sweet nothings, and Court- ney’s name taped right on the front.
Before I left, Sebastian asked me to stop by the Souza’s residence one last time.
I figured I owed Casey and his father, Mark Souza, a proper goodbye, so I hid my luggage and went with him.
Sebastian acted unusually warm and poured me drink after drink.
I wasn’t in the mood to resist. Part of me wanted to drown in it–just get completely wasted for once and let it all out.
When I woke up again, I was back in the apartment.
And that’s when the man with glasses lunged at me, eyes gleaming with something sick and twisted. “I told you, did- n’t I? You were always mine!”
54,4 %
