He Chose Her, So I Jumped Chapter 04

He Chose Her, So I Jumped Chapter 04

Long after the horrified cries came through the phone, Cassian stood frozen in shock.

His phone slipped to the floor, but he didn’t seem to notice.

Had Elowen Hartwell… really killed herself?

“Where’s a doctor? Get a doctor! There’s so much blood. There’s no way she can survive that.”

“Why would she suddenly jump? Isn’t she the homewrecker’s daughter everyone is talking about online? I heard she had depression.”

“God, look at her. I doubt she’ll make it.”

Every whispered judgment pierced the connection and reached Cassian’s ears.

His face went deathly pale. The hand gripping his phone began to shake.

“Elowen…”

Saying my name seemed to drain every ounce of strength from him.

He didn’t stop to think. He grabbed his car keys and raced toward St. Celeste Medical Center.

But the moment he reached the lobby, he ran into Marceline and Julian.

Smiling, Marceline walked up and looped her arm through his as if no one else existed.

“Let’s have dinner together tonight. We should thank you for keeping Elowen under control all these years.”

“Without you,

she would’ve tormented us nonstop with all those suicide threats.”

In the past, Cassian would have agreed without hesitation.

He and Marceline went back years. At Blackridge University, he had fallen hopelessly in love with her from afar.

He never found the courage to confess and could only watch her fall into another man’s arms.

Then one day, she came to him and asked for a favor.

He had never imagined she would need him. He agreed before she even finished asking.

That was how he began years of psychotherapy with me. He smothered my desire to die and successfully shifted my attention from Julian to him.

Then, just when I was ready to begin a new life, he dealt me the cruelest blow of all.

He lowered his gaze to Marceline and spoke hoarsely.

“What did she ever do to make you want to destroy her?”

Marceline’s smile froze. She clearly hadn’t expected those words from him.

But after only a moment, she smiled again and explained.

“Elowen is my best friend. How could I possibly destroy her? I wouldn’t have gone this far if she

hadn’t pushed me at every turn.”

“Cassian, you know how hard these years have been for me. You should understand.”

Cassian looked down and gave her no answer.

Marceline claimed Elowen had hounded her relentlessly, but throughout everything he had

witnessed, Marceline had always been the aggressor.

He had never said it aloud, but he had seen every bit of it.

With that realization, he strode past her and left.

Behind him, Marceline’s face twisted with hatred, as if she wanted to tear me apart with her bare

hands.

I floated above them, watching the farce unfolding below with me as its star. It all felt painfully dull.

Maybe dying had cured my depression too.

I no longer drowned in the urge to die every second of every day. Death had made me lighter than I had been in years.

When Cassian reached the hospital, a crowd had gathered outside, pointing at a mangled shape in a pool of blood.

“Lord have mercy. How could anyone survive a fall like that?”

“That body’s probably already cold. Why would she throw her life away?”

“Isn’t she the woman at the center of that scandal online? Did she kill herself over it?”

The comments closed in around Cassian. His face turned whiter with every word as he shoved

rough the crowd and stumbled forward.

The moment he saw the body on the ground, whatever held him together finally snapped.

“Elowen!”

He reached out with a trembling hand, but he couldn’t bring himself to touch my broken body.

He brushed the hair from my face. Only when he saw my closed eyes beneath all that blood did he

finally accept it: Elowen Hartwell was dead.

Just as they had wanted, my depression had killed me.