Three Years Too Late Chapter 02
I froze, my heart sinking.
By the time Kellen took the phone, I was already crying, rushing to get the truth out.
“Kellen, no, that’s not true.
“It’s my dad—he has cancer, and we can’t afford the treatments. I didn’t have any other choice…”
“Jazlynn, drop it,” Kellen snapped.
“Are you seriously using your dad’s health as an excuse for your own vanity? I’m not giving you money.
“Why don’t you spend your time actually bettering yourself?
“Just a few days ago, you swore you were getting into a master’s program at Stanford, and look how that turned out.”
He let out a heavy sigh, sounding completely exhausted by me. “I’m busy. Stop bothering me.”
He hung up.
The line went dead.
A freezing chill swept through me, and I started shaking uncontrollably.
Blind with panic, I redialed his number. Over and over.
It wasn’t until the thirty-seventh try—listening to that same automated voice telling me the user was busy—that it finally clicked.
He’d blocked my number.
Kellen didn’t believe me.
He couldn’t even be bothered to make one simple phone call to my dad to find out the truth.
“And then?”
Kellen asked, staring at me. He was clutching a bank card so tightly his knuckles were white, clearly rattled by the state I was in.
I gave him a bitter smile.
And then?
I couldn’t reach him. Everyone else I begged for help turned me away. I even got down on my knees and prayed.
“And then,” I said, “because we couldn’t afford the treatments, my dad’s cancer went from mid-stage to terminal. He died in a hospital bed.”
But Kellen still wouldn’t accept it.
He took a deep, shaky breath and wiped a hand over his face, burying whatever he was feeling.
When he looked back at me, his voice was dead certain.
“You’re lying, Jazlynn.
“You’re making this up, aren’t you? Because I froze you out for three years, you invented this whole thing just to make me feel guilty.”
I swallowed hard, sniffling.
Pulling out my phone, I brought up a photo of Dad’s death certificate and shoved the screen right in Kellen’s face.
My face completely blank, I asked him, “Do you believe me now?”
Kellen’s jaw clenched. The doubt was still there in his eyes, his tone just as stubborn as before. “You faked this evidence beforehand, didn’t you?”
He just didn’t want to believe me. He never did.
I turned my head away, scrubbing at my tears, and let out a quiet, disbelieving scoff.
When I looked back at him, I was done. “Then look into it yourself!” I yelled. “Go fucking verify it!”
Screaming took the last ounce of strength I had.
Kellen gave me one long, hard look. Then, without another word, he turned around and walked away.
It took me a few minutes to pull myself together.
When I finally went back into the washroom, Richie’s fur was completely dry.
I put him in a separate enclosure, did a quick sweep of the shop, and headed home to my apartment.
Money was tighter than ever, so I was stuck in a cramped studio with a private bath.
It was completely out of the way, but the dirt-cheap rent made up for the awful commute.
I didn’t have much of an appetite today. I just took my meds, collapsed onto my bed, and started mindlessly scrolling through short videos.
The very first clip that auto-played was a news segment.
“Cancer could soon become a curable disease. This breakthrough comes courtesy of a targeted drug developed over the last several years by a team led by Kellen Rivett and Denise Waldron. The drug is currently in Phase Two clinical trials and is already showing significant—”
My fingers dug into the edge of my phone. A cold, intense shock washed over me.
My eyes burned, but I couldn’t shed a single tear.
That was the research project Kellen had kept entirely hidden from me? A cancer treatment?
And it was already in Phase Two?
My mind went into overdrive.
If he’d only told me back then, maybe Dad could’ve gotten into the clinical trials.
Maybe he’d still be alive.
But I was kidding myself.
Kellen had always looked down on me; he never would’ve shared that kind of information with me, anyway.