Dead Before You Loved Me He Realized the Truth Only When My Grave Was Cold Chapter 12

Dead Before You Loved Me He Realized the Truth Only When My Grave Was Cold Chapter 12

I knew my body. This was just my last burst of strength.

I said to Darien: “Go to Willow Creek Estates. Get my grandmother’s earrings. I want to wear them.”

It was the first time he’d ever just done what I said. He left immediately.

I’d lied. I was already wearing them.

I took a taxi to Pineview Memorial Park.

I’d planned everything.

I used the last of my money to buy a plot next to my parents and arranged for my burial.

It was a perfect day.

Sun shining, flowers blooming everywhere.

I lay down in the cemetery and saw my parents waiting for me.

A soft wind blew. A small yellow flower landed on my face. It smelled sweet.

When Darien got back to the hospital, my bed was empty.

He searched for me like a man possessed.

Then he remembered the cemetery where he’d celebrated my 18th birthday with me.

When he arrived, I was already buried beside my parents.

On my tombstone was a picture of me at 18, young and carefree.

The five years he’d spent married to Seraphina had taught him the truth.

He had loved me, all those years ago.

Maybe we’d been too close. Maybe it had been too easy.

He never understood why he’d changed his mind. Why he’d been so cruel.

When he’d broken up with me, Seraphina had laughed at him.

“You idiot, lying to yourself. You just hated feeling like you owed her, like Grandpa used you. You took it out

on Elara.”

He finally realized the truth.After he graduated and joined the family business, after Grandpa gave him

control, he’d let the rumors get to him.

People said he only got power because he was engaged to me.

He’d been angry. He’d never been called weak before.

He’d been frustrated. And Seraphina had shown up at exactly the wrong moment, pushing him over the edge.

He’d ended our engagement.

He’d told himself he was just sorry for me. That it wasn’t real love. That we’d grown up.

That young love was just hormones.

He’d been too afraid to admit he’d made a mistake.

When he heard Kael was divorcing me, he’d been so happy his hands shook.

He still had a chance.

I’d always been softhearted.

Then I collapsed in front of him. The doctor gave me a death sentence.

In that moment, he felt like he’d died too.

Kael didn’t find out I was dead until he got back from his honeymoon with Seraphina.

How could she be gone?

Why didn’t she tell him she was sick?

He kicked over the trash can.

He’d planned to break up with Seraphina after the wedding.

The day we’d been caught, he’d been more scared than he’d ever been, even though he always acted so bold.

He hadn’t wanted to hear me say goodbye. So he’d handed me the divorce papers first.

The first few days of the waiting period, he’d been thrilled. He’d gotten what he wanted.

But after the fight, when I’d looked like I might fall, he couldn’t sleep.

He realized he was actually in love with me.

Seraphina was the girl he’d thought he’d always wanted, his first crush.

But being with her was empty. Boring.

He’d planned to go back to me, beg for forgiveness, make things right.

I was gone. I hadn’t taken a single thing with me.

He woke up screaming from nightmares. I was gone.

He called me, ready to say, “I’m sorry. I love you. Come back.”

But the words died in his throat.

He’d threatened to freeze my cards. On the day we signed, he’d deposited a huge amount of money into my

account.

Darien found him and beat him badly.

Kael didn’t fight back. He just laughed bitterly.

He knew what his brother was thinking.

Darien thought he could just take me back.

But he didn’t know me at all. I never looked back.

Darien finally stopped, his voice cold and broken. “Don’t you get it? She could’ve lived another month. But you

froze her accounts.”

“She stopped taking her medication.”

Kael felt a sharp, unbearable pain.

She must have hated him. She’d never said a word.

He laughed bitterly at Darien. “Keep dreaming. In the next life, Elara is still mine.”

Darien threw a medical report at his feet. “Read it.”

Kael’s hands shook as he picked it up.

Abortion procedure.

She’d been pregnant.

She’d carried his child.

And he’d never known.

“She found out she was pregnant the same day she was diagnosed with cancer,” Darien said. “The day you were with her in the parking garage.”

Kael’s mind flashed back to that day.

The cold garage. Him and Seraphina.

I’d smashed the window.

I’d been so broken.

He’d never known.

“You’re right, Darien,” Kael whispered. “She’ll never forgive me.”

“I don’t even deserve to grieve her.”

Kael stood up, unsteady.

How could he have been so stupid?

To think he could play with someone’s heart and get away with it?

Elara wasn’t stupid.

He’d fallen in love with her long ago.

He lay down in the street, and for a second, he thought he heard my voice.

“My life wasn’t very good, was it?”

“But dying in the spring… it’s not so bad.”

He thought.

She should have had a perfect, happy life.