He Chose Her, So I Jumped Chapter 03

He Chose Her, So I Jumped Chapter 03

He lunged forward and caught Marceline in his arms, then looked at me with glacial hatred.

“Marceline is pregnant, and you still pushed her. You’re the one without a conscience.”

My lips trembled. I wanted to explain, but I didn’t know where to begin.

No one believed me. No one stood beside me.

I was already on the edge of an emotional breakdown, but Marceline kept twisting the knife.

“Elowen, Mr. Hartwell’s accident wasn’t my fault. Your family has blamed me for years, and I’ve never said a word.”

“But I’m pregnant now. For the sake of my baby, can’t you please leave me alone?”

She claimed the moral high ground and drove me closer to the edge with every word.

Under the condemning stares around me, my legs gave out and I collapsed onto the floor.

I repeated the same desperate words again and again.

“I didn’t push her…”

Someone uploaded the incident online. None of the viewers knew what had actually happened.

They only saw Marceline as the vulnerable woman I had pushed down the stairs.

Countless people condemned me. The abuse never stopped.

I couldn’t bear to read it. I looked at Cassian and begged.

“Cassian, I didn’t push her. Please believe me!”

But he only looked down at me, disappointment filling his eyes.

“I thought you acted this way because you were sick, so I forgave you over and over.”

“But your heart is rotten. You were never worth saving.”

He and Julian wrapped their arms around Marceline and walked away.

Watching his back disappear, I lost the last of my strength and crumpled to the floor.

My freshly bandaged wounds split open. The blood spreading around me made the world spin.

At the same time, the story online took a new turn.

A leaked photo, secretly taken no one knew where, exploded online. It showed my mother in an intimate pose with a man no one recognized.

[So she’s the other woman’s daughter. No wonder.]

The comment section filled with vicious attacks until my emotions finally collapsed.

“What kind of daughter do you expect a homewrecker to raise? Her father probably ended up in the hospital because he found out his wife was cheating.”

“Disgusting. Who knows which man her mother had that bastard with? She’s poisonous enough to attack a pregnant woman.”

“Trash. Her mother destroys other people’s families, and I heard the daughter is after someone else’s husband too. They’re both sickening.”

My nails dug into my palms as I scrolled through the comments like I was punishing myself. I typed line after line trying to prove my innocence, but my words vanished beneath the flood.

Then my phone rang.

My mother’s hopeless voice came through the speaker.

“Your father…He…he is gone.”

“Elowen, I can’t go on either.”

Her words were followed by the heavy sound of a body hitting the ground.

Screams, curses, and countless other sounds poured through the phone. My hand dropped numbly, and the phone shattered against the floor.

Dad hadn’t survived. Crushed by the online harassment, Mom had jumped to her death too.

For a moment, I had nowhere left to go.

The abuse online kept piling higher. Numbly, I typed one sentence.

“I have depression. Please, I am begging you to stop.”

The world sometimes spared one last shred of compassion for the sick. After people saw my comment, much of the abuse quieted.

But, Cassian released a public clarification video.

In the recording, he held up his credentials as a leading clinical psychologist and spoke with deliberate certainty.

“Elowen Hartwell is my patient, but she displays no symptoms of depression. Her supposed illness is nothing more than a ploy for sympathy.”

The public backlash exploded again. With a medical professional backing the accusations, every word I had said now looked like a desperate cover-up.

I curled into a corner, trembling as I stared at the comments.

Then Cassian called. Guilt softened his voice.

“If I hadn’t said that, people would’ve accused Marceline of tormenting someone with depression. That would’ve destroyed her reputation.”

“Be good, Elowen. The internet always moves on. Once this blows over, we’ll get married, okay?”

I said nothing. I pressed the broken phone screen hard against my cheek until blood welled up, and a sick rush of pleasure surged through me.

That tiny pain felt like the only lifeline I had left.

He paused, then continued hoarsely.

“We should postpone your parents’ funeral.”

“People found your address, and they’re already gathering outside the house.”

“I had their bodies moved and buried near the landfill at the foot of the mountain. When all this dies down, we can…”

I couldn’t hear the rest.

My parents had been smeared before their deaths, and even death had brought them no peace. How could they rest beside a landfill?

I forced down the emotions tearing me apart and screamed into the phone.

“They’re my parents! What right did you have to take their bodies?”

“Cassian Whitmore, do you all have to drive me to my death?!”

Cassian had sounded guilty before, but my words turned that guilt into disgust.

“You’re using the same threat to control me again. If you really wanted to die, how are you still alive?”

“Marceline was right. You’re faking an illness to get sympathy. You’re healthier than any of us!”

He held a doctorate in psychology from an elite overseas university, yet he rejected the results of professional evaluations and chose to believe an amateur.

A bitter smile bled across my lips. I had so much to say, but no strength left to say any of it.

What was there left to tell him?

That I was truly sick? That I wasn’t pretending? Or that I had survived all these years because I had fallen in love with him?

None of it mattered anymore.

My empty gaze drifted to the window. Through the haze, I thought I saw my parents below, waving for me to join them.

Cassian’s voice kept coming through the phone.

“Haven’t I taken care of you long enough? Elowen Hartwell, if you want to die, then do it. Stop threatening me.”

“Okay.”

The single word left my lips so softly that Cassian fell silent. His ragged breathing traveled through the phone.

I gave a quiet laugh. Dropped the phone.

Stepped through the window .Without a second of hesitation.

“Jesus! Help! Someone jumped!”