One Phone Call Talked Me Out of My Own Marriage Chapter 04

One Phone Call Talked Me Out of My Own Marriage Chapter 04

“Rena, I’m back. You don’t have to be afraid. I’m here now.”

Hearing Landon’s voice through the call felt like listening to someone from another lifetime.

It had been so long that I could no longer remember the last time he had spoken to me that gently, or the last time he had called me Rena with such tenderness.

The younger Serena replied without warmth. “Thank you.”

The younger Landon sounded hurt. “Rena, why are you suddenly thanking me?”

She didn’t answer, and he didn’t press her, turning instead to urge the doctor to schedule her surgery right away.

After a while, she pulled the phone out from beneath her blanket.

“I’ll leave as soon as the surgery is over,” she told me. “I won’t be there for the proposal.”

Relief washed over me, and I nodded.

I had barely returned home when Landon arrived with a sobbing Elise at his side.

He stormed toward me and seized my wrist.

“Did you tell Grandpa about Elise and me?”

Pain shot through my arm.

That wrist had never fully recovered after I injured it saving him in a car accident years ago.

He had already forgotten.

I wrenched my wrist free and faced him without warmth.

“I would never humiliate myself by telling anyone about the filthy mess the two of you created. You may not have any shame, but I still do.”

His expression tightened.

Then he gave a bitter laugh.

“You wouldn’t tell him?”

His tone was thick with contempt.

“You’ve always acted like you’re above everyone else. If you told Grandpa, he’d force Elise out of my life for you. Why pretend that isn’t exactly what you wanted?”

Elise was crying so hard she could barely breathe. A vivid red mark stood out across one side of her face.

“Serena, I’m begging you.”

Her voice broke.

“I only want to stay with Landon. I don’t care if he never gives me a title or makes our relationship official.”

She stumbled toward me with her hands clasped together. “Please. Just let me stay with him.”

Before I could react, Landon caught Elise by the shoulders and steadied her, his face tightening with concern before he turned on me.

“Why do you have to push her this far?”

“She’s never tried to take anything from you. All she’s ever wanted was to stay quietly by my side without fighting you for anything.”

He shook his head, looking deeply disappointed.

“When did you become this cruel and hostile? You’re nothing like the Serena I used to know.”

My chest constricted.

Bitter disbelief washed over me.

“I changed?”

I looked directly at him. “What about you?”

“You think you’re still the man you used to be? You were the one who changed first, Landon. It was always you.”

At the same time, the younger Landon’s voice continued through my earbud.

“Rena, everything’s arranged. They’ll be taking you into surgery soon.”

“Don’t be scared. I’ll be right here the whole time.”

His voice trembled with emotion.

“When you wake up, we’ll get married.”

“I don’t care whether your legs recover. I’ll stay with you for the rest of my life. And if you can’t walk again, then I’ll be the one you lean on forever.”

Every word was gentle and sincere.

Yet his tenderness only made the coldness of the man before me hurt more.

My eyes began to burn.

Landon noticed and hesitated before speaking again in a slightly softer tone.

“Apologize to Elise, and I’ll let this go.”

I closed my eyes.

“Apologize?”

I laughed bitterly.

“Who are you to demand that from me? And what makes her deserve an apology?”

I pointed toward the door. “Get out, Landon.”

“Serena!”

His voice sank, his chest heaving with anger.

“You said it. If I leave now, I’m not coming back.”

I stopped looking at him.

Landon stared at me for a long moment.

“Fine. Have it your way.”

He turned to Elise. “Come on. We’re leaving.”

The door closed behind them, and silence swallowed the house.

I lowered my head and smiled bitterly.

Then I packed the rest of my belongings, left the house for good, and headed straight for the airport.

More than ten hours later, the younger Serena suddenly broke down on the other end of the call.

“I sent him away.”

Her sobs came in broken gasps.

“It’s over. We’re really over.”

A wave of relief moved through me.

At the same time, my memories of Landon began fading, one after another, as though someone were slowly erasing him from my mind.

Across the city, Landon was reviewing paperwork in his office when a violent wave of dizziness struck him.

His vision went dark, and he collapsed beside his desk.

When he regained consciousness, his grandfather and Elise were sitting beside his hospital bed.

“Grandpa?”

Landon looked around the room, dazed.

“What happened to me?”

His gaze shifted toward the door, and disappointment crossed his face. “Where’s Serena?” he asked stiffly. “I’m in the hospital, and she couldn’t even bother to come?”

His grandfather smacked him hard on the shoulder.

“Your wife, Elise, is sitting right beside you!”

The older man glared at him.

“And you’re lying there asking about a former classmate you haven’t seen in ten years?”