The Day I Heard His Thoughts I Stopped Loving Him Chapter 07

The Day I Heard His Thoughts I Stopped Loving Him Chapter 07

About two weeks later. Harrison Vance slowly regained consciousness in his hospital room. But by then, the company

had already been turned completely upside down.

During his incapacitation, Malcolm Vance had been working behind the scenes. The Vance family’s remaining viable

assets had been legally carved out and siphoned away.

All that was left for Julian and his father were a mountain of insurmountable debt. If things continued down this path,

Vance Enterprises would be staring down the barrel of formal bankruptcy proceedings in no time.

After everything that had happened, the rebellious streak Julian had been sporting had been thoroughly crushed out of

him.

The next time I saw him, he was standing at the foot of the Ashford Estate’s front steps, looking. utterly drained and

defeated.

Mr. Sterling, our butler, had spent the better part of an hour trying politely but firmly to send him away. When it

became clear Julian wasn’t going to budge, Mr. Sterling had no choice but to come ask for my instructions.

I thought it over for a moment, then set aside my SAT prep book. “Fine. I’ll go deal with him myself.”

Some things were better settled face-to-face, once and for all.

The moment Julian saw me, a spark of hope flickered in his hollow eyes. “Nora. Thank you for agreeing to see me.”

I leaned against the doorframe and kept my voice flat. “Don’t flatter yourself. I was just curious what you could possibly

have to say.”

The color drained from Julian’s face, then drained again.

He stood in silence for a long moment before lowering his gaze and speaking. “I know you’re still angry. About everything

that happened before… I’m sorry for…”

I cut him off with a cold laugh. “What’s the matter? You finally figured out Olivia Harper can’t save you? So now you

come crawling back to me, hoping my dad will swoop in and rescue the Vance family’s sinking ship?”

His voice wavered. “No. You’ve got it all wrong. I know things are way past just… cash flow problems now. That’s not why

I’m here. I didn’t come to beg the Ashfords for anything. Nora, I’m genuinely sorry. I regret how I’ve been acting. These

past few weeks. That’s all.”

Julian’s eyes were filled with what certainly looked like genuine remorse.

At some point, I realized I could no longer hear his thoughts. But that didn’t change my decision in the slightest.

*Julian, I don’t care why you’re apologizing. I’m not forgiving you.” My voice was ice.

“You coasted on the Ashford name for years. Took every advantage. Every single one. And you never appreciated a second

of it.”

“Now you’ve hit rock bottom, and suddenly you’re full of regret. Let me make this perfectly clear. The Ashford family is

not your safety net. And I am not a dumpster for someone else’s leftovers.”

“That’s it. I don’t want to see your face here again. And if you keep disrupting my life, I won’t hesitate to make things

harder for what’s left of your family.”

Before Julian could even process what I’d said, I shut the door in his face.

Security received their instructions and firmly escorted him off the Ashford Estate.

Harrison Vance never fully recovered his former vigor after that stroke. He found himself fighting a war on two fronts,

fending off aggressive debt collectors on one side and battling his own brother in a bitter legal dispute on the other.

Before long, the Vance family simply couldn’t hold on any longer and filed for bankruptcy.

After that final, explosive argument with his father, Julian dropped out of school and vanished.

Not long after that, Olivia Harper submitted her own transfer paperwork. Before she left, she reached out and asked to

meet with me.

We sat across from each other at The Daily Grind Coffee House. I stirred my latte idly and said, “If this is about Julian,

save your breath. I’m not interested.”

She let out a quiet, low laugh. “The fact that you’re this clear-headed? It means all that effort I put in these past few

weeks wasn’t a total waste.”

My hand froze mid-stir. I couldn’t quite grasp what she was getting at.

The smile on Olivia’s face only widened. “Nora. Did you ever stop and think, how does a girl like me end up at Crestwood

Prep? Scholarship kid. Total charity case. How does that actually happen?”

I paused. “I don’t know. I just assumed… you know. Outstanding grades. Special admit. That’s what the teachers always

said.”

“And were my grades ever really outstanding?” Olivia tilted her head and shot the question right back at me.

From the moment she’d set foot on campus, Olivia had seemed entirely entangled with Julian, her studies basically left

by the wayside.

Yet not once had any teacher pulled her aside about it, nor had anyone ever mentioned that scholarship students who

failed to maintain academic standards would be asked to leave.

While I was still trying to piece it together, Olivia laughed and spoke again. “You can quit trying to figure it out. I’m not the original Olivia. I’m from… outside. Think of it like I got dropped into a book I read once.”