I Called For Help, He Called It Jealousy Chapter 10

I Called For Help, He Called It Jealousy Chapter 10

Lily’s sentence came soon afterward. Convicted of murder and obstruction, Lily was sentenced to life in

prison.

I heard life in the women’s prison was a living hell for her. The other inmates despised people who behaved

the way she did.

Playing sick and helpless only brought her more beatings and abuse, day after day.

Ethan, meanwhile, lost his mind completely. He shut himself inside the apartment and cut off all contact

with the outside world.

He numbed himself with alcohol and sleeping pills. When he was awake, he talked to the hologram as

though it could answer him.

One winter night, the temperature plunged. Drunk out of his mind, Ethan picked up a lit candle and staggered

toward the image of me.

“Claire, it snowed today.”

He smiled at the hologram, a feverish, unhinged look in his eyes. “You always hated being cold. I’ll light a

candle to keep you warm, okay?”

He stumbled, and the candle fell onto the rug. Flames sprang up at once.

The alcohol fed the fire, and it quickly spread to the curtains and the couch. Smoke began to fill the living

room.

Ethan could have escaped. With his experience as a firefighter, he could even have put it out while it was still

that small.

But he didn’t. He stared at the flames, then began to laugh, a ragged sound that broke into sobs.

“Fire. So much fire. Claire, is this what you saw? Is this how it came for you?”

Instead of running for the door, he threw himself over the holographic projector. He shielded it with his body, clinging to the last semblance of me he could hold on to.

“I’m not leaving. Claire, I won’t leave you behind this time. I’ll die with you.”

The fire swallowed the apartment. In the heat, the hologram began to distort badly, its blue light flickering in

and out.

Just before the machine exploded, Ethan seemed to hallucinate. He saw the image of me give him a gentle

smile, the way I had when we’d first met years ago.

“Claire forgave me.”

He closed his eyes. A tear leaked from the corner of his eye, and then the flames engulfed him completely.

The System’s cold voice sounded above the burning room.

System: [The male lead is deceased. Return to the real world?]

I sighed and nodded. “Let’s go.”