He Came Back Ten Years Too Late Chapter 02

He Came Back Ten Years Too Late Chapter 02

My voice had been ruined ten years ago.

That should have been the happiest year of my life.

My family was still together, and my career was taking off.

I was getting so many interviews I could barely keep up.

That was also when Ethan planned an elaborate proposal beneath the waves.

Beside a reef blazing with color, he lowered his head and slipped a butterflyfish diamond ring onto my finger, a promise of forever.

Dozens of submersibles around us flashed the same message.

“Jazz, I’m Ethan Hayes. I’ll love you until the day I die.”

Sadly, the grand proposal didn’t go as planned.

Cassidy, who was still working the salt flats then, happened to fall into the water.

After she was pulled out, I was the one who took her to a back room to change.

Back then, Cassidy was deeply tanned, tiny and thin, and carried a trace of insecurity whenever she met anyone’s eyes.

My heart softened, and I began caring for her and helping her like she was my own sister.

I gave her a job and let her take part in my research and my life.

She absorbed everything I taught her like she was starving for it.

She even copied my expressions perfectly.

Sometimes, when Ethan looked at her,

his eyes would go distant for a second before his brow pulled into a hard line.

“I don’t need you ironing my shirts or bringing me something for a hangover. None of that is necessary.”

“And you don’t need to copy everything Jazz does. You’re not her. Do you understand?”

Cassidy flinched and hid behind me. With tears in her eyes, she said she was only trying to repay me.

Back then, I defended her with all my heart.

But this was how she repaid me:

was by turning my celebration dinner

into a public reveal that she was my father’s daughter.

How absurd.

The person I’d trusted as my closest friend was actually the daughter my father had fathered outside his marriage.

Overnight,

I lost the father who had once loved and protected me.

The shock left my mother gravely ill and confined to bed.

I couldn’t accept that I’d been the one to let a snake into our home and hurt my mother.

Guilt and self-blame consumed me. I cried beside my mother’s hospital bed night after night.

During that dark stretch, Ethan stayed firmly by my side.

He told me it wasn’t my fault.

He said he’d never betray me.

He said he’d always be the one I could rely on.

I believed him completely and clung to his promise as the strength to pull myself together.

But after a three-month undersea expedition,

I found him and Cassidy tangled together in our bed.

I nearly broke apart on the spot.

By the time I came to, I had a fistful of Cassidy’s hair and was demanding an explanation, my voice breaking.

Cassidy dropped to her knees in front of me, sobbing prettily through her tears.

“Jazz, I’m sorry. And don’t blame Ethan. He missed you so badly that after he got drunk, he mistook me for you.”

But the fresh and fading marks scattered across her skin proved this hadn’t been a one-night mistake.

Each mark cut through my heart like a knife.

I screamed and hurled everything within reach at Cassidy.

Ethan stepped in front of her.

His eyes were unreadable as he looked at me.

“Jazz, while you were gone, I got a call from the future.”

“The voice told me I’d fall in love with Cassidy.”

“I tried to ignore it, but I failed.”

I asked him why.

Ethan sighed, looking almost relieved.

“Maybe I needed someone who’d check on me, fuss over me, and lean on me.”

“Jazz, you’re too strong for your own good. Cassidy’s different. She’s like you, but she loves me more.”

I stood there, stunned.

I couldn’t believe the boy who once told me he hoped I’d always chase my dreams

had turned into a man who criticized me for being too strong and not fragile enough.

I laughed bitterly.

I couldn’t bear to admit that after losing my family,

I’d lost my love, too.

So I pulled out my prenatal document.

I took Ethan’s hand and pressed it against my stomach.

A tiny life had been growing inside me for three months.