After I Left, He Begged on His Knees to Bring Me Home Chapter 05

After I Left, He Begged on His Knees to Bring Me Home Chapter 05

I changed my phone number.

I got the new number from a carrier store on the side of the road. After a twenty-minute wait, the

clerk handed me a new SIM card.

I took out my old one, cut it in half with a pair of scissors, and threw it in the trash.

My new place was a small apartment.

One bedroom, one living room. North-facing windows overlooking a narrow street.

A sycamore tree stood downstairs, its leaves almost completely gone.

On moving day, I hired a shipping company and sent everything I had left.

Three cardboard boxes and one suitcase.

When the delivery driver came to pick them up, he glanced at the boxes and asked what was inside.

“Clothes and personal stuff,” I replied.

He rolled out a scale, weighed each box, printed the labels, and stuck them on one by one.

Six years of marriage.

In the end, that was all that remained.

After everything arrived, I didn’t ask anyone for help.

I carried all three boxes upstairs myself, making trip after trip from the truck.

While carrying the last box, the cardboard edge sliced across my hand.

Blood seeped out.

I wrapped it twice with a tissue and kept going.

In the days after I left, Griffin sent thirty-seven messages.

I didn’t read a single one.

Fourteen phone calls. Every one of them went straight into the blacklist.

Eventually, the messages stopped.

Then one day, Kathy Sutton, my friend, called me.

‘He came to your apartment complex. Stood downstairs for three hours. Security approached him. three times, and every time he said he was waiting for someone.”

“I know,” I said.

Two days later, Kathy called again.

“He ran into me outside the office. Asked if I knew where you were.”

“I told him I didn’t.”

“He stood there for a while, then walked away. After a few steps, he turned back and told me to remind you to eat on time. Said your stomach’s sensitive.”

I held the phone without saying a word.

Kathy said he looked terrible.

He’d lost weight. His clothes were wrinkled and unkempt.

Back when we were together, I always straightened his collar before he left home.

Now there was no one to do it anymore.

A week later, a lawyer delivered an envelope to him.

Inside was only a letter.

It read: [You don’t need to look for me anymore.]

[I’ve finally figured things out.]

[You never put me first. You put me second, then wondered why I wasn’t satisfied. But the truth is,

someone else was always sitting in the first-place seat. I could never squeeze in, and I don’t want to

anymore.]

[You didn’t betray me. You betrayed the promises you made.]

[The last thing I learned from you was this: never spend too long waiting for someone who won’t choose you.]

The letter didn’t mention divorce or money.

It simply said that I was gone.

Later, Kathy told me that after reading it, Griffin sat alone in his office the entire night.

The security guard said dawn was breaking when he finally left. His eyes had been red.

But he never came looking for me.

A week later, Kathy called again. “He signed it.”

“What?”

“The divorce papers.”

“He signed them.”

I stood by the window of my new apartment, watching the bare branches of the sycamore tree sway

in the wind.

A child rode a scooter downstairs, circling the sidewalk again and again. Their laughter drifted

upward.

“Did he say anything else?”

Kathy was silent for a moment.

“Just one thing.”

“He said… take care of yourself.”

I ended the call and opened my contacts.

His number was still there, quietly sitting in my blacklist.

I didn’t remove it.

My phone lit up again.

Another message from Kathy.

[Delaney, I don’t know whether I should tell you this.]

[Vivian moved in yesterday.]

[She posted a picture online. A selfie on your balcony.]

[The caption said: Finally got what I waited for.]

After reading the message, I set my phone down on the windowsill.

Then I looked down at my stomach. My hand rested gently over it.

“I’m sorry, baby.”

“I can’t bring you into this world right now.”