He Put Me On Do Not Disturb For Three Years, But Prioritized His Stepsister Chapter 10

He Put Me On Do Not Disturb For Three Years, But Prioritized His Stepsister Chapter 10

Six months later.

Sean’s mother called.

“Sean, honey, Aria got expelled. The art program found out she’d submitted a fake portfolio.”

Sean went quiet for a few seconds.

“I see.”

“Also, she’s been going around telling people she’s your girlfriend. People have beeh calling the

company to ask about it.”

“I see.”

Sean hung up.

He sat in his office, looking out at the gray sky over Southfield.

He remembered Ella saying the sky in Northport was blue.

He opened the drawer and took out the old iPad.

The notes hadn’t been updated in a long time.

The last entry was still the same one: “Rear-ended on the highway. I opened the door quietly. They were inside, completely unaware of my arrival.”

He scrolled, looking for any new trace of her.

There was nothing.

She’d stopped writing in Notes altogether.

Probably because she’d finally found someone she could talk to.

Sean closed the iPad and took a bank card out from the very back of the drawer.

It was the card he’d set up for Ella in junior year, with only her name on it.

She’d never used it, not once.

He set the card on the desk and looked at it for a long time.

Back then he’d said, “This card belongs to you alone. I want to take care of you with it.”

But later, he’d opened another card, and the cardholder was Aria.

He had given away Ella’s place in his life, piece by piece.

From the passenger seat to the fingerprint lock, from the joint account to the honeymoon itinerary.

It wasn’t that he didn’t love her.

He just never believed she would leave.

She was too quiet, too understanding, too unwilling to make a fuss.

So he’d felt comfortable ignoring her, comfortable squeezing her out of her place.

Because he thought she would always be there waiting.

Sean picked up his phone and opened the flight booking app.

Northport. One-way.

He didn’t want to disturb her anymore.

He just wanted to go see that sea once.