Too Late to Beg: I’m No Longer Yours Chapter 04

Too Late to Beg: I’m No Longer Yours Chapter 04

On the third day, an unknown number called.

I ignored it.

It wasn’t until the seventh attempt that I finally answered.

Hayes’s voice was hoarse.

“Nova. Are you really gone?”

I flipped through my lab notebook.

“Yeah.”

“When are you coming back?”

“I’m not.”

I could hear his suppressed breathing through the receiver.

“Stop throwing a tantrum.”

“We crossed a line on your birthday. I can apologize for that.”

“But fleeing the country, dragging the apartment, the money, and my company into this? Don’t you think you’re taking this too far?”

My pen paused.

“Hayes. You changed the passcode to my own apartment. Did you think that was taking it too far?”

He fell silent.

“I just didn’t want you to lose control.”

“Laney has a weak heart. She can’t handle stress.”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“So you were afraid I’d stress her out. And your solution was to torture me instead?”

Soft sobbing filtered through the phone. It was Delaney.

“Hayes, don’t fight with Nova.”

“It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have worn her ring. I shouldn’t have put on that necklace.”

Hayes immediately softened his voice.

“Don’t cry. This has nothing to do with you.”

I let out a dry laugh.

“Hayes. Did you call me to explain yourself? Or did you just want an audience while you comfort her?”

He stiffened on the other end.

When he spoke again, he was suppressing his anger.

“Nova. Laney already gave the ring back.”

“And we’re looking for the necklace.”

My stomach dropped.

“What happened to the necklace?”

Hayes didn’t answer.

Cole snatched the phone.

“Nova, just calm down.”

“When we were at the beach house, Laney’s clasp came loose. A gust of wind blew it away.”

A loud ringing echoed in my ears.

My pen slipped from my grip. Clattered against the desk.

Cole kept making excuses.

“It was an accident.”

“Plus, Laney cried all night. She already has anxiety. Stop pushing her.”

My voice trembled.

“That was the only thing Mom left behind.”

Cole grew impatient.

“Mom has been gone for years. You seriously need to move on.”

“What’s the point of constantly using a dead person to guilt-trip us?”

His words plunged into my chest like a jagged knife.

It was always the people closest to you who knew exactly where to twist the blade.

Hayes scolded him in a low voice.

“Cole.”

But that was it. Just a weak scolding.

No apologies. No remorse.

Not a single one of them gave a damn about that necklace.

I hung up.

That night, I sat on my dorm floor. I pulled out Mom’s photos and stared at them, one by one.

By the time the sun came up, a text from Brie arrived.

[Nova, the necklace was an honest mistake.]

[If you keep dragging this out, Laney might do something drastic.]

[Just let it go. We can all go back to the way things were.]

The way things were.

Memories flooded my mind.

When Brie was broke and wanted to open a boutique, I maxed out my credit cards to loan her forty grand.

When Cole failed his college courses, I took time off work to beg his academic advisor for a second chance.

When Hayes’s startup bled cash, I emptied the savings Mom had left me and wired it all to him.

And on the night Delaney moved back from LA, she got drunk and threw up on my bed.

I changed her clothes. Brewed her hot tea.

Yet the first thing she said when she woke up was:

“Nova. Stop waiting on him hand and foot. You’re suffocating Hayes.”

Everyone had laughed.

Everyone except me.

I used to think I felt sick because I was too sensitive.

Now I realized the truth.

My body knew they were abusing me long before my heart did.

I opened my laptop and emailed my lawyer.

All loan records. Transfer receipts. Chat logs. Copies of contracts.

I zipped the files together.

By the time I hit send on the final email, dawn had broken.

The snow outside had stopped.

I reached up and touched my bare neck.

I’m done holding back, Mom.