Act Like You Love Me (Jessica) novel Chapter 189

Chapter 189

Daphne’s POV

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28

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The apartment felt smaller than it had ten minutes ago. I stayed on my knees, my hands still anchoring Lois’s wrists, watching the way her chest hitched.

“Lois, talk to me,” I said again, my voice steadying through sheer force of will. “Why are you packing? Where are you going?”

She finally looked at me, and the utter defeat in her eyes made my stomach drop. She didn’t look like the vibrant, unbreakable woman who had carried me through my darkest months. She looked fragile, like she might come apart if I gripped her too hard.

“I have to go, Daphne,” she choked out, her voice thick with salt and exhaustion. “I’m going back. To Brazil. To my mother.”

I felt the air leave my lungs. “Back? Like… a visit? For how long?”

She shook her head, a fresh spill of tears tracking through the blotchy redness of her cheeks.

“I don’t know how long. My brother, Pedro… he’s very sick. My mother called me a few minutes ago. She was crying so hard I could barely understand her, but she said he’s critical. He’s in the hospital, and she’s there all by herself. She’s too old to handle this, Daph. She can’t lift him, she can’t talk to the doctors properly, she’s just… she’s alone.”

Lois reached out, grabbing a handful of a sweater that lay discarded on the bed-a soft, cream-colored knit I’d seen her wear a thousand times.

She squeezed it until her knuckles turned white.

“I have to be there. He’s my brother. If something happens and I’m sitting here in this city, thousands of miles away, trying to pretend my life is normal… I’ll never forgive myself.”

The reality of it began to sink in. Brazil wasn’t a train ride away. It was a different world. It was an ocean and a language and a life away.

My heart began to ache, a dull, spreading heat in my chest that made it hard to swallow.

I reached up and gently wiped the dampness from beneath her eyes with my thumbs.

“Okay,” I whispered. “Okay. Then I’m coming with you.”

The offer was out of my mouth before I even had time to think about how possible that was, the cost, or the job. It just felt like the only logical conclusion. We were a unit. Where she went, I went,

Lois immediately pulled back, shaking her head so violently her hair fell over her face.

“No. Absolutely not. Daphne, don’t even say that.”

12:07 Thu, Mar 26

Chapter 189

28

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“Why not? I can help. I can look after your mom while you’re at the hospital with Pedro. I can-”

“No,” she interrupted, her voice gaining a sudden, desperate strength. She grabbed my hands this time, her grip pleading.

“You finally got it, Daph. The dream job. You are so close to everything you’ve worked for. You’ve spent years grinding, taking those terrible internships, dealing with people like Kyle and… and everything else. You can’t just cut it off. Not now.”

I felt a surge of stubbornness.

“Lois, listen to me. This job is just paper and a paycheck. You are my family-my only family. You think I care about a promotion or a title when you’re going through this? You were the one who covered my half of the rent for three months when I was broke and crying on this very floor. You paid the electric bills when I couldn’t afford to keep the lights on. You sacrificed so much of your own peace to make sure I didn’t sink. I’m doing this. I’m going.”

“Daphne, please,” she sobbed, and the sound broke something inside me.

“Do this for me. Stay. If I know you’re here, finishing what you started, it gives me something to look forward to. I need to know that one of us made it. If you come with me, then we both lose. Please. Just let me go and handle this. I just need to see him. I just need to know if he’s going to make it.”

I looked at her, really looked at her, and realized that her refusal wasn’t about pride. It was her final act of protection.

She wanted me to stay in the light while she went into the dark.

My heart felt like it was being squeezed by a giant hand. I didn’t want to agree. I wanted to fight her on it, to insist that my loyalty was worth more than a career path.

But I could see the exhaustion in the line of her shoulders. She didn’t have the strength to argue with me and pack her life at the same time.

“Fine,” I whispered, the word tasting like ash. “But you call me every single day. The second you land. The second you see him.”

She nodded, a small, watery smile touching her lips as she leaned forward to rest her forehead against mine.

We stayed like that for a long time, two people tethered by a history of shared meals and borrowed clothes, mourning a departure that felt far too permanent.

ΑΑΑΑΑ

The hours that followed were strange. They were filled with the mundane, repetitive tasks of departure, but everything felt heavy, as if we were moving through water.

I helped her fold the clothes she’d tossed onto the bed. We didn’t talk much. We didn’t need to.

As I tucked her favorite jeans into the side pocket of the suitcase, a memory hit me so clearly I could almost smell the popcorn.

12:07 Thu, Mar 26

Chapter 189

28

B 5 vouchers

It was our sophomore year. We had spent six hours straight sitting on the floor of our tiny dorm room, surrounded by empty soda cans, watching a marathon of 90s rom-coms.

