My Family Stole My Run I Returned A Leader Chapter 27
I looked at her.
“Because that wasn’t care.”
“They used satisfying you to prove they were a good family, and they used forcing me to give way to maintain that proof.”
“Now that I’m gone, they can’t push the cost onto someone else anymore.”
Tears slid from Bella’s eyes.
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Accept the treatment. Learn to take responsibility for your own behavior.”
“That doesn’t require my forgiveness to begin.”
She bit her lip.
“I’m sorry.”
“For the trip, the suitcase, and the bracelet.”
“I really did look for it that day, but I didn’t care about it the way you did.”
“Later, they said it wasn’t worth anything, so I just thought the whole thing was over.”
A sea breeze drifted in from beyond the garden.
I thought of that deep-blue glass bead.
Maybe it had long since been pulled away by the tide. Maybe it was still buried somewhere under the sand.
But I no longer needed to find it.
“I heard you,” I said.
“But hearing an apology doesn’t mean I’m restoring a relationship with you.”
Bella looked up.
“If I get better, will you forgive me?”
“Treatment is something you do to take responsibility for yourself.”
“Don’t turn it into a condition for winning back someone else’s feelings.”
She stared at me for a long time.
Then, in the middle of speaking, her pupils suddenly tightened.
Her nails bit into her palm. The shifting urge was rising again.
In the past, she would have immediately burst into tears and called for everyone to crowd around her.
This time, she looked toward the therapist in the distance and raised her hand.
“I need help.”
The therapist came over quickly.
Bella followed the instructions, relaxed her shoulders, and slowly found her breathing again.
The whole time, she never once called my name.
I turned and went back to the lab.
A new administrative notice was waiting on my desk.
Stefan had formally requested a hearing regarding the contact restriction.
In the reason field, he had written:
“I am willing to acknowledge all unauthorized contact and sign a long-term no-contact agreement.”