You Want Me Back? Sorry, Request Rejected Chapter 23

You Want Me Back? Sorry, Request Rejected Chapter 23

Regina started to feel resentful and took it out on Elise. “Mommy, either you show up first thing, or you don’t come at all. This is so annoying, you know! You only brought the soup now—Rowan and Sabrina are already all better!”

If Elise had shown up earlier, she could’ve taken care of Rowan, and no one would’ve stolen Sabrina from her!

“Elise, the kids are still young. Don’t take their words to heart.” Sabrina bit her lip, feigning anxiety as she rushed to explain.

Elise merely smiled and asked, “Are you done?”

Without waiting for them to answer, she stabbed at the button for the tenth floor. The doors quickly slid shut, making the four shocked faces vanish from her line of sight.

She let out a breath of relief. This was much better.

She knocked on the ward door, but there was no response from inside. She waited a bit and confirmed no one was there. Then, she texted Jordan.

S: “Something came up, but the door isn’t locked. Go in and wait for me. I’ll be right back.”

Out of habit and manners, Elise sat down on the bench by the door. Once she stilled, her mind drifted back to the scene she’d just stumbled upon.

Rowan’s fever seemed to have broken. His complexion didn’t look nearly as bad as it had in the photo.

When he was three years old, he had a similarly high fever that lasted an entire week. She’d thought he was going to be burned stupid and cried herself to sleep every night.

Medicine hadn’t helped, so she’d turned to superstition. She hiked up a mountain to a chapel, praying with every step, and begged God to keep Rowan safe. She didn’t know whether it was just the placebo effect, but soon after, his fever really did break.

Later, the truth came out because Regina slipped up. It turned out that to get out of going to preschool, three-year-old Rowan had snuck out while everyone was asleep to take cold showers. And this “brilliant trick” was something that he’d learned from Sabrina.

In hindsight, Elise realized just how ridiculously foolish she’d been. Maybe from that time on, or even earlier, she’d already become an outsider in this family.

Meanwhile, on the ninth floor, Elise’s lightning-fast exit left Calvin and the others utterly dumbfounded.

Calvin’s gaze stayed locked on the closed elevator doors, and Rowan was stunned. Hadn’t Elise come to see him? Why did she leave again, and why did she go up to the tenth floor? His lips quivered as he fought back his tears.

At that moment, the doors of the public elevator on the other side opened. Helen rushed out, anxiety written all over her face. When she saw Rowan’s pale face, her heart twisted painfully. “Oh, my darling, you’ve really suffered. Come on, let me take a look at you.”

“Grandma!” Rowan burst into tears and threw his arms out. Calvin handed him over to Helen’s arms.

“Mommy doesn’t want me anymore!” Rowan buried his face in Helen’s shoulder, sobbing as he poured out everything Elise had done over the past few days.

“How dare she!” Helen’s brow twitched, and she looked around sharply. “Where did Elise go? What kind of mother is she, running off when her son is so ill?”

Rowan cried even harder.

He’d always been the apple of Helen’s eye, so his tears made her frantic and furious. “That wretched woman! If I don’t teach her a lesson today, she’ll really think she can walk all over us! Where is she?”

Calvin frowned. “Mom, she’s still Rowan’s mother. Don’t call her that.”

“And I’m your mother! Can’t I even lecture her now? Stop taking an outsider’s side!” Helen snapped, glaring at him.

He conceded. “She went upstairs.”

“The tenth floor is solely reserved for the head of the Steele family. It’s strange that Elise would go up there,” Sabrina chimed in, seemingly casually.

Calvin’s head snapped up, his gaze turning razor-sharp as he stared at the floor indicator over the elevator. He hoped Elise wasn’t doing what he thought she was.

“How dare a tramp like her try to climb the social ladder? Marrying into our family was already more of a blessing than she ever deserved. She should be down on her knees thanking God for that!” Helen spat.

She didn’t catch Sabrina’s hint at all. Looking confident, she concluded, “She probably only wandered up there by mistake because she couldn’t bear to face the humiliation. We’ve gotta drag her back down before she embarrasses us in front of the Steeles and makes us all look bad.”