In the end, I was discharged from the hospital, but I didn’t return home with Ethan.
I threatened a hunger strike, and he finally agreed to let me move back into my own place.
The price? I had to finish a bottle of milk every day under his watch.
At this point, even Ethan probably didn’t believe there was nothing wrong with that milk anymore.
But I didn’t care anymore.
If he told me to drink, I drank.
I stared him down, drank the bottle in one go, and then slammed the door shut in his face, keeping him outside.
I pawned the third engagement ring.
Of course, I had no intention of buying it back.
Then, suddenly, Julian fell seriously ill.
I knew it was strange–I hadn’t known him for long, but I was willing to do anything to save him.
If I had to give a reason, it was probably because no one had ever been so genuinely kind to me before.
It felt like everyone’s affection always came with an agenda.
But Julian–his smiles were just for me.
I took him to countless hospitals, but none of them could help.
And the most infuriating thing?
Ethan wouldn’t stop following me.
He was like a ghost that wouldn’t leave me alone.
He said he could get Julian the best medical care and told me to stop running around in vain.
Lignored him.
But every day, Julian’s condition worsened.
He could no longer walk, and he would cough up blood in front of me.
+15 BONU
173
Chapter 12
Sometimes, he collapsed without warning.
In the end, he was admitted to the hospital Ethan arranged for him.
But his health only continued to decline.
June had been full of heavy rainstorms.
And on one of those evenings, under a sky where neither the sunset nor the last traces of dusk remained, Julian was gone.
Life was full of goodbyes.
That very morning, he had made plans with me to see the cherry blossoms at Crescent Park.
What had Julian really meant to me?
We barely knew each other.
I wasn’t supposed to be angry. I wasn’t supposed to grieve.
I wasn’t supposed to feel anything at all.
I didn’t cry that day.
I just sat in his hospital room for a long time.
I had only lost the last person I had left to lose.
That was all.
“The way I see it, you’re back to having only me again.”
