Seventeen Times She Came, Once I Stopped Caring Chapter 02

Seventeen Times She Came, Once I Stopped Caring Chapter 02

“Leah! Wake up!”

Ethan shook me awake. His eyes were bright, a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead.

“I’ve got great news.”

I could barely whisper, “What?”

“The wedding search video went viral yesterday. So many people messaged Megan with leads.”

He shook me again, and I felt dizzy.

I hadn’t eaten all day. My stomach burned.

“You look awful,” he frowned. “No more dieting. I don’t care if you gain weight.”

“Come on, let’s get you food.”

He took me to a restaurant twenty miles away. He ordered their signature dishes without even looking at the menu.

“Megan’s brother would be fourteen now. He might have been adopted and gone to school, so she comes here a lot—hoping to spot him.”

He wiped my chopsticks for me, casual and light.

“School should be letting out soon. Keep an eye out—see if any of those kids look like Dylan.”

Across the street, a middle school let out, and a crowd of students poured through the gate.

My hand froze on the chopsticks.

So he brought me here not because I’d lost weight, but because he didn’t want to miss any chance to help Megan find her brother.

Ethan went to the restroom, leaving his phone on the table.

On impulse, I picked it up.

I opened Megan’s Instagram. She’d blocked me for three years, but every single post was visible to Ethan.

For three years, they’d gone everywhere together, searching for that nonexistent brother.

Her latest post was tagged in Riverside.

Beneath a streetlamp, she was standing right on Ethan’s shadow.

[Thanks for looking all night with me. Dylan, come on already—your big brother’s exhausted from dragging this city.]

My heart clenched.

The day our cat Milo—a calico we’d had for seven years—went missing, I’d run through a downpour for an hour looking for him.

When I called Ethan, he said he was on a business trip in Riverside.

He asked, “Why is the rain so loud? Where are you?”

My voice shook, “Milo’s gone. I’m out looking for him!”

“Ethan, think—where would he go? He always follows you around—”

“How should I know?” He sounded annoyed. “You can just buy another cat. I’m in a meeting. Don’t make a big deal out of nothing.”

So the business trip was a lie. He was with Megan, searching for her brother.

Later, after the rain stopped, I found Milo’s body in the garden by the apartment block.

He’d left in such a hurry he forgot to close the window. Milo fell and didn’t make it.

When Ethan came back, he offered to buy me another calico.

I said no.

Milo was a stray we’d rescued. You couldn’t replace that.

Just then, a fight broke out at the next table—drunks brawling. A bottle shattered, and glass flew at me.

I couldn’t dodge in time. A shard sliced a deep gash across my arm.

“Leah!” Ethan lunged, shielding my head and pulling me toward the exit. “I’m taking you to the hospital.”

His phone rang again. The screen blazed with Megan’s name.

“Ethan, I saw a boy who looks like my brother—but he got on a bus and I can’t catch him. What do I do—”

“I’m coming to you!” he blurted.

Then he remembered me, hesitation crossing his face.

“Leah, Megan’s in a tough spot—”

I pressed my hand over the wound, but blood still seeped through my fingers.

“I can handle it myself. Go.”

A flicker of uncertainty in his eyes, but only for a second.

“Okay, take a cab to the hospital. I’ll pick you up by three. I promise.”

Then his back disappeared into the distance.

I gripped my arm.

“Ethan, if you keep your word and come for me by three, I’ll tell you the truth.”

On my phone screen was the evidence from the private investigator I’d hired.

[Found it. Megan doesn’t have a brother. The photo is a composite from online images.]