He Put Me On Do Not Disturb For Three Years, But Prioritized His Stepsister Chapter 06

He Put Me On Do Not Disturb For Three Years, But Prioritized His Stepsister Chapter 06

Sean came home to an apartment so quiet it was unsettling.

He figured Ella was sulking in the bedroom, waiting for him to coax her out of it.

“Ellie, I bought the strawberries you love.”

He set the fruit on the coffee table.

No answer.

The bedroom door was open, the bed perfectly made, the duvet folded into a neat square.

The closet door hung half open, and most of the clothes were gone.

Her skincare, her slippers, the shoes she wore every day, all of it was gone.

Only the custom wedding shoes she’d never had a chance to wear sat alone on the bottom shelf of

the shoe rack.

Aria’s name was still written on the box.

A sudden panic seized Sean.

He pulled out his phone and called.

“The number you have called is switched off.”

He tried again.

“The number you have called is no longer in service.”

Sean’s hand shook. His phone fell to the floor, and a crack ran across the screen.

Just then, Aria pushed the door open with two cups of bubble tea in her hands.

“Bro, I brought you… what’s wrong?”

She saw the empty room and faltered. “Where’s Ella?”

Sean didn’t answer. He bent down for his phone.

The crack ran straight down the middle, splitting the wallpaper photo in two.

The wallpaper was a photo of Ella by the sea, smiling, her eyes crinkling at the corners.

“I don’t know.” His voice was hoarse.

“What a temper.” Aria curled her lip and shoved the bubble tea into his hand.

“Bro, don’t bother with her. She’ll come back in a few days on her own. It’s not like it’s the first

me…”

“Get out.”

Sean looked up sharply, his eyes cold as ice.

Aria froze, too scared to move.

“I said get out,” Sean said, getting to his feet. “And from now on, you don’t set foot in this

apartment without my permission.”

Aria ran out, her eyes red-rimmed.

The bubble tea fell to the floor, the lid popped off, and brown liquid spilled everywhere.

Sean sat on the sofa the entire night.

Early the next morning, Sean went to Ella’s office.

The receptionist said, “Ella? She quit a week ago.”

“Quit? Did she submit a resignation letter?”

“She did, by mail. Said she wanted to see the world, so she wasn’t coming back.”

Sean stood outside her office building. The autumn wind was strong enough to sting his cheeks.

He took out a cigarette and spent ages trying to light it.

When he used to smoke, Ella would frown, buy him throat lozenges, and nag him for ages to smoke

less.

No one nagged him now, and yet his throat felt tight.

Back home that night, almost without knowing why, he opened the notes app Ella used to use.

It was her old iPad, still sitting on the nightstand.

The password was their anniversary: 09/07.

He typed it in and unlocked it.

Inside were fragments of her thoughts, endless little notes.

“Sean said my new dress looked pretty today, but he didn’t notice I’d lost three pounds to fit into

it.”

“Sean was working late, so I brought him a late-night snack. He was fixing Aria’s presentation. Aria aughed and spilled coffee all over him, and he didn’t even get mad.”

“I wanted to get a cat, but Sean said Aria’s allergic to cats.”

“My stomach hurt again. He didn’t pick up.’

Sean scrolled, and the further down he went, the more recent the entries got.

The last entry was from last Friday.

“Rear-ended on the highway. My car was damaged, and I was shaken. He still didn’t answer.”

Sean’s breath caught.

That day had been a Friday.

That day, Aria had said she wanted bubble tea from the new shop and made him stand in line for it.

That day, Aria kept sending voice messages, rushing him.

He’d put his phone on Do Not Disturb so he could give his full attention to Aria’s bubble tea line.

So that day, Ella could have died.

And he had been buying bubble tea for his stepsister.

Sean snapped the iPad shut, gasping like a drowning man.

His stomach lurched.

He ran into the bathroom and dry-heaved into the toilet.