I Could Hear His Heart Begging While He Cheated On Me Chapter 02

I Could Hear His Heart Begging While He Cheated On Me Chapter 02

I spent the night at a hotel.

Early the next morning, a call from building management woke me.

“Ms. Lindstrom, the large shipment you sent is blocking the building entrance. Several residents have complained. Please come deal with it as soon as possible.”

When I came back this time, I hadn’t planned on leaving again.

I had packed up everything I had accumulated over seven years and shipped it here ahead of me.

Now my belongings had arrived.

But just like me, they no longer had a home.

I rushed through the rain to Nathaniel’s building, The Pines Apartments.

The entrance was bare.

Penny, wearing slippers, was about to head upstairs.

“Lena, what took you so long?”

“Those boxes were blocking the entrance. They were in everyone’s way.”

She pointed toward the dumpster.

“Nate said you two broke up and all your stuff was trash, so I threw it out for you.”

My ears rang as I spun around and ran to the dumpster.

The cardboard boxes had collapsed in the rain. My belongings were scattered everywhere, soaking in filthy water.

I dropped to my knees.

Finally I found my stuffed dog.

It was swollen with rainwater, and one of its eyes had fallen off.

It was the first gift Nathaniel had ever given me.

During the seven years he couldn’t be there, it had kept me company in his place.

The year before, I had broken a bone in a car accident, and Nathaniel had already booked a plane ticket to see me.

Then Penny sprained her ankle.

Over the phone, he had only said one hurried sentence.

“I’ll come see you after she’s better.”

I had been in too much pain to sleep, so I sat up until dawn with that stuffed dog in my arms.

I picked it up and held it against my chest.

Then I noticed a pair of heels nearby, one heel snapped clean off.

I had bought them six months earlier.

That day, someone had deliberately deleted my proposal. I hid in the garden outside my office and cried until I could barely breathe.

Nathaniel didn’t answer any of my calls. He finally called back after midnight.

“What happened over there this time?”

“Penny fought with her roommate. I just brought her home.”

The next day, I went to the mall and bought those heels.

I told myself, Lena, stand tall.

If no one comes to take you home, walk home by yourself.

For seven years, I had traveled back and forth between two cities and lived my life alone.

These things had helped me hold on until today.

Now every one of them had been thrown into the trash.

“Penny, what gave you the right to throw away my things?”

Nathaniel’s voice came from behind me.

“Lena, why are you yelling at her?”

He stood in front of Penny, holding an umbrella over her.

“They were a few boxes of junk. So what if she threw them out?”

Penny looked at me and burst into tears.

“I thought you didn’t want any of it anymore.”

As Nathaniel took in the wreckage around us, his expression darkened.

His thoughts crashed into me.

[Why are there so many boxes?]

[Wasn’t Lena only coming back for a few days?]

[That stuffed dog… She still kept it?]

His gaze fell on the toy in my arms.

But when he spoke, his voice was still full of contempt.

“You shipped your stuff to my place after we broke up. If it isn’t trash, what is it?”

I tightened my arms around the stuffed dog and looked up at him.

“Nathaniel Cross, my things aren’t trash.”

“You are.”

Rain blurred my vision as more and more people gathered around us.

A few neighbors began whispering.

“Aren’t those two the couple from upstairs?”

“They’ve been living together for about six months, haven’t they? I see them grocery shopping all the time.”

Someone glanced at me with open disgust.

“Then who’s she? The bitter ex-girlfriend causing a scene?”

“Maybe she’s the mistress. Digging through the trash after getting thrown out? How humiliating.”

A sharp pain cut through the heart I thought had already gone numb.

So they had been living together for six months.

For half a year, they had bought groceries together, come home together, and shared an umbrella. To the neighbors, they were a loving couple.

I had been Nathaniel’s girlfriend for seven years, open and proud of it.

Yet I was the one they saw as a mistress making a scene.

Nathaniel looked furious, but he didn’t explain.

Penny gently tugged at his sleeve.

“Nate, let’s go upstairs.”

After a few seconds of silence, he held the umbrella over her and led her into the building.

I stood in the rain and watched them disappear.

His thoughts grew fainter with every step.

[Lena isn’t a mistress.]

[She’s the woman I love most.]

I stopped listening.

The rain came down harder as I crouched beside the dumpster again.

I tore through the soaked cardboard boxes, searching for the pocket watch Grandma had left me.

I went through every box, but it was gone.

I had been in the rain too long.

Darkness suddenly closed in around me.

Then I lost consciousness.