After He Remembered He Lost Me Chapter 22
“Adrian, do you really not know?”
Evelyn’s voice was utterly devoid of emotion; every word seemed forged from ice, stabbing into his body and leaving him frozen in place.
Mara’s shout broke through the locked basement door, ringing clearly in their ears.
“Adrian, you want to avenge her, but you are the one who deserves to die the most!”
His blood turned cold inch by inch. Adrian wanted to pretend he hadn’t heard, instinctively trying to escape, but Evelyn raised her hand to touch his cheek, forcing him to stop.
Light streamed in through the narrow window, but it could not dispel the darkness at the basement entrance.
She withdrew her hand, stood up, and walked past him toward the exit.
Yet her words came out slowly and clearly, and even if he didn’t want to listen, every syllable reached his ears.
“Adrian, she’s right. If you want to avenge me, you are the one who deserves to die the most. I was just an orphan with no parents. They wouldn’t have targeted me for no reason. In the eyes of people like you, you can’t even see the poor like us.
“You were the one who brought me into this circle, the one who kept me as your girlfriend while flirting with others, and the one who allowed them to bully and humiliate me.”
“Adrian, all of this is because of you.”
Adrian didn’t want to admit it.
He opened his mouth to say it wasn’t like that, to say he loved her, but all the things from the past suddenly flooded his mind. In a daze, he was transported back five years, seeing himself with an impatient face, scolding Evelyn for following him, for supposedly burning Mara on purpose.
He saw himself, back then, rushing without hesitation to save someone else when danger struck.
He saw himself playing a duet on stage with someone else, completely unaware that his girlfriend was in the audience, her hand crushed to pieces, and later using 1,000 dollars to buy silence and protect those who had hurt her.
He saw himself, when Mara and Evelyn were kidnapped together and the kidnappers demanded one be abandoned, giving up Evelyn in front of everyone.
Is this what love is?
Adrian himself could hardly tell anymore.
The sound of footsteps faded into the distance, each step landing on his chest, every breath stabbing him with pain. Was he really going to give up like this? He was unwilling.
Just as he mustered the courage to turn and chase after her, a loud bang echoed, followed by Evelyn’s surprised voice.
“Winnie!”
Though they hadn’t been apart for long, in that moment, she suddenly wanted to cry. “Winnie, why did you only just get here…”
Hearing the tears in her voice, Winston immediately panicked.
He pulled her tightly into his arms, feeling her warmth. Ever since he heard Evelyn was missing, his heart had been pounding wildly, but now, finally, it settled back into place.
He gently patted her back, softly comforting her, “It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s all my fault for not finding you sooner…”
When Adrian turned around, this was the scene he saw.
If last time he could still convince himself they were just friends, this time he had completely lost the chance to deceive himself.
He watched this scene in self-torment, his feet weighed down as if by a thousand pounds, making it impossible to move.
His whole heart felt hollowed out, turned into a barren wasteland. He wanted to get closer, but didn’t dare.
So she hated him after all.
So she really didn’t want him anymore.
Adrian’s sorrow didn’t last long; it wasn’t just Winston who burst in, but also the police he had brought.
“Don’t move, police!”
Perhaps the sounds from the basement were too disturbing. Even though Adrian was alone, the officers were all on high alert.
