I Lost The Game But Won In The End Chapter 09
She clearly hadn’t expected that.
“Why?”
“Whether you leave or not doesn’t matter anymore.”
I picked up my cup. The coffee had gone cold long ago.
The chill as I swallowed made me suddenly think of the cold sea breeze on the yacht that night.
“That day, I turned around and saw you kissing.”
“Then I found out every one of you had been hiding the truth from me.”
“Then I found out that while I thought you were my friend, the two of you were using that friendship to pave your way into this world.”
I looked at her.
“None of that becomes undone just because you move to another city.”
Zoe’s lips moved, but in the end she said nothing.
Before leaving, she stood beside the table and said, “Nora, Ethan really does love you.”
I smiled.
“I know. That’s what makes it even more disgusting.”
Zoe left.
Three days later, Ethan came to see me again.
I was in the yard playing ball with Biscuit.
The moment Biscuit saw him, he ran over wagging his tail.
Ethan crouched and stroked him.
“You still remember me?”
Biscuit circled him twice, then picked up the ball and ran back to me.
Ethan watched him for a long time before standing.
“Zoe left.”
“Sinclair Group won’t give her any more resources either.”
“Everything I promised her ends here.”
He walked toward me step by step.
There were deep shadows beneath his eyes and stubble along his jaw.
A man who had always cared so much about his appearance now even had wrinkles in the cuffs of his shirt.
“Nora, is this enough now?”
My nose suddenly stung.
If he had said these things on the yacht, right after I slapped him.
If he had told me then—
I was wrong. I won’t see her again.
If, when I had a fever, he had handed me that can of peaches.
If, when I dragged my suitcase away, he had chosen me.
Maybe I really would have softened.
But not one of those ifs had happened.
I crouched and picked up Biscuit’s ball.
“Ethan, you’ve finally let her go.”
His eyes lit up.
I threw the ball.
Biscuit raced after it.
“But I’ve let you go too.”
When Julian came to see me, he carried a bag from my favorite dessert shop and a whole box of treats for Biscuit.
Biscuit smelled the food and circled him several times.
“What do you want?”
Julian spoke first.
“Little sis, I owe you an apology.”
“For which part?”
Julian lowered his head and gave a small laugh, but this time it looked awful.
“I shouldn’t have hidden it from you in college. And after Ethan started dating you, I shouldn’t have kept hiding it.”
“And on the yacht, I definitely shouldn’t have acted like one kiss was no big deal.”
“As your brother, I didn’t protect you.”
I didn’t answer.
He stared at the coffee table.
“I really didn’t think it was that serious before.”
“Ethan liking Zoe was one thing, but we all knew he would marry you.”
“And Zoe could never marry into the Sinclair family.”
“So I always thought that even if you found out someday, you’d be angry for two days at most.”
I smiled.
“So you all lied to me together?”
“Yeah. But Nora, we really know we were wrong now. From now on—”
“There is no ‘from now on.’”
He froze.
I almost never spoke to him so coldly.
“Julian, you’re my brother. But when you helped him chase her—when you lent him your plane and arranged things for him—did you ever think about me?”
“You knew there was someone else in his heart. You knew that person was right beside me. Not only did you never tell me, you helped him bury the truth even deeper.”
“If I hadn’t turned around that day, I might never have known for the rest of my life.”
“And you thought that was fine.”
Julian opened his mouth but couldn’t say anything.
“I’m not going to cut you out of my life forever because of this. But the trust between us is broken, and broken is broken.”
“I don’t need your apology to make myself feel better. I already got myself through it.”
“We can’t go back to the way we were, and I’m not going to pretend we can.”
Julian’s eyes reddened, but he didn’t argue.
When he left, Biscuit followed him to the door.
Julian crouched and hugged him.
“At least you have a conscience. You know I buy you more treats than anyone.”
Biscuit licked his entire face.
When the door closed, the house fell quiet again.
That night, my mother knocked on my door.
“Nora, your father and I really were wrong this time.”
Her eyes were a little red.
“We always thought that you and Ethan had known each other for so many years, and that we had watched him grow up.”
“No matter what happened, we never thought he would truly hurt you.”
“So even when you told us you were hurting, our first instinct was still to tell you to put up with it.”
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at her standing in the doorway.
Before, hearing those words would have made my nose sting, and I would have thrown myself into her arms.
Now I only felt tired.
“You chose what you thought mattered more. I chose what mattered to me.”
She froze.
“Nora…”
“Mom, I don’t blame you.”
“But I can’t pretend nothing happened either.”
She stood in the doorway for a long time without moving.
Finally, I gently closed the door.
It wasn’t out of spite.
It wasn’t revenge.
Some cracks simply couldn’t be repaired with one apology.
I only needed them to understand that I had truly been hurt.
And I had the right not to forgive.
A few months later, Sloane was going back to London.
Before leaving, she asked me, “Want to come with me for a while? Stay as long as you want.”
I had turned her down countless times before because I wanted to stay with Ethan.
“Sure.”