I Lost My Baby, He Became Her Hero Chapter 10

I Lost My Baby, He Became Her Hero Chapter 10

I had spent ten years helping Adrian turn Cole Holdings into an empire. One month later, I sold my entire stake to one of his fiercest rivals, giving them ownership of half the company. [-5%)

令他赔偿我名下半数股权及全部共同财产。

她只出售了自己持有的那一半股份,因此公司并没有完全“belonged to someone else”]

I settled my assets and left my mother a modest trust fund, enough for a comfortable and dignified

retirement.

Then I bought a one-way ticket abroad.

The day I left was gray and bitterly cold.

Heavy snow covered Ravenport.

My mother came to the airport looking far older than she had only a few months earlier, with white streaks in her hair and deeper lines etched across her face.

She stood in the departure hall with her head lowered for a long time before finally speaking.

“I didn’t know Vanessa… had done something so terrible.”

Her voice started to shake.

“I’m sorry, Natalie. I truly didn’t know. If I had…”

She couldn’t finish as tears began falling faster than she could wipe them away.

I looked at the woman who had raised me.

For most of my life, I believed she would always stand behind me.

Now she was old.

But age couldn’t close the wound she’d left inside me.

“Mom, I won’t hate you.”

Her tears came harder.

She reached for my hand.

“But I won’t forgive you either.”

Her hand stopped in the air.

“Goodbye.”

I turned and pulled my suitcase toward security.

Her sobs followed me.

I didn’t stop.

I couldn’t.

As the plane took off, I leaned against the window and spotted a familiar figure standing in the snow

outside the terminal.

It was Adrian.

He had no umbrella.

Snow covered his hair, and his coat hung open.

He looked thin enough to disappear.

Adrian stood there with his face raised toward my plane.

A memory from years earlier returned.

One winter, several men cornered me in an alley near our school.

Adrian appeared from nowhere and stepped in front of me.

There were more than ten of them.

He couldn’t win.

They kicked him to the ground and broke part of his pinky.

Still, he never let go, keeping me shielded behind him.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I’ll always protect you.

But forever rarely lasts.

The plane climbed through the clouds.

Soon, Ravenport and the man below disappeared from sight.

It was early morning when I landed at Northlake International Airport.

Cold air slipped through my collar as I left the terminal.

The winter felt much like the one I’d left behind.

But the sky was impossibly blue.

I didn’t go to a hotel.

Instead, I hired a car to Silverpine, a town I’d researched months earlier.

The town sat at the foot of a snow-covered mountain and had fewer than a thousand residents.

The place felt forgotten by the world.

The property was an old two-story wooden building.

It had once been a café but had stood empty for years.

The real estate agent handed me the key.

“Ms. Bennett, are you sure about this place? Silverpine hardly gets any tourists.”

I unlocked the door.

The building was worn and the floorboards creaked, but its enormous windows faced the

snow-covered mountain.

Sunlight poured inside and turned the dust into gold.

“I’ll take it.”

Money wasn’t a concern.

The judgment and the sale of my shares had given me more than I could spend in several lifetimes.

But I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life simply living off that money. I wanted something meaningful to do.

During the next two months, local contractors restored the building.

The first floor became a café and reception area.

Upstairs, we created five guest rooms.

Each room had a window overlooking the snow.

A wooden sign above the entrance read: Millie’s Inn.

My daughter’s name.

I knew she could never return.

Still, I wanted her memory to live on in me, beneath that mountain, and in every guest’s smile.

The days passed quietly after that.

People arrived and left.

I learned to bake bread, repair leaking pipes, and care for flowers.

Some nights, I sat outside after closing and watched the stars.

Adrian, Vanessa, and Mom still crossed my mind.

Sometimes everything felt distant; other times, it felt as if it had happened only yesterday.

At first, every memory tightened my chest, but little by little, the pain faded until I finally realized I had let go.

I hadn’t forgiven them.

I had freed myself.

Three years later, I heard about Adrian again.

Eleanor found my number and sent message after message.

[Natalie, Adrian is in the hospital with a bleeding ulcer. He keeps calling your name.]

[I know I have no right to ask, but could you call him once?]

I read the messages twice and felt calmer than I’d expected.

The wind picked up outside, so I needed to bring the flowers in from the balcony.

I blocked Eleanor’s number and carried the pots indoors.

As soon as I finished, the wind stopped.

I lay on the floor and released a long breath.

I once thought moving on meant crying until I had nothing left, falling apart, or suddenly understanding everything one day.

Now I understood it didn’t happen in a single moment.

It came little by little, like melting snow, a wound forming a scab, or flowers blooming, fading, and blooming again.

Those people and memories still existed, but they could no longer hurt me.

“Ma’am, do you have a room?”

A guest called from the entrance.

“Yes.”

I stood and went to open the door.

Life had to go on, and at last, the storm had passed.