Three Years Later, He Came Back Begging novel Chapter 241

It had felt like a farewell. Her memories of that drunken night were fragmented, but she clearly remembered the damp, suffocating weight of that goodbye.

Afterward, the skies had cleared, and life moved on.

Bonnie didn't allow herself to dwell on why Lawrence had grown so gaunt, or why he looked like a broken drifter buckling under the weight of the world. She simply lowered her eyes, bid Odette a polite goodbye, and continued walking with Aiken.

As they moved away, a crisp, childish voice echoed over the hum of the supermarket crowd.

"Uncle Lawrence, the pretty lady left..."

With the holiday rush, the aisles were packed and noisy. Bonnie thought she had misheard. She glanced back over her shoulder almost unconsciously, and through the sea of shoppers, her eyes collided directly with Lawrence’s.

In that single, fleeting glance, a tidal wave of emotion hit her. It was as if she were looking through the river of time, seeing the same Lawrence who had once stood outside her dorm building all night, the boy she had firmly rejected.

But Bonnie quickly turned her head and kept walking.

Lawrence stood frozen in the aisle. It felt as if relentless waves were crashing against his chest, eroding the walls around his heart until nothing remained but raw, bleeding flesh left to face the brutal impact. The metaphorical salt of the ocean seeped into his open wounds, making him hunch forward in breathless agony. His hand curled tightly over his chest as he struggled to drag air into his lungs.

Odette fought back her own tears, gently rubbing her son's back. Throughout her career, she had counseled and comforted countless students. Even now, alumni still called her for advice. But in this moment, Odette couldn't find a single word of comfort. She didn't know how to advise a man who was profoundly ill, trapped in a past he couldn't escape, to simply forget the only cure he had ever known.

Jasper, watching his grandmother, innocently mimicked her actions, patting Lawrence’s back with his little hand. "Uncle, are you sick again?"

To Jasper, the shift from calling him 'Daddy' to 'Uncle' was nothing more than a change in vocabulary. He didn't understand the complex difference between the two; all he knew was that he hadn't seen his mother in a very long time, and his uncle didn't play with him anymore.

He pushed the cart forward as if nothing had happened. Odette let out a quiet sigh and swiftly changed the subject. "Your brother called today. He wants us all to get together for New Year's Eve. Would you like to go, Jasper?"

Lawrence gave a mechanical nod. "Sure."

"Grandma," Jasper chimed in, "does Uncle have an uncle too?"

Odette managed a warm smile, affectionately ruffling Jasper's hair. "Of course he does. Remember your Great-Uncle the police officer? When you were little, you used to steal his uniform hat. He has a little girl right around your age. You can play with her, how does that sound?"

Jasper beamed, bouncing happily in the cart seat.

Lawrence just kept his head down, lost in a world of his own.