Adopted to Biological? Keep Your Golden Child Scapegoat Out novel Chapter 60

Chapter 24

Three days later. Ethan returned to New York alone.

When he got home he noticed lights on in the house next door.

The housekeeper told him the Collins family had sold all their properties. New neighbors had moved in two days ago.

Hearing this, Ethan finally felt the heavy truth that things could never go back to the way they were.

He stayed up the whole night in his room.

Early the next morning he watched through his window as the new neighbors dismantled the garden swing set. They replaced the pink and white curtains with dark green ones and threw away the shell wind chimes that had hung by the door.

Everything connected to the Collins family–to Avery–was vanishing from his world.

Powerless to stop it Ethan started drinking heavily to drown his feelings

His battered heart grew hollow losing the ability to feel emotions.

Love and hate pain and regret joy and hope…

All slipped away from him.

His room filled up with random objects he’d salvaged from next door.

Only when searching for these items did he find moments of clarity.

The neighbors‘ five–year–old followed Ethan around helping him “treasure hunt.”

The big tree in the yard was chopped down, the rose garden ug up, and the cartoon–painted rocks smashed.”

Each item brought back memories for Ethan.

The kid kept asking questions about everything they found.

Ethan would stare blankly words forming but dying on his s.

“But now she’s gone and I’m the one by your side. You never mention her name anymore so I think you must have moved on. That’s why we’re together right? Even though you’re not ready to make our relationship public I can wait. Whether it takes three years five years or ten years as long as I’m in your heart I’ll keep waiting.”

The love hidden between each line was like honey and poison all at once.

It made him cry then laugh then fall into despair then feel joy again.

These extreme emotions kept cycling through him bringing is numb heart back to life.

Was this the final flicker before eternal darkness or the painful rebirth before a new dawn?

Ethan had no idea what ending awaited him.

He could only pray.

Pray that these teenage confessions written in Avery’s nineteen–year–old hand might save him from drowning.

Give him one more chance.

Just one. That’s all he needed.