I Stopped Loving Him When He Let Me Bleed Out novel Chapter 265

Noah's heart leaped into his throat.

"Wait, wait! Sienna, I remember now! Let me go look for it, you just keep doing what you're doing!"

He practically body-blocked her out of the hallway.

And slipped into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

Sienna thought his behavior was utterly bizarre, but she didn't dwell on it.

She had too much unpacking to do.

Inside the pitch-black closet, Finn's eyes landed on a small octagonal box tucked into the corner.

He recognized it instantly.

It was the birthday gift he had given her years ago.

His hands trembled slightly as he picked it up and flipped the lid open.

Resting inside was a pristine piece of amber. It wasn't large, but suspended perfectly within the golden resin was a single, crystal-clear leaf. When the light caught it, the leaf almost looked alive.

She had told him once that she loved amber because it romanticized the idea of freezing a single moment into eternity.

He had scoured half the city to find this exact piece.

He had assumed she had thrown it in the trash ages ago.

Yet just moments prior, he had heard her conversation with her brother.

She had kept it. She stored it in this special box. It was something 'really important' to her.

Finn clutched the piece of amber, his knuckles turning white, his eyes burning with unshed tears.

A suffocating wave of emotion swelled in his chest, pulling painfully at his heartstrings.

"Oh my god, where is this stupid box?" Noah hissed, pacing the room in a panic.

Finn gently pushed the closet door open a crack and handed the octagonal box out.

Noah's eyes lit up. He snatched it and scrambled out of the bedroom.

"Found it!"

Sienna took it from him and popped it open.

A profound sigh of relief escaped her lips.

Noah hovered nearby.

"Seriously, what's in there? Why are you treating it like crown jewels?"

Sienna clicked the lid shut.

"A gift from a friend."

"A boyfriend?" Noah probed.

"No."

She only ever had one son in her heart.

Finn ended the call. The curtains in his living room were drawn tight, completely swallowing him in the suffocating darkness.

-

Across the city, Ford Fletcher viciously hung up the phone on the prison administration—again.

"Who was that...?" Angeline Ashford gasped beneath him, her voice breathy and disjointed.

"Just spam callers. Don't let them ruin the mood. Keep making those sounds, I love hearing you."

... Sometime later, Angeline lay draped over his shoulder, tracing lazy circles on his bare chest.

"Ford, someone's been bullying me. Are you going to help me?"

Ford leaned back against the headboard and lit a cigarette.

"Talk."

"There's this instructor at my department named Lily James. She's completely shameless and slept around with a professor. When the faculty found out, they stripped her of her promotion. Since I've always been a model employee, administration gave the spot to me." Angeline forced a pathetic sob. "But she was so bitter! She took all her resentment out on me and literally assaulted me!"

Ford reached out, tilting Angeline's chin up.

"She actually dared to touch you?"

Angeline unleashed a flood of practiced tears.

"I'm always so nice to everyone! They just think I'm an easy target and want to walk all over me!"