We had laughed until our stomachs ached at the cheesy endings, promising each other that our lives would be just as cinematic one day.

I looked at Lois now, her eyes red-rimmed as she checked her passport, and I felt a wave of profound guilt.

Since I’d started this new job, since the drama with Kyle had escalated and David had entered the picture, I’d been so caught up in my own head.

I’d been a ghost in our apartment. I hadn’t sat down to watch a movie with her in months. I hadn’t asked her about her day without eventually turning the conversation back to my own stress.

And now, this was it. This was our last moment together for an unknown amount of time, and I was realizing how much of her I had taken for granted.

The way she always left the last bit of coffee for me. The way she knew exactly which song to play when I was having a panic attack.

“Remember 10 Things I Hate About You?” I asked softly, smoothing out a silk blouse.

Lois looked up, a faint glint of nostalgia in her eyes. “You cried when he bought her the guitar. Every single time.”

“I did not,” I lied, smiling through the lump in my throat.

“You did. And then you made me go get tacos at two in the morning.”

“We had some good times, didn’t we?”

Lois stopped what she was doing and walked around the bed, pulling me into a tight embrace.

“The best, Daph. The absolute best.”

We spent the final hour before the airport run huddled together on the couch.

We didn’t turn on the TV. We just sat there in the dimming afternoon light, her head on my shoulder, my arm wrapped around her as if I could physically hold her in the country. It was a solemn kind of peace,

The ticking of the clock on the wall felt like a countdown, each second stripping away another layer of our shared life.

The drive to the airport was a blur of gray highway and taillights. I drove with a grim focus, my hands tight on the wheel, trying not to think about what the apartment would look like when I got back.

The terminal was a mob of moving people, a hive of energy that felt deeply offensive given how broken we both felt. We stood near the security gate, the suitcase standing between us like a barrier.

“I have to go,” Lois whispered, glancing at the overhead monitors.

12:07 Thu, Mar 26

Chapter 189

“I know.”

22

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We hugged one last time. It was the kind of hug that felt like it was trying to fuse two people into one. I held on until she was the one to pull away.

She didn’t look back as she handed her boarding pass to the agent. I watched her figure disappear into the crowd of travelers, the bright colors of her scarf the last thing I saw before she turned a corner and was gone.

I stood there for a long time, rooted to the spot.

People brushed past me, apologizing or grumbling as they navigated their own journeys, but I couldn’t move. I felt like I had been hollowed out.

I turned to walk back toward the parking garage, my vision blurring.

I sat down on a cold metal bench in the waiting area, burying my face in my hands. I didn’t care who saw me.

The reality of being alone-truly alone-in a city where Kyle was lurking and my future was uncertain was suddenly terrifying.

“It’s a heavy thing, saying goodbye.”

The voice was thin and weathered. I looked up to see an elderly man sitting a few feet away. He wore a faded tweed cap and held a cane between his knees.

He wasn’t looking at me; he was watching the planes take off through the massive glass windows.

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, feeling embarrassed. “Sorry. I didn’t realize I was making a scene.”

“No scene,” he said gently, finally turning his head to give me a kind, wrinkled smile. “Just life. My wife used to say that the people we love never really leave us, they just change form. They become the courage we didn’t know we had.”

He stood up slowly, leaning on his cane. He didn’t ask for my story. He didn’t offer a platitude about things happens for a reason.

He just patted my shoulder with a hand that felt like parchment.

“Go home, dear. Drink some tea. The sun will come up tomorrow, whether you want it to or not. Best to be awake for it.”

With that, he shuffled away, disappearing into the terminal.

I walked back to my car in a daze. The drive home felt longer than the drive out. When I finally unlocked the door to the apartment, the silence that met me was absolute.

I stepped inside and didn’t turn on the lights. The kitchen counter still held the grocery bag I’d dropped earlier.

The orange I’d heard fall was still sitting on the linoleum, a bright, lonely spot of color in the shadows.

12:07 Thu, Mar 26

Chapter 189

28

5 vouchers

I walked down the hallway to the bedroom. The bed was made-Lois must have straightened the sheets in those last few minutes while I was getting my keys.

The room was empty of her scent, empty of her clothes, empty of her laughter.

I sat down on the edge of the bed and stayed there, listening to the quiet. It was so still I could literally hear a pin drop in the next room.

The apartment wasn’t a home anymore. It was just a collection of rooms, and for the first time in my life, I realized that I had no idea how to live in them by myself.

I pulled her pillow toward me and put my head down, staring at the door. I was alone, Kyle knew where I lived, and my best friend was halfway to South America.

The silence was the loudest thing I’d ever heard.

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12:07 Thu, Mar 26