We Both Reborn And I Let Go This Time Chapter 04

We Both Reborn And I Let Go This Time Chapter 04

The truck bed was loaded down.

Clara hopped out first, grinning so wide she could barely get the words out. “Mom! Come see!”

Raymond followed, hauling a cardboard box under one arm.

Mom rushed out to meet them, and Dad was right behind her, already smiling.

“A sewing machine! A new watch! And look at this…”

Mom pulled things out one by one, grinning like she might never stop.

“A TV too? And what’s in here?”

“Mom, this is for you and Dad.”

Clara pulled a small envelope from her pocket. There was no mistaking what was inside.

“A thousand dollars in cash.”

A thousand dollars.

I stood in the doorway, not moving, watching the pile of gifts.

The sewing machine was the one Clara had always wanted. The watch was something Raymond had picked out himself, and Clara slipped it on right away, lifting her wrist to catch the light.

He’d remembered everything.

Mom clutched the envelope, getting teary-eyed. “You didn’t have to do all this…”

Raymond smiled. “She’s worth it.”

I watched from the edge of the room as everyone crowded around Clara, and my previous life hit me all over again.

When Raymond and I got married, he didn’t bring anything like this.

The day he came to ask for my hand, he showed up with a bottle of cheap wine and a bag of candy. That was it.

The cash he offered my parents to help with the wedding was barely five hundred dollars. Mom thought it was insulting, but she didn’t say a word, because back then, having Raymond choose me at all was supposed to be enough.

After we were married, we went shopping once and passed a store with sewing machines in the window. I slowed down to look, and Raymond said, “The one at home still works.”

It didn’t work. It was a hand-me-down from his mother, so old it groaned every time you pressed the pedal, and the stitching came out crooked no matter what you did.

Clara was wearing the watch now, smiling with her whole face, and when she noticed me standing in the doorway, her smile faltered.

“Mom, what’s going on with Eleanor?” She walked over and looked from Mom to me. “Were you guys fighting?”

Mom answered before I could. “Your sister says she wants to get married.”

Clara blinked and turned to me. “Who?”

Raymond looked over too.

His gaze settled on me, and it wasn’t curiosity. It was suspicion, cold and sharp, like he was waiting for me to slip up.

“Who are you marrying?” Clara asked again.”Who exactly are you planning to marry?”

I didn’t answer.

Raymond stepped around Clara and stopped right in front of me.

He was a head taller than me. He stared down, his voice low but heavy enough to pin me to the floor.

“Eleanor. I’m asking you a question.”

He stepped closer.

“Who do you want to marry?”

I backed up half a step, and my shoulders hit the doorframe.

His eyes were sharp as blades, trying to cut the answer out of me.

“Don’t play games with me.” His voice dropped to a murmur only I could hear. “What exactly are you trying to pull?”

My fists clenched so tight my knuckles went white.

I already gave him what he wanted this time around. What more could he possibly want?

Right then, an engine rumbled outside the gate. A military jeep pulled up out front.

The body was olive drab, the plates were military-issue, and the chrome caught the midday sun hard enough to make you squint.

The door swung open, and a man stepped out. He shut the door and strode toward the yard.

Raymond saw his face, and the color drained from his own.

Mom’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Who… who is that?”

Nobody answered her.

The man walked into the yard, his gaze sweeping past everyone until it found me, pinned against the doorframe. He crossed the yard and stopped right in front of me.

He looked at me, and when he spoke, his voice carried clear across the yard.

“Eleanor,” he said.

“I’m here to marry you.”