Unreturned When the Fog Cleared Chapter 12

Unreturned When the Fog Cleared Chapter 12: Regret

He didn’t look at them again, turning and striding quickly toward the study.

Pushing open the study door, he crouched down and pulled a file folder from the bottom drawer of a cabinet.

Inside were two divorce certificates.

As his fingertips brushed across the cold covers, Julian Rhodes’s eyes began to turn red.

He had never planned on giving the divorce certificates to Thera Sutherland. He had kept them himself the whole time, just waiting for the right moment to take her to get remarried.

He should have taken the initiative to remarry her long ago, but he’d always thought of it as a minor issue and kept putting it off.

When Thera mentioned going to the Registry Office yesterday, he had even grown impatient, thinking she was intentionally trying to cause trouble on the wedding day…

The image of Thera standing at the top of the stairs, her face streaked with tears, surfaced in his mind.

Thinking back now, there had been no hysteria in her eyes–only a near–calm indifference.

‘Was that when she decided to just go along with it and sever our ties completely?‘

“Impossible,” he murmured to himself.

“Thera loved him so much. How could she leave him?‘

Julian Rhodes clenched the divorce certificates, his knuckles turning white. He shot to his feet, overcome with the urge to rush out and find Thera.

He had to find her, explain that he hadn’t meant what he said last night, explain that the divorce was only temporary, that he had never really wanted to be apart from her.

But he stopped abruptly just as he reached the study doorway.

‘Had he really never thought of being apart from her?‘

The moment he signed the divorce papers, he had felt a sliver of relief he

couldn’t even admit to himself.

It was as if a burden had been lifted. He no longer had to consider Thera’s feelings or struggle to keep the peace between her and Yara.

But now, that sliver of relief felt like a thorn digging viciously into his

heart.

They had been so in love back then.

Thera had known he was raising his younger sister alone. She’d held his hand, her heart aching for him, and said, “From now on, I’ll help you take care of Yara. I’ll treat her like my own little sister.”

When he’d just taken over the company from his uncle and was being given a hard time by the shareholders daily, it was Thera who would rush to his office every day after work, bringing homemade meals and keeping him company as he worked late into the night.

The Thera from back then always had a sparkle in her eyes. She would get excited planning their future and would say with conviction that they would grow old together.

But all of that changed after Yara’s incident.

He was caught in the middle. On one side was the sister he had grown up with, who had suffered her own hardships; on the other was the wife who

loved him with all her heart.

Yara would always threaten to kill herself, forcing Thera into all sorts of

difficult situations.

It wasn’t that he didn’t see Thera’s suffering. He saw her secretly wiping away tears. He saw how, to appease Yara, she cut the long hair she loved and swapped her usual bright clothes for plain ones.

At first, he would feel guilty. He would comfort Thera in private and tell Yara, “Don’t go too far.”

But as time went on, he grew tired, too.

Every time he came home, he had to face the tense atmosphere between them–either Yara’s complaints or Thera’s silence.

He gradually started making excuses to work late or attend social events, preferring to stay at the office rather than face the stalemate at home.

Gradually, he began to take her sacrifices for granted.

It wasn’t until yesterday morning, when he saw her standing at the top of the stairs with tears falling silently onto the carpet, that his heart had twinged as if pricked by a needle.

But that momentary pang of heartache was quickly overshadowed by her silence.

She had always been like this, it seemed–never arguing or making a fuss when she was wronged. It made him subconsciously think, ‘It’s just like always. She’ll get over it in a bit!

He never realized that behind that silence, she had been accumulating disappointment until she finally had enough and decided to let go.

But Julian Rhodes didn’t want to let go.

He had to get her back, to tell her all the apologies he’d left unsaid, to make up for all the ways he had failed her.