Chapter 12
The night was deep, but the Williams mansion remained brightly lit.
When Jake kicked open Avery’s bedroom door, the draft disturbed a piece of paper on the desk–a flight itinerary from the city to London.
‘Jake, what the hell are you doing now?” Nathan grabbed his arm, face flushed with anger.
He couldn’t understand it. His sister had already left to move on with her life, and instead of being at the hospital with Hannah, Jake was here in the middle of the night, acting like a madman.
[ake heard none of Nathan’s words. Rainwater streamed down his face, forming a small puddle at nis feet.
Looking around, he saw the room was covered with white sheets–clearly uninhabited.
He stared in disbelief at the scene before him. The layout was the same, but everything was different
now.
The closet was mostly empty. On the vanity table sat only a solitary metal box, its lid open, revealing nothing inside.
He turned away dejectedly but noticed garbage bags that a housekeeper was about to remove. Something in his mind clicked.
ake lunged forward and tore open the bags, spilling their contents across the floor.
A movie ticket stub with handwritten words on the back: “First date with Jake.”
A torn diary page, the writing blurred by tears: “Today he said the lunch I made was delicious…”
At the bottom was a neatly folded chocolate wrapper stained with dried blood.
t was from that day when she was fourteen, the chocolate he had tossed to her.
Outside, the downpour continued unabated. Jake frantically dialed Avery’s number on his phone. This time, the mechanical message had changed.
‘Sorry, the number you have dialed is currently switched off…”
17:06
She Moved On. He Crashed and Burned
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Chapter 12
Nathan watched impassively as Jake sank to his knees.
“Nathan… where’s Avery? When did she leave?”
His voice was hoarse, so weak it seemed ready to dissolve into the air.
“Now you’re looking for her?”
Nathan stepped around the scattered papers. “When she brought you hangover soup in the middle of the night and scraped her knee, you were picking out a wedding dress with Hannah. When she baked your birthday cake while running a fever, you were shopping with Hannah…”
Every word was like a poisoned blade.
Nathan closed his eyes briefly. “This chocolate wrapper–she treasured it for eight years. What right do you have to touch it now?”
“I…”
Jake’s mouth opened uselessly, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he struggled to form complete sentences
The wrapper in his palm suddenly felt scorching hot. The memory of that alley when they were fourteen became terrifyingly clear.
The young girl clutching the chocolate he had carelessly tossed her, the blood from her scraped knee staining her school uniform. The dark brown stains on the wrapper now seemed to burn his eyes.
[ake fell silent, still holding the mementos in his hand.
‘I’m sorry…”
Nathan took a deep breath, visibly struggling to contain his fury.
‘Jake, I don’t know what’s happened to you today. But you should be at the hospital with your wife, not rampaging through my family’s home.”
“That apology–you shouldn’t be saying it to me. And you shouldn’t be saying it now.”
It was already too late.
‘At least…”
17:07
She Moved on He Crashed and Burned
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Chapter 12
Jake desperately clung to the closing door, rain and sweat dripping onto the floor.
“At least tell me her flight number. Please, Nathan.”
Nathan kicked out violently, staring coldly at the disheveled man now sitting in a puddle of muddy
water.
“Stop dreaming. Avery is gone. You won’t see her again in this lifetime.”
The rain began to subside as dawn broke on the horizon.
In Jake’s hand was one last forgotten sketch.
It showed him wiping sweat at the edge of a basketball court, with a date marked in the bottom right
corner.
It was from a few days before Avery’s twenty–second birthday–the last time she had smiled and
called him “Jake” with affection in her voice.
17:07
