He Watched Me Freeze Now He Begs For My Return Chapter 08
I hung up before my mother could say another word.
The next second, my father called.
“Where are you? Get off that train immediately and buy the next ticket back.”
His tone was the same one he always used with the daughter who had never dared to defy him.
“Back for what?”
“To clear this up!” Robert roared. “Tell the reporters the video was fabricated, that tonight was a misunderstanding. Otherwise, don’t you ever come back to this house!”
Once, that threat would have been enough to make me give in.
Now, it was just laughable.
“Fine.”
The line went silent for two seconds.
“What did you say?”
“I said fine. I wasn’t planning on coming back anyway.”
“You—”
Paige’s shrill crying cut into the call.
“Nora, you ruined me! Now everyone in Denver knows how my mother died. They’re all laughing at me!”
Then she screamed at my parents, “You can’t let her get away with this! Make her pay! She has to come back and fix this!”
I hung up on the spot.
Caleb’s call came through immediately.
When I answered, he was silent for a moment before asking, “Are you really on your way to Chicago?”
“Yes.”
“Are you done making a scene?” he said, his anger tightly controlled. “I can pretend this was just a momentary impulse. Buy a ticket back now and apologize to Paige and your parents. The wedding can still happen.”
Even now, he thought I was just throwing a tantrum.
As if he were offering me a ladder, and I should gratefully climb back down and resume cleaning up their messes.
“And if I don’t?”
His voice turned cold.
“Then our engagement is over, right now.”
When he finished, I laughed once, a short, sharp sound.
“Caleb, you still don’t get it, do you?”
Beyond the dining car, the train plunged deeper into the night, leaving Denver far behind.
“I came to Chicago with no intention of ever having a future with you.”
“Our engagement ended the moment you told me to admit defeat to Paige.”