No Longer Waiting For You Chapter 05
In Rodney’s phone, there was only the cold message: “The user you dialed is powered off.”
The kindergarten teacher walked over and patted his shoulder. “Mr. Barston, it’s time for the family photo.”
He snapped back to himself, and when he looked at Macey smiling brightly into the camera, he suddenly found it unbearably glaring.
“I have something urgent. You go ahead without me.”
He turned and sprinted for the parking lot, floored the gas, and rushed home.
The moment he opened the door, the entire house was empty. There was no Tania’s laughter, no sound of Olivia cooking. There was only the signed divorce agreement on the coffee table, and a thin sticky note.
He picked up the agreement, his fingers shaking badly. Olivia’s name was signed neat and precise.
Like a madman, he charged into the bedroom — her clothes were all gone from the closet. In the children’s room, Tania’s toys, picture books, and little dresses had disappeared too.
Only on the nightstand lay the stub of the candle Tania had clutched all afternoon. The wax had already set into an ugly shape.
Beside it was “Guess How Much I Love You,” the book he had bought for Tania.
He opened the picture book. On the first page were three little figures: a small girl with braids, a long-haired woman, and a faceless man.
Underneath, in crooked, wobbly handwriting, it read: “When is Daddy coming home?”
Rodney’s heart felt as if a hand had clenched down hard on it, squeezing until he couldn’t breathe.
He collapsed onto the floor. For the first time, he realized the woman who had waited for him for five years was truly gone — taking their daughter with her, vanishing completely from his life.
He took out his phone and called everyone he knew who knew Olivia.
“Do you know where Liv went?”
“No. She didn’t tell me.”
“Rodney, what were you doing all this time? When Liv was giving birth, you were entertaining clients. When Tanny had a fever, you were with Claire. Now that she’s gone, you finally know to look for her?”
Her best friend’s words were like a knife, stabbing into his heart.
He called Konnor next. The phone rang for a long time before it was answered.
“Konnor, is Liv with you? Give her back to me!”
“Rodney,” Konnor’s voice was calm. “Liv and Tanny are in New Zealand now. They’re safe. She’s already signed the divorce agreement. If you see no issues, just sign it and mail it to me.”
“New Zealand? Why would she go to New Zealand? Konnor, give me her address!”
“I won’t,” Konnor said. “What you’ve owed them these past five years can’t be repaid with a single apology. Don’t go bothering them again.”
When the call ended, Rodney sat in the empty living room, from dawn until nightfall.
The house was full of traces of Claire and Macey, yet all he felt now was nausea.
He picked up his phone and opened his chat with Olivia. Five years of messages — long and short, all from her — while his replies were nothing but one “OK” after another.
The last message was the photo of the divorce agreement she had sent.
He scrolled up to this date last year: twenty-nine missed calls, and twenty-nine automatic replies of “OK.”
Below that was what she had sent at three in the morning: “I’m in the ambulance. My head hurts so much.”
There had been no reply.
Rodney covered his face. At last, he couldn’t hold it in anymore, and he broke down sobbing. He finally understood: that “OK” he thought was convenient had frozen every last bit of warmth between them into a single, cold number.
And now, she wasn’t even willing to receive that final number anymore.
