He Drove His Female Intern Every Day. I Vanished After the Storm Chapter 08

He Drove His Female Intern Every Day. I Vanished After the Storm Chapter 08

The messages from unfamiliar numbers finally stopped.

But Ethan still waited outside my office building every day.

The front desk also started receiving package after package addressed to me.

On the first day, it was the restored picture frame.

Inside was the same photo we’d taken right after graduation.

The bloodstains had been cleaned off, and the broken glass had been replaced.

On the second day, it was a thick stack of restaurant reservations.

They were valid for a year.

I had no idea how Ethan had managed it, but he’d made reservations at almost every restaurant I’d ever sent him.

On the third day, it was a cashier’s check.

The amount was even more than what he’d taken from our savings to buy the car.

On the fourth day, it was a ring.

The exact one we’d once stopped to admire together in a jewelry store window years ago.

On the fifth day, it was the signature cake from the bakery we used to visit all the time.

This time, I didn’t ask the front desk to deal with it.

I carried the box outside and stopped in front of Ethan.

He smiled immediately.

“Don’t you like this flavor anymore?”

I handed the cake back to him.

“You don’t have to keep doing this. We’re over.”

“I know.”

Ethan’s eyes instantly turned red.

“I know we’re over. But is there really no chance for us at all?”

He told me he’d found out what had happened.

Sophia had deleted the messages I’d sent him.

She had also hidden the fact that I’d called.

If he’d seen those messages at the time, he would’ve come back immediately.

He never would’ve let his last chance slip away.

I looked at him.

“Ethan, you still don’t understand. You didn’t lose me because you missed a few messages that week. You lost me because you crossed the line again and again. Because every single time, you chose to put me second.”

“Sophia didn’t destroy us.”

“You did.”

I returned the restaurant reservations, the ring, and the cake.

I cut the repaired photo in half.

I gave him his half too.

As for the money, I kept only the portion that had originally belonged to me.

“We’ve settled everything between us. Don’t come looking for me again.”

“No.”

Ethan suddenly stepped forward.

“At least let me make up for what I owe you, okay? There are still so many restaurants you sent me that we never went to. And the car! I’ll drive you to and from work every day. I promise I’ll never let you get caught in the rain again. I’ll never make you travel that far alone again.”

He was growing frantic, as if afraid I might leave at any second.

Finally, his eyes fell on the ring.

“And this.”

Suddenly, he started crying.

“On our fifth anniversary, I should’ve put this on your finger.”

I looked at him, then shook my head.

“I don’t need it anymore.”

I turned to leave.

He suddenly grabbed my hand.

When I looked back, it was the first time I’d ever seen Ethan cry like that.

Tears kept falling, and even his breathing turned uneven.

“One chance. Eileen, just one. You really can’t give me even one more chance?”

“You already had one.”

I reminded him.

“After the hospital, I gave you another chance.”

Ever since that night, I’d kept asking myself whether our five years together were worth one more chance.

At first, I couldn’t let go.

I wondered whether I was being too cruel, whether I was really going to destroy everything we’d had all at once.

But as the days passed, I became more and more certain.

I didn’t want to go back anymore.

Ethan had always chosen Sophia first.

This time, I was choosing a life without him.

Ethan opened his mouth several times, but no words came out.

The ring slipped from his hand.

It rolled a long way down the sidewalk.

He didn’t go after it.

He only stood there and watched me walk away.

After that day, the front desk finally stopped receiving things from Ethan.

The new project also wrapped up successfully.

At the celebration dinner, I listened to one of the younger women on my team complain about her boyfriend’s lack of boundaries.

Halfway through her rant, she suddenly raised her glass.

“Eileen, being single is the best. You can go wherever you want and do whatever you want. The freedom is unreal.”

I clinked my glass against hers.

Someone nearby leaned over.

“Hey, what happened to that guy who used to wait downstairs every day?”

“Yeah.”

“Was he trying to date you?”

“He was pretty handsome, but he looked more exhausted every time I saw him.”

I shook my head.

“No. He was my ex-boyfriend.”

Someone immediately slapped the table.

“All right, enough about men! This is a celebration dinner! Congratulations to Eileen on officially becoming team lead!”

Another woman raised her glass.

“Exactly. Career comes first. Come on, everyone. To the promotion!”

I smiled and lifted my glass.

“To our careers.”