My Husband’s Countdown Dropped When She Smiled At Him Chapter 08

My Husband’s Countdown Dropped When She Smiled At Him Chapter 08

Owen went rigid. His fingers went white on the umbrella handle.

“Nora…” His voice shook. He sounded terrified and confused.

“I was protecting you.”

“Protecting me?”

I let out a soft laugh and stepped out from under his umbrella.

“You’re not protecting me. You’re just covering for your own stupidity.”

“You brought her into our lives. You put ideas in her head you had no business putting there. And now, just to prove you’re loyal to me, you’re throwing her under the bus.”

“The way you’re so cruel to her, Owen… that’s the same way you’re cruel to me.”

“You’ve always only thought about yourself.”

I didn’t look at him again. I turned and walked into the rain.

The spare umbrella I’d almost handed him? I tossed it into the nearest trash can.

Five days left of the waiting period.

Owen finally seemed to understand that little favors and flowers weren’t going to bring back someone who had already walked away for good.

So he escalated.

That night, Maya went down to take out the trash.

She came back up a few minutes later, her face panicked.

“Nora! You have to come down there!”

“Owen’s lost his damn mind. He’s standing outside in the rain!”

I was reading. I paused with my finger on the page.

Outside, it was storming. Thunder and all.

“Let him,” I said. Went back to my book.

Maya stamped her foot.

“No, seriously! His face is white as a sheet! He looks like he’s about to pass out!”

“If he dies on my front lawn, I’ll never be able to sell this place!”

I sighed, closed the book, and stood up. “Fine. Let’s go.”

Downstairs, the rain was even worse than I thought.

Owen stood in the middle of the open area in front of the building.

No umbrella. No cover.

Water poured over him like a waterfall.

His white shirt was plastered to his skin. His hair was soaked. He looked pathetic.

The second he saw me, his eyes lit up.

He tried to walk toward me.

His feet slipped. He almost fell.

“Nora…”

His voice was so hoarse I could barely hear him.

“I know I messed up.”

“I really know now.”

He stood there in the rain, eyes red.

“I should never have ignored you. Never gone soft on someone else.”

“Just give me one more chance.”

“One.”

He looked like a little kid, waiting for forgiveness he didn’t deserve.

I stood under my umbrella on the steps, looking down at him.

I saw the number above his head. [3650 days]

Ten years.

In his panic and regret, he’d stretched the timer out to a decade.

This was probably the most he’d ever loved me.

But…

“Owen.”

My voice cut through the rain, cold and clear.

“Are you trying to threaten me by standing out here?”

Owen froze.

“If I don’t feel sorry for you tonight, are you going to stand here until you die?”

“And then everyone can point at me and call me a heartless monster?”

“That’s still just you performing for yourself.”

I watched the color drain from his face.

“Go home.”

“Nothing you do will ever make me change my mind.”

Then I turned and walked back inside.

The entry door slammed shut behind me.

Cutting off the storm. Cutting off the sight of Owen’s hopeless face.

He stood there all night.

In the morning, an ambulance took him away.