Chased by my Ex Husband novel Chapter 53

Tristin

By the time I step onto the rooftop, it starts raining. Luca is closely behind, asking me to stay in and not get myself wet but I can not stop to listen.

Cold air sways my jacket before I feel the rain drenching me. My eyes scan the dimly lit area, searching for her.

“ Where is she? ” I mumble.

Maybe, she wanted to get some fresh air and came here. She was not suicidal and all that.

I walk around the front, and onto the back, sighing in relief. She was not here.

“ Did someone— ”

The words die on my tongue. I have been watching the area, wanting to find her but I was expecting to find her on the tall wall.

Her thin T-shirt moves with the breeze, as she walks along the line, her eyes downcast and her arms wrapped around herself.

The color drains from my face as memories flash across my mind, causing me to freeze after a long time.

“ She only wants my money. ” My brother’s voice is carried by the wind, emotionless and determined. “ It’s my fault that I didn’t understand this before. ”

“ Yes, it was your fucking fault. How could you tell her something like that? It was not your secret to share! ” Now, it was my voice, reminding me of the words spoken before, harsh and unforgiving.

“ It has always been my fault. Everything. ”

Silence had ensued after that, and it had continued for a long time. I turned away from him, not wanting to speak to him anymore.

And then he decided he would respect my wishes. He would never speak again. He would be silenced for the rest of my life.

He had done what I didn’t think he ever will. A loud thud and it was over.

How could he run from his problems instead of facing them? I thought for a long time and resented him for making me witness something I couldn’t forget.

Then, I remembered. He had been tired since he was born, always wanting to leave and stay hidden.

He was just born with this weight of being the eldest, the one who bore all the horrors and was supposed to protect us—me, my sister, Mom.

But he didn’t.

The exhaustion got to him. The betrayal from the one woman he loved became his last stroke.

He chose to disappear at last and decided he didn’t want to shoulder the weight anymore.

“ Ms. Whitlock. What are you doing? Come down from there. ” I hear Luca shout over the sound of the rain.

I blink and watch her turn towards us. She looks otherworldly standing there. The lights from the other towers shine over her drenched figure. Her hair clings to her face, as she lifts her finger towards me.

“ What are you doing here now? ” Her eyes narrow on me.

I can not move. There are only a few moments in my life when I felt like it, like I am not inside my body but floating somewhere in the air, or maybe it’s the ground. I can not feel it beneath my feet.

“ Ms, Whitlock, get down now! ” Luca’s voice rises, sounding less muffled but stern.

But I still don’t move.

I keep my eyes on her, oddly scared that she will disappear too if I look away.

Finally, it clicks…the reason why I felt drawn to her in the first in place…

It was never about her beauty, or the talent, or the brave act.

It was all ever about the burden, the weight she seemed to carry everywhere with her. It felt like if I ever took my eyes off her, I would never grasp her again.