“I’ve finally found you!” she exclaimed excitedly
Callum looked panicked and immediately tried to push her away.
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“Eloise, I swear, I didn’t ask her to come. After I found out the truth, I threw her out of the house and cut off all contact. If you want, I’ll make sure she’s run out of this city too.” “Callum!” Hannah’s voice rose in disbelief, her eyes welling with tears as she cried out.
“How can you treat me like this? We’ve known each other since we were kids! Have you forgotten? When we were little, you said you’d marry me. You