Chapter 90
As Alex looked at the date and words above the sketches, memories flooded his mind. The drawings in his hands weren’t just random art—they were milestones in their shared history. He recognized the first one instantly: it was from the time it had rained, and Ellie had fallen in the garden. He had scooped her up with one hand and tossed her into the outdoor pool, telling her to wash off before coming back up.
He picked up another sketch: this one was from the time he had been tutoring Ellie in math. He had fallen asleep at her desk, her jacket draped over his head like a blanket, while she had quietly continued working. The memory made him smile bitterly.
Next, he pulled out another, and suddenly, he remembered the day they had gone out. Ellie had gotten tired, but she hadn’t said a word. So, like it was nothing, he had ended up carrying her all the way home—an act of kindness that, at the time, seemed like no more than a simple gesture between friends.
The next drawing brought back a memory from when Ellie left for college in Jinerity. He had tugged at her ear playfully, teasing her about being ungrateful for all the help she had gotten, all the while pretending not to notice the sadness in her eyes. It was a lighter memory, but now it felt like a cruel contrast to the reality of their relationship.
Alex had never realized just how much Ellie had recorded their shared moments in this way. All these years, she had captured every small detail, every insignificant moment, keeping them alive in her heart, even if he had never noticed. It struck him suddenly—the realization that she had been holding on to their past for so long.
He thought of something and began frantically searching through the pile of drawings. His heart pounded harder as his hand finally landed on the one he had been looking for—the torn picture. The one that had no face drawn, the lines smudged at the bottom left corner, and the date scrawled in the top right corner: July 6th.
He remembered that day. It was the day he had gone to Ellie at the hospital, asking her for help to woo Haley.
“I’m sorry, Alex. I can’t help you with this,” Ellie had said, her voice calm but distant.
That was the first time she had turned him down, and the first time he had seen her make the decision to distance herself from him.
“I’ve rented a place, so I won’t bother everyone at home anymore,” Ellie had said, her words cold, and Alex had felt the sting of them deeply. It had been the first time she had left and hadn’t gone back home.
“I’m sorry. I was wrong.” Those words echoed in his mind—spoken outside the Earl Hotel late at night when he had left her in the rain to pick up Haley. That was when he noticed something in Ellie’s apologetic eyes—a distance he hadn’t understood at the time.
“So what if I’m dead? It’s just worthless flesh and bones.” He recalled the way Ellie had sneered at him in the hospital, after he had left her in the rain, rushing to help Haley, the words bitter and sharp.
“My answer remains the same. You all have treated me well, but you’re not my family.” He could still hear Ellie shouting that at him during their fight when he tried to make her move back to the Warren Manor. It had been the first time she had lost her temper, and the first time she had ever told him the Warren family would never be her family.
“If I had the choice, I’d rather starve than join the Warren family.” That had been at Haley’s birthday party, after he had thrown away the engagement ring Aaron had given to Haley. That was when Ellie had first admitted, in front of him and everyone, that she regretted joining the Warren family.
“Send me abroad, as far away as possible.” Those words, spoken with such finality, still echoed in his mind. That was when he had gone to the hospital to fulfill the promise he had made to her. And it had been the first time he had seen such deep sadness and hopelessness in her eyes as she cried.
Alex came into the living room, his chest tightening. He grabbed a piece of paper, found a pen, and began to sketch—mimicking the messy, chaotic lines from the drawing he had found. But as the lines started to form on the paper, something else emerged.
There, hidden beneath the disordered lines, he saw a weed.
He remembered the words he had once said to Ellie, cruel and thoughtless: “You don’t think I bought it for you, do you? Only the delicate roses are good enough for Haley, but for someone like you, a weed seems just right.” He had spoken those words while pursuing Haley, never imagining how deep the wound would cut, never realizing what Ellie must have felt at that moment.
Now, as he looked at the sketch in front of him, it felt as though a pen had pierced straight through his heart, leaving him with an unexpected, dull ache. He was an adult now, and he understood the weight of those words. The regret was immediate and overwhelming.
Feeling the suffocating guilt, Alex quickly grabbed his phone and called Whitney. It felt like something was lodged in his throat, and it took him a few moments to speak. His voice trembled slightly, raw with emotion.
“I couldn’t find it. Where is she now?” he asked, his words thick and hoarse.
Ellie had already left. “She’s probably boarding the plane now,” Whitney replied. “You didn’t know that?”
Before she could finish speaking, Alex had already hung up. His heart raced in his chest, and red-eyed, he dashed out of the apartment, his mind spinning.
“I have to find her.”
The chapter ends with Alex, desperate and realizing too late what he has lost, racing against time to reach Ellie.
