I Heard His Thoughts Never His Love Chapter 11
One rainy day, he once again tilted the umbrella entirely toward me, leaving his own shoulder soaked.
I stopped walking.
“Silas, you always knew what you were supposed to do, didn’t you?”
“You knew which words were cruel. You knew how to apologize.”
“You didn’t refuse to change because you couldn’t.”
“You refused because you didn’t think you needed to.”
“You were sure that no matter how badly you hurt me, I would stay.”
Silas’s lips went pale.
“That’s not true. I just didn’t know things would end up like this.”
“So?”
I pushed the umbrella back toward him.
“Your parents helped me a lot when I was younger.”
“When my parents could only see Serena, Mr. and Mrs. Grey paid for my summer camps and private lessons. They comforted me when I was upset.”
“Sometimes, they were more like parents to me than my actual parents.”
“If it weren’t for them, I never would’ve stayed with you for so long.”
“And because I still care about them, I haven’t had campus security remove you.”
“Silas, let’s end this without making it uglier.”
I turned away.
A heavy thud sounded behind me.
Silas had collapsed in the rain.
His face was white.
His entire body trembled.
He struggled to call my name.
“Nora…”
I stood there for a moment.
In the end, I didn’t go back.
I found a classmate, gave him some money, and asked him to take Silas to the hospital and help arrange his return home once he was stable.
Then I sent Mrs. Grey a message.
Mrs. Grey, Silas came to see me. He had an episode. Please come get him as soon as possible.
It was the first time I had contacted the Grey family since changing my number.
It was also the last.
I had spent ten years walking beside Silas.
The rest of the road was his to walk.
My life became peaceful again.
Once Theo realized I was no longer avoiding his advances, he pursued me even more openly.
I gave him a fountain pen once.
He spent an entire week showing it off around campus.
“Nora gave this to me.”
“She picked it herself.”
“Be careful if you touch it. If you break it, I’m seriously going to lose it.”
One of our friends rolled his eyes.
“We know. You’ve told us eight times.”
“So? Something this important deserves eighty.”
Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore.
I told him to shut up.
His dimple appeared as he grinned.
“Why shouldn’t I tell people? The woman I like gave me a gift. The whole world deserves to know.”
He never hid things from me.
He freely gave me his phone password and told me beforehand who would be at parties.
If someone confessed feelings for him, he didn’t use it to test my jealousy.
He rejected them clearly and then told me himself.
“I don’t want you hearing it from someone else.”
“I don’t want misunderstandings between us.”
Of course we argued too.
But he never used my wounds as weapons.
Even when he was furious, he would take a deep breath and say,
“I’m too emotional right now, and I’m afraid I’ll say something that hurts you.”
“Give me thirty minutes to calm down. Then we’ll talk properly.”
Once he had calmed down, he would sit across from me again and work through the problem piece by piece.
It was as though he existed in a permanent state of believing in me.
When I finished a screenplay, he told me I was talented.
When I gave my first public reading alone, he said I glowed onstage.
Even if I ate a little more dinner than usual, he could somehow turn it into praise.
“Impressive. You ate half a bowl more than yesterday.”
“Huge progress, Nora. You deserve applause.”
I laughed.
“Do you think everything I do is amazing?”
“Of course not.”
He corrected me with complete seriousness.
“You have plenty of flaws.”
“But I love you, so we can slowly work through your flaws together.”
“Your strengths, on the other hand, deserve to be praised loudly.”
Shortly before graduation, Theo confessed to me again by the lake.
“Nora, I’m not asking you to believe in forever right now.”
“Just give me a chance to prove it one day at a time.”
“Love shouldn’t be hidden inside someone’s heart and left for you to guess.”
“It should be spoken.”
“And you should be able to feel it clearly.”
The evening breeze moved across the lake.
The sunset spread brilliant gold behind him.
I looked at him for a long time.
Then I finally nodded.
“Okay.”
He froze for two seconds.
Then he smiled like a kid who had just been handed candy.
Even then, he didn’t recklessly pull me into his arms.
He opened them and carefully asked,
“Can I hug you now?”
I stepped forward on my own.
“Yes.”
At that moment, I finally understood.
Healthy love never forced you to exhaust yourself guessing.