He Left Me Waiting for Three Years. So I Left Him Forever Chapter 10

He Left Me Waiting for Three Years. So I Left Him Forever Chapter 10

After leaving my mother’s apartment building, Ethan didn’t go home.

He went back to Southport, where Serena was still living.

Not long afterward, Serena resumed updating the vlog she had abandoned three years earlier

Ethan never came to see me again.

Six months later, Mom set me up on a blind date at a coffee shop.

By the time I arrived, the man was already seated.

“Hi. I’m Daniel Foster.”

“I’m-”

“Claire. Claire Bennett.”

“Did my mom tell you my name?”

He shook his head.

“It’s not what you think. Your mother didn’t tell me anything. I recognized you as soon as you walked in.”

“From the videos?”

“Yeah. Honestly, I didn’t want to come on a blind date, but once I realized it was you, I was glad I showed up.”

“Thank you.”

“Ethan Carter has been regretting losing you for years.”

I frowned.

“What?”

“You haven’t seen it?”

“Seen what?”

Daniel didn’t answer. Instead, he picked up his phone and tapped the screen a few times.

It was the first time he had touched his phone since I sat down.

Then he slid it across the table toward me.

Serena’s account was open.

In her latest video, she was so thin that I barely recognized her.

“Is that Serena?”

“Hard to believe, isn’t it?”

“Yes. What happened to her?”

“Her illness relapsed six months ago. She also developed severe transplant rejection.”

“Where’s Ethan?”

Daniel nodded toward the screen.

I focused on the video.

Ethan looked far more haggard than I remembered. His lips were pressed into a hard, exhausted line.

“Take your meds.”

“No.”

Ethan drew a deep breath.

“Your CT scan is in ten minutes. I don’t have time to coax you into taking your medication.”

Serena slapped the pills from his hand, sending them scattering across the floor.

Ethan stared at her, his face hollow with exhaustion.

“What else do you want from me?”

“You regret it!” she screamed. “You regret coming back to take care of a sick woman like me, don’t you?”

“You wish I would hurry up and die, don’t you?”

“Well, too bad. Even if I die, Claire Bennett still won’t forgive you!”

Her laughter turned shrill and frantic.

“Enough!”

Their argument continued until the screen abruptly went black.

The entire clip lasted only twenty–three seconds.

In just six months, every emotion seemed to have been stripped from Ethan’s face, leaving nothing but

numbness behind.

Serena no longer resembled the vibrant woman she had once been.

Her head was shaved, and she now wore a hat most of the time. Her eyes burned with a desperate,

uncontrollable rage.

Serena had changed.

So had Ethan.

Perhaps they had once truly loved each other, but illness, resentment, and pain had ground away anything

beautiful between them.

There was only wreckage.

Perhaps even “wreckage” was too generous a word.

After all, even now, Ethan had never clearly said what Serena was to him.

Love was a luxury that only had room to bloom once survival was secure.

It wasn’t some spotless lotus that could somehow bloom untouched over a bottomless pit.

“Claire?”

Daniel’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.

“Sorry. I got distracted.”

“That’s okay.” He paused. “This may be too personal, but can I ask you something?”

“Do you still love Ethan?”

“No.”