He Terminated My Lease So I Terminated Our Wedding Chapter 05
When I woke up, I was in a hospital.
The nurse told me the Coast Guard had found me in the tool shed after receiving my Mayday call. I had moderate hypothermia, along with abrasions on my palms, knees, and calves. If they’d been any later, she said, the outcome might have been very different.
A police officer handed me my phone.
“We recovered this from Mr. Mercer. Once you’re feeling more stable, we’ll need to take your statement.”
The screen lit up to show forty-seven missed calls from Owen. Cass had sent more than a dozen voicemails.
Before I could open them, a mutual friend sent me a screenshot.
The image showed the dark, churning sea off the coast of Maine. Cass had captioned it:
Someone had a pre-wedding panic spiral, so we had to give her a little “desert island therapy” to calm her down lol.
Beneath it, clearly visible, was Owen’s like.
Another message from our friend came through.
They posted it right after they got back to shore. I heard Owen went white when the Coast Guard showed up. Cass deleted it right after that. Good thing I grabbed a screenshot.
I stared at the letters lol, and slowly, my fingers stopped shaking.
While they thought I was trapped in the storm, they were sitting safely on shore, making fun of me.
I opened Owen’s first voicemail.
“Lila, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have left you there. Please call me back. Please.”
In the next one, his breathing was ragged. I could hear knocking in the background.
“The police are here asking questions. Tell them this was a misunderstanding, okay? I swear I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just wanted you to calm down.”
So that was what he was afraid of.
Not that I might have died.
But that the police had come to his door.
I closed the message without replying and opened Cass’s last one instead.
“Lila, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you were that afraid of water. I thought Owen just wanted to teach you a lesson. Please don’t ignore me, okay?”