They Celebrated Her Rescue, No One Noticed I Was Missing novel Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The color drained from Ethan’s face.

I exhaled.

“This is where we stop, Ethan. Walking away is the only ending that makes sense.”

I didn’t deny what we once had.

But I couldn’t erase what he had done.

I walked past him.

Suddenly, screams erupted.

My heart dropped.

I turned.

A car was charging straight toward us.

Audrey was behind the wheel.

Her eyes were wild.

“Evelyn Vance, go die!”

Before I could react, someone shoved me hard.

I hit the ground.

Brakes shrieked.

A body flew forward and slammed onto the pavement.

Blood filled my vision.

Police dragged Audrey away as she screamed.

Her face twisted in disbelief.

“Why? Ethan, why did you push her? Didn’t you cheat? Didn’t you stop loving her? Why save her?”

Ethan lay in a pool of blood.

He struggled to speak.

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“Eve… don’t look… I look terrible…”

The ambulance arrived.

As they lifted me inside, someone placed something bloody into my

hand.

It was the rabbit hair clip I had lost years ago at Audrey’s birthday party.

On the stretcher, Ethan coughed blood and forced a smile.

“Giving it back… Evelyn… I’m sorry…”

“From now on… eat properly… sleep properly… and remember… think of me…”

He paused.

Then shook his head weakly.

“Never mind. Don’t think of me.”

The heart monitor screamed.

Through the chaos, Ethan looked at me one last time.

Just like years ago, crouched beside my hospital bed after selling his grandmother’s heirloom,

Red-eyed. Smiling anyway.

“Evelyn,” he whispered. “Be happy.”

The monitor went flat.

His funeral and Margaret’s were held on the same day.

The sun was unbearably bright.

I sat outside the cemetery for hours.

I never went in.

Losing two people at once should have destroyed me.

But what if those two people were also the ones who hurt you the most?

I barely remember getting home.

Later, all I remembered was the wind.

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Soft.

Like the dead brushing against the living…

Three days later, two transfer contracts arrived.

One from Margaret.

One from Ethan.

After I signed them, both lawyers left.

I returned to Northern Europe.

To the house I once swore I would never enter again.

In the study drawer, I found a cancer diagnosis.

Three months old.

[Patient: Ethan Sterling.]

Beside it was a handwritten note, rewritten many times.

Only one line remained:

[Evelyn. Eat well. Sleep well. Live well. Be happy every day.]

I finally cried.

The last trace of hatred disappeared.

If hurting me was Ethan’s way of forcing me to move on, he succeeded.

I would not destroy myself because he was gone.

I would not follow him in death.

I simply would never visit his grave.

Not in this life.

Not in the next.

Ethan, you were unbearably arrogant.

Outside, the wind bent the roses and lifted the curtains.

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Like someone long gone saying goodbye.

I’m sorry.

Goodbye.