He Drove His Female Intern Every Day. I Vanished After the Storm Chapter 07

He Drove His Female Intern Every Day. I Vanished After the Storm Chapter 07

The day after I blocked that number, another unfamiliar number called me.

I let it ring three times before stopping in my tracks and answering.

Someone was crying on the other end.

It took me a few seconds to recognize the voice.

Sophia.

“Eileen… Ethan won’t even answer my calls anymore.”

I listened in silence.

I had no intention of comforting her.

“I really never meant to come between you two. Ethan and I have always been like this. We’ve always been close, like family. Ethan isn’t good with words, but I know he genuinely wanted to marry you. He only took care of me because I’m like family to him.”

I cut her off.

“I don’t have time to listen to you talk in circles.”

The other end went quiet for two seconds.

Sophia’s sobbing immediately softened.

“Honestly, I actually approved of you. You really were a good girlfriend. Can’t you give Ethan one more chance?”

I laughed.

“You approved of me? What you approved of was the fact that I never got in your way. You liked that I didn’t interfere, because then he could spend all his time with you without worrying about me. One phone call from you, and he’d drop everything to be at your side.”

My voice sharpened.

“You never had to take on any of the responsibilities of being his girlfriend, but you still got everything a girlfriend was supposed to get. Sophia, you disgust me.”

The crying stopped.

A few seconds later, she dropped the act.

“So what exactly do you want?”

She no longer sounded like the weak, helpless girl she always pretended to be.

Her voice was thick with resentment.

“If Ethan and I had gone to the same college back then, do you honestly think you ever would’ve had a chance?”

“I already stepped aside. I only wanted to stay by his side as family. Why did you have to drive me away?”

She didn’t sound guilty in the slightest.

She was still making herself out to be the victim.

I had no interest in arguing with her anymore.

I looked up toward the end of the hallway.

“Ethan, did you hear all that?”

The other end of the call went completely silent.

The next second, Sophia hung up.

Ethan stepped out from beside the fire exit.

His expression was hard to read.

“I’m sorry. Eileen, I only came here because I wanted to see if you were doing okay.”

“I’m doing great. I’d be doing even better if the two of you stopped bothering me.”

A few days earlier, I’d noticed that one of the unfamiliar numbers contacting me had a San Diego area code.

That was when I’d guessed Ethan had come here.

He lowered his head.

But when he spoke, his first instinct was still to make excuses for Sophia.

“Don’t be angry. She’s young. She doesn’t always know what she’s saying.”

Making excuses for Sophia had become a habit.

I looked at him and stepped aside, avoiding the hand he reached toward me.

“Eileen… she’s just used to depending on me. I promise I’ll set proper boundaries from now on. I’ll put your feelings first.”

I laughed.

“What? Now you’re suddenly going to stop letting her depend on you? Why aren’t you telling me she can’t survive without you?”

Ethan went rigid.

Clearly, he had no idea how I knew.

I unlocked my phone and opened Sophia’s Instagram account.

Then I showed him her Close Friends Stories one by one.

She had deliberately created a Close Friends list that almost no one but me could see.

She posted to it nearly every day.

The most recent post was a photo of the two of them in bathrobes at the hotel during their business trip.

Their faces were almost pressed together.

An earlier post was from the day she moved into her new apartment.

She had called him “my knight.”

The caption read:

[I’m going to depend on you forever and ever. No one else better get jealous!]

Ethan’s expression darkened.

“So… you knew I went to help her move that day?”

I nodded.

He paused for several seconds.

Clearly, that wasn’t the answer he’d expected.

“Then why didn’t you ask me?”

I used to chase him for answers.

Because back then, I still cared.

By then, I no longer wanted to know.

I’d already decided to leave.

That was enough.

Ethan stared at me.

“So that’s why you suddenly left?”

I frowned.

“What?”

“So because of all this, you said nothing and just moved out?”

My hand paused on the doorknob.

Then I reopened our chat history and held the screen out to him.

“Do you have amnesia? The night you slammed the door and left, I told you I’d already terminated the lease. Later, I sent you a photo of your things and told you to come get them. Before I got on the plane, I called you five times. Didn’t Sophia tell you?”

Ethan went completely still.

Then he suddenly remembered that night.

I had, in fact, still been talking when he walked out.

But he’d deliberately slammed it shut.

And later…

He remembered the shard of glass that had pierced his palm.

He remembered the dried blood on our shattered photo.

He remembered the empty chat window during those four days.

And he remembered the evasive look on Sophia’s face when she gave his phone back.

Ethan took a quick step toward me.

“Eileen, I…”

Bang.

The door closed in his face before he could finish.

The sound echoed through the hallway.

He stood outside, unable to say a word.

So this was what it felt like to have a door shut in your face.