The Game Where I Lost My Last Finger And Him Chapter 05

The Game Where I Lost My Last Finger And Him Chapter 05

He avoided my gaze, his tone careless.

“If you’re innocent, it’ll speak for itself. There’s no point arguing with her.”

I had cried half the night in that hotel because of his messages.

He had sent me medicine, and I thought maybe, at the very least, some small part of him still cared.

But whatever care he had left for me was not worth even one sentence in my defense.

My voice rose sharply.

“Ethan Shaw, is this how far you’ll go to protect her? She’s spreading filthy rumors about me, and you tell me to let my innocence speak for itself? She stole my direct-admission spot, and you tell me not to argue with her?”

Ethan cut me off, his voice louder than mine.

“What do you want, Audrey? The fact is, you didn’t compete. Chloe did. She won. She got direct-admission. No matter how much you make a scene, you can’t change that.”

I stood there, stunned, as tears slid silently down my face.

The hallway was so quiet I could hear the wind.

I turned to leave, but Chloe suddenly reached out and grabbed the thin cord around my neck.

“Wait. What are you wearing?”

The cord snapped.

The pendant slipped out from beneath my collar, flew forward, and dropped from the fifth floor.

I watched helplessly as it traced an arc through the air and fell into the flower bed below.

It was the only thing my mother had left me.

She had said the pendant would protect me for the rest of my life.

It had broken once before, and I had cried for three days and three nights.

Back then, Ethan had gone to every jewelry repair shop in the city until he finally found someone who could fix it.

When he put it back around my neck with his own hands, he said, “If it ever breaks again, I’ll get you an even better one.”

My whole body trembled.

I shoved Chloe hard.

She lost her balance and fell backward.

Ethan reached out and caught her firmly in his arms.

Holding Chloe, he lifted his eyes to me, cold as ice.

“Audrey, that’s enough.”

“Can you stop snapping at everyone like some rabid dog?”

My gaze moved from Chloe, safe and untouched in his arms, and at the smug smile tugging at her lips.

I said nothing.

I turned and ran downstairs.

Outside, rain was pouring down.

I searched through the flower bed like I had lost my mind.

My nails broke as I dug through the mud, and pain shot through my fingertips.

Laughter drifted down from above.

“Look at her. Doesn’t she look like a dog?”

“More like a pig. A wild pig rolling around in the rain.”

Their voices cut through the rain like needles stabbing into my back.

The pendant lay in the muddy water, broken into three pieces.

I picked it up and clenched it in my palm.

The shards sliced into my skin, and blood spilled out, mixing with the rain.

Kneeling in the storm, I finally broke down and sobbed.

After that day, I never went back to school.

I had already changed my college choices and picked up my records.

Ethan sent me message after message.

[Audrey, stop throwing a tantrum. Chloe didn’t mean any harm.]

[Your pendant broke. I’ll find someone to fix it for you.]

[My parents want you to come over for dinner. Will you come?]

[I got the good-luck pendant back.]

[Audrey!]

I did not reply to a single one.

The day college admission results came out, he showed up downstairs at my apartment building.

He rang the doorbell for a long time, but no one opened the door.

He called me, but I did not answer.

Then he sent more messages.

[Audrey, I’ll take you to visit campus. You can get familiar with it ahead of time. Didn’t you say you wanted to see Founders’ Lake?]

[Audrey, wasn’t this what we promised each other?]

Founders’ Lake.

That was where we had promised to go together.

He had said he would bring flowers there and finally tell me he loved me.

When our neighbor saw him, she sighed.

“Ethan, Audrey went on a trip.”

“She did really well on the SAT. She’s going to South Coast University.”

Ethan’s hand began to tremble around his phone.