Loved Him 5 Years, I Dumped the Cheater

Chapter 4 The Tempestuous Evening

The heavens were shrouded in dark clouds as a deluge began to fall.

Roses Oasis, the ancestral home of the Ford family, loomed in the distance.

I raced through the downpour toward the imposing wrought iron gates of Roses Oasis.

Firmly shut, they stood unyielding before me.

Inside, the courtyard glowed with light, and the faint echoes of laughter drifted through the rain.

I stood rigid beneath the onslaught of raindrops, a chill seeping into my very bones.

Three hours I endured the storm’s wrath.

My phone, waterlogged and fading fast, continued to dial Joshua’s number in vain.

Each call met with rejection.

It wasn't until night’s embrace at nine that Mary graced the steps, her gaze dripping with scorn as she surveyed me.

"Sarah, how pitiful you are, lingering here amidst such a tempest!"

I met her derisive look with steely resolve. "Return Chloe’s medicine."

She scoffed, "I discarded it ages ago. Your frail sister's a burden. Perhaps the world would be lighter without her."

"You’re lying!”

I tried to advance, but my limbs betrayed me, and I crumpled into the mire.

In that moment, Joshua emerged, a black umbrella shielding him from the storm as he approached the gate.

He regarded my bedraggled form with a mixture of annoyance and contempt.

"Joshua, I'm begging you! Please return Chloe’s medicine. I’ll comply with any demand, sign any paper, leave this city and promise you’ll never see me again!”

Desperation fueled my grip on the iron bars, careless of the spikes biting into my flesh as blood mingled with rain.

Joshua’s face remained an impassive mask.

"Sarah, I can’t bear the spectacle of your hopeless charade.”

I was shattered, unable to hold back my tears. "Chloe, she's really at the end of her rope!" My sobs came hard and fast.

Joshua's voice cut through my anguish, sharp and dismissive. "Are you done with this show yet?" he snapped, clearly frustrated. "She's always wailing about death, looking so frail. But when did she ever actually die?"

With that, he turned his back on me, his departure marked by cold indifference.

"Joshua!" I cried out, my voice echoing with despair.

He didn't stop, not even a backward glance, leaving me with nothing but his uncaring silhouette.

The glow from the iron gate flickered out, plunging everything into darkness.

Rain-soaked and desolate, I crumbled where I stood, my phone buzzing incessantly in my pocket.

With shaky hands, I managed to pull out my phone, staring at the screen. It was a call from the hospital.

As soon as I answered, the doctor's voice rushed through, urgent and final.

"Ms. Lynn, Chloe has gone into acute multiple organ failure. We couldn't revive her. She was in agony, kept asking for you before she slipped away. You need to come for the formalities."

The phone dropped from my grasp, splashing into a nearby puddle.

For the last five years, every resentment, every act of patience, every time I'd swallowed my pride?

It was all just a cruel, insignificant punchline.

I couldn't even recall how I reached the hospital.

I signed the necessary documents, my eyes dry as I watched Chloe's delicate frame vanish into the morgue.

On the day Chloe was cremated, the sky was painfully bright.

Cradling her urn, I returned to that overpriced, soulless apartment.

I left it stripped bare. No clothing or handbags to remind me.

Josh's supplementary card and all the trinkets he lavished on me were packed into a box, left squarely in the middle of the coffee table.

Next to it, I placed a signed Statement of Severance.

With that final act, I took Chloe’s remains and boarded a train heading to the northernmost city, purchasing the hardest class ticket I could buy.

Just one minute before the train was set to leave, I fished my phone with its cracked screen out of my pocket. Once I turned it on, a flurry of messages from Joshua appeared.

Joshua: It's been quite the rocky road for you lately.

Joshua: I've sorted out the hospital to green-light your meds, and your room is back on hold.

Joshua: I expect to see you at the hospital in half an hour, tops.

I couldn't suppress a smirk as I read his texts.

With a flick of the wrist, I chucked the SIM card into the trash.

Meanwhile, in the prestigious wing of St. Elara's Hospital.

Joshua approached Chloe's former ward.

He swung the door open.

It was eerily empty. The bed was crisply made, absent of any occupants.

Annoyance flitted across his brow, and he summoned the head nurse.

"Where's Sarah? I distinctly ordered Chloe's treatment to continue. Where did she vanish to?"

The head nurse hesitated a moment.

"Mr. Ford, didn't anyone tell you? Chloe succumbed three days ago despite every attempt. Ms. Lynn completed the cremation the same day and left with the ashes."