I Could Hear His Heart Begging While He Cheated On Me Chapter 03

I Could Hear His Heart Begging While He Cheated On Me Chapter 03

When I woke up again, I was lying in the unfamiliar guest room.

Penny sat beside the bed, her eyes swollen from crying.

“Lena, you passed out.”

“I had Nate carry you upstairs.”

She tucked the blanket around me.

“Don’t take what the neighbors said to heart. I already explained everything to them.”

“I told them you weren’t a mistress.”

“I said we were friends and that you’d come here to live with me.”

“The only reason they misunderstood was because this is Nate’s place, and he’s my boyfriend now.”

She sounded so sincere, as if she were truly trying to protect me.

But I remembered something from college.

Someone had taken the financial aid meant for me, and Penny had gone with me to confront our advisor.

“I hate people who steal what belongs to someone else and then act innocent!”

Back then, she had been even angrier than I was.

Now, when she called Nathaniel her boyfriend, she wore that same innocent expression.

Penny used to despise Nathaniel.Every time his name came up, she’d curse him nonstop.

I didn’t know when she had started calling him Nate or wearing his jackets.

I didn’t know when she had started going to dinner and taking trips with him alone.

It wasn’t that I had never noticed her crossing the line. But she was my best friend.

Nathaniel always told me I was overthinking things.

And his thoughts repeated the same words again and again.

[Lena, you’re the only woman I love.]

So I forced myself to swallow my discomfort every single time.

But I wasn’t going to pretend not to see it anymore.

“Penny, drop the act.”

I pushed myself upright against the edge of the bed.

“Where’s my diploma?”

I was supposed to report to Ashford headquarters that day.

But all the photocopies I needed had been ruined in the rain.

I had once considered this place my home, so I had left all my important original documents here.

Penny paused.

“I don’t know. Look around.”

I ignored her, threw off the blanket, and got out of bed.

The master bedroom belonged to her now.

Yet several of Nathaniel’s button-downs hung in the closet.

My clothes had been shoved into the farthest corner, wrinkled beyond recognition.

Penny followed behind me and explained in a small voice.

“He only sleeps in my room when he’s had too much to drink.”

I didn’t want to know what they had done in there.

I only wanted my diploma.

But when I opened the nightstand drawer, the document folder wasn’t inside.

There were only three boxes of condoms.

One fewer than the last time I had come home.

My hand froze.

I forced myself to look away.

An empty takeout container was still sitting on the small table beside the bed.

As if she had only just remembered, Penny gasped.

“Lena, is this the diploma you’re looking for?”

She lifted the plastic container.

My diploma had been underneath it, and the cover was soaked with grease.

Penny bit her lip.

“I’m sorry. I ate takeout in here last night, and the cover was stiff, so I used it as a placemat.”

I snatched it from her and opened the cover.

Grease had seeped into the diploma itself.

Even the embossed seal reeked of rancid food.

“Lena, don’t be so ungrateful!”

Nathaniel strode into the room and moved in front of Penny.

“Penny was kind enough to bring you upstairs. They’re just a few useless sheets of paper. What gives you the right to hit her?”

I didn’t defend myself. I only stared at the diploma in my hands, nearly ruined beyond use.

One thought filled my head.

How was I going to fix this?

Suddenly, a familiar ringtone sounded.

It was my phone.

But the sound came from Penny’s hand.

By the time I grabbed it from her, the call had already ended.

On the screen was a message Mr. Shaw had sent ten minutes earlier.

[Your appointment time has passed. Where are you?]

I had never seen it.

But beneath it was a reply from my phone.

[I am voluntarily withdrawing from this transfer opportunity.]

My head snapped up.

“Who gave you the right to reply for me?”

There wasn’t a trace of guilt on Penny’s face.

“Lena, I did it for your own good.”

I didn’t have time to argue. I called Mr. Shaw immediately.

“I didn’t send that message. I’m not withdrawing.”

He was silent for several seconds.

“We’ve already started offering the position to the next candidate.”

“Lena, if you still want a chance, get to the office within thirty minutes.”

I ended the call and rushed for the door.

Penny hurried after me.

“Lena, don’t be impulsive.”

“If you go see Julian Shaw right now, Nate will misunderstand.”

Nathaniel, who was following behind her, suddenly went still.

“Which Julian Shaw?”

Penny flinched at his tone, then answered softly.

“The male executive who’s been holding that headquarters position for her.”

“He said that if Lena returned to headquarters, he’d arrange her position, an apartment, and a relocation allowance.”

“I only turned him down because I was afraid she was being taken advantage of!”

Nathaniel’s expression darkened instantly.

He stepped in front of me.

“Lena, you’re willing to throw away your dignity for an apartment?”

“Why are you in such a hurry to get there? To prove how desperate you are? To sleep with your boss so he’ll give you what you want?”

I checked the time.

I had twenty-seven minutes left.

“Get out of my way.”

I pushed past him and ran.

The elevator was under maintenance, so I turned and raced into the stairwell.

Penny kept crying out behind me.

“Nate, stop her! What if that executive takes advantage of her?”

I had barely made it down two steps when Nathaniel caught up and seized my wrist.

“Lena, you’re not going anywhere today.”

I tried to wrench myself free.

“Nathaniel, you have no right to control me!”

His expression changed, and his grip tightened.

Pain shot through my wrist, and I instinctively stepped backward.

But the stairs were right behind me.

My foot met only air.

The next second, I crashed onto the landing below and slammed into the wall.

My vision went black, and the pain blurred my mind.

Nathaniel stood frozen on the stairs.

[Lena!]

[I didn’t mean to do that.]

I couldn’t tell where the blood was coming from.

It hurt.

It hurt so much.

But the worst pain wasn’t from the fall.

It was the memory of dragging my suitcase here, believing I was coming home, only to find another woman had already taken my place.

It was kneeling beside the dumpster and pulling my ruined stuffed dog from the rain.

My eyes were open, but I couldn’t force out a single word.

Nathaniel stumbled down the stairs and crouched beside me.

“Lena…”

[Get up. Please don’t scare me. Don’t just lie there.]

[I didn’t mean it. I was only afraid you didn’t love me anymore.]

[If you don’t love me, I’d rather die.]

He reached for my face.

Then his entire body went rigid.

For the first time, my thoughts reached his ears.

[Nathaniel Cross.]

[I wish you die.]