I Stopped Waiting and Started Loving novel Chapter 57

The door was yanked open from the inside, and a shirtless, potbellied man poked his head out, glaring at him with utter impatience.

"Who are you looking for?"

Parrish stared at the stranger, his brow furrowing deeply.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The heavy-set man shot him a dirty look and barked in a gruff voice, "I live here, where else would I be? Who the hell are you?"

A flash of disgust crossed Parrish's eyes. He asked coldly, "Where are the belongings I left in here?"

"What belongings? When I moved in, this place was completely empty, not even a ghost in sight!"

The man moved to slam the door shut in annoyance.

"Parrish? Oh my, it really is Parrish!"

A sudden gasp rang out from the stairwell as the landlady rushed up, panting heavily.

Her eyes practically bulged out of her head as she stared at the perfectly tailored, expensive suit Parrish was wearing.

"Dressed like that today, I almost didn't recognize you!"

Suppressing his rising temper, Parrish demanded coldly, "Landlady, where are my things?"

The landlady flinched, patting her thigh with a guilty look.

"You didn't know? Your girlfriend canceled the lease and handed in the keys ages ago."

"She said she took everything she could, and the rest was just worthless junk. She told me to just sell it for scrap. So I called a junk collector, and they hauled off all those old clothes and shoes. Sold the whole lot for thirty dollars."

"Bonnie never came to collect the money either. What, do you want me to transfer it to you now?"

Parrish's temples throbbed violently.

He had lived in this apartment for nearly five years. All traces of his life here were worth a mere thirty dollars?

"Great. Just great."

Parrish laughed out of pure rage, spitting the words through gritted teeth.

He didn't want to spend another second in this place reeking of cheap mildew. He spun around and stormed down the stairs in his dress shoes.

Bonnie Hayes, you sure have a lot of pride.

I hope you still have this much pride when you come begging to me later.

...

"Are you out of your mind? It was just some trashy book. I threw it away ages ago."

"Give it back!"

Bonnie's voice didn't waver, but it carried a chilling edge.

She knew all too well what that book meant to her and to the Hayes family.

It was her grandfather's life's work, packed with the insights he had gathered from decades of medical practice.

Before he died, his emaciated, skeletal hands had gripped hers tightly, repeating the instruction over and over.

"Bonnie, you must guard these books. Never let them fall into the hands of outsiders, and certainly never let people with malicious intent use them to harm others."

She had guarded them for six years, never even letting Parrish lay a finger on them.

Yet now, that very man had used it as a tool to flirt with another woman, delivering it right into Seraphina's hands.

"Bonnie, do you not understand English?"

Seraphina's voice pitched higher in exasperation. "I told you, I tossed that piece of trash out ages ago!"

"That kind of quack literature doesn't even have a legitimate publisher. Keeping it just wastes space. You might treat it like treasure, but to me, it's worth less than scrap paper!"