Three Years Later, He Came Back Begging novel Chapter 18

The streetlight cast a pale glow, catching on patches of glass and making Bonnie’s smile look almost dreamlike, as if a foggy screen separated her from the rest of the world.

Lawrence felt a sharp pang in his chest. Without thinking, he reached out and let his thumb trace the lines of Bonnie’s face and softly across her lips, barely daring to touch. This was all he had left of her. Just this memory.

He didn’t know how long he sat like that before his phone buzzed him out of it.

Hannah: Lawrence, Jasper isn’t feeling well. He’s crying for you. Can you come home a little early?

The message hit like a lightning bolt. Suddenly, Lawrence realized he’d broken into a cold sweat. He forced himself to breathe deeply, pulling himself together and getting ready to head back.

As he turned, he caught the security guard by the apartment building watching him from the corner of his eye, craning his neck in open curiosity. Lawrence didn’t care. He climbed into his car and drove off.

...

The second phase of Greycliff Resort kicked off fast. Bonnie had barely caught her breath for a week, working late every night until ten.

Lawrence hadn’t shown up to a single meeting. Their brief, awkward reunion was just a fleeting fragment in the bigger picture of her life. Daniel stopped reaching out, too. Grown-ups know that silence is just another way of saying goodbye. Bonnie understood. Life, after all, slips back into a quiet routine if you let it.

By the end of July, Bonnie and Helen officially became permanent employees ahead of schedule. To celebrate, Ned picked out a trendy new restaurant that everyone online was raving about.

Helen and Ned had known each other their whole lives. They grew up together in Cabinda, started dating in high school when no one was looking, and years later, were still going strong. As Helen’s best friend, Bonnie got to tag along on all their plans, and Ned actually knew what she liked to eat. He ordered the table full, kept checking on them, and even snapped some photos.

He managed a decent shot—both Bonnie and Helen looked good, though in the background, a few diners wandered by.

“Sorry,” Bonnie replied, her tone cool. “Do I know you?”

That shut the girl up for a second. Then she spat, “Drop the act. Even if you try to act better than everyone, you were still the other woman. Got dumped, ran off to the States to beg him back, and now you’re here pretending nothing happened? Seriously?”

Hannah shot her friend a warning look. “Nana, that’s enough.”

That was the last straw for Helen. She stood up and fired right back, her voice shaking with anger. “You really want to talk about who’s the other woman? Funny. Who knows what went down back then—what tricks, what drugs, what lies. Someone got pregnant and tried to trap him, right? What a mess. Honestly, I’d be embarrassed if I were you. If you see Bonnie, you should have the decency to keep your head down and walk away. Even dogs have more class than you.”

Nana’s face turned bright red. “Excuse me? Lawrence said it himself, he only dated Bonnie to piss off Hannah! He never cared about her. She just didn’t get the hint. Now Hannah’s happy with her family, and if you pull the same old jealous stuff from before, if you interfere again, you really will be the side chick!”