He Gave Her Strawberries, Gave Me Hives (Ford and Sylvia) novel Chapter 40

Ryan screeched the car to a halt on the side of the road.

“Chloe, something urgent just came up that I have to deal with. Can you get out here and grab a cab home?”

Outside, the rain was coming down in sheets, and the road was nearly deserted.

Seeing the raw urgency in his eyes, Chloe said nothing, simply grabbing her umbrella and opening the car door.

The car peeled out, speeding away from her like a bolt of lightning.

The spray from the tires soaked the hem of her dress.

She stood by the roadside waiting for what felt like an eternity, but with the storm raging, she couldn’t get a single ride on any of the apps.

As the sky grew darker and the downpour showed no signs of letting up, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and start the long walk home.

The wind howled, whipping freezing raindrops against her body like tiny needles.

It took her two hours to finally make it home.

The moment she opened the door, she saw Ryan kneeling in front of Jessica, one hand holding her ankle, his expression intensely focused as he carefully tended to a wound.

“Don’t move. You need to be careful not to get this wet for the next few days, you hear me?”

Hearing the noise behind him, he instinctively glanced over his shoulder.

When he saw Chloe’s deathly pale face, Ryan froze for a few seconds before getting to his feet, walking over to her, and explaining in a low voice.

“Chloe, Jessica’s grandmother just passed away. I was afraid the shock would push her over the edge, make her do something crazy again, so I brought her here. Don’t worry, I’ll send her on her way in a few days.”

Behind him, Jessica was staring at her, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

A sarcastic smile tugged at the corner of Chloe’s mouth.

“We’re already divorced, Ryan. Who you have stay here is your business, not mine.”

With that, she pushed past the stunned Ryan, went straight to her room, took a scalding hot shower, and collapsed onto the bed.

For some reason, even wrapped tightly in the duvet, she felt a profound chill that seemed to settle deep in her bones, as if her very marrow had

turned to ice.

She thought about getting up to find a thermometer.

But in the end, the bone–deep exhaustion was too much, and she drifted into a hazy, restless sleep.

At five in the morning, Chloe was jolted awake by a crashing sound from the living room.

The moment she opened her bedroom door, a ceramic mug came flying straight at her head, she quickly dodged out of the way just in time.

The mug hit the floor with a dull, heavy thud.

18:45

He Gave Her Strawberries, Gave Me Hives. I Gave Them Both A One–Way Ticket To BANKRUPTCY.

15.9%

Standing by the cabinet, Jessica shot her a provocative smirk

“Ryan told ine to make myself at home, I didn’t like the look of all this stuff, so I asked it. You don’t mind, do you?

As she spoke, she casitally kicked at the shards of glass by her feet.

The flour was a wasteland of shattered ceramics, water logged photograplis, and dolls that had been viciously ce to pres

All of these things were souvenirs Chloe and Ryan had collected from their dates and trips together.

They were tangible memories, representing every little moment of their eight years together.

And now, Jessica had destroyed every single one.

Chloe silently stared at the carnage on the floor.

Strangely, aside from a faint sense of loss, she didn’t feel particularly sad,

She was leaving in a few days anyway. This junk would have been thrown out sooner or later, Smashing it now just saved her the trouble of packing it up.

With that thought, she turned to go back to her room.

But out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly noticed the photograph in Jessica’s hand.

Her pupils constricted in horror, “Stop! Don’t you touch that picture!”

Before the words were even fully out of her mouth, Jessica had already torn the photo to shreds and casually tossed the pieces into a nearby bucket of water.

Chloe lunged forward in a panic, trying desperately to fish the pieces out.

But Jessica kept blocking her, shoving her back with her arm.

Chloe finally snapped, slapping her hard across the face, but the next second, her arm was seized in a vice–like grip.

Ryan’s voice was sharp, cutting through the tension. “What the hell do you think you’re doing!”

Chloe shrieked, her eyes red and wild, “She tore up the picture of my grandmother!”

Her parents had divorced when she was just a kid, and her grandmother had raised her.

That was the only photo they had left together.

She thought Ryan would understand. But to her shock, his face hardened.

“You hit someone over a single picture? Chloe, when did you become so unreasonable? Your grandmother was on her deathbed and you didn’t even notice, so what’s with this devoted granddaughter act all of a sudden?”

His words struck Chloe’s heart like a sledgehammer.

The blow left her dizzy, a chilling cold seeping through her body.

In her senior year of high school, her grandmother had gotten seriously ill. But to keep Chloe from worrying, and to save what little money they had, she had endured the pain in silence.

It wasn’t until Chloe walked out of her final exam that she was told her grandmother had collapsed. By the time she got to the hospital, it was

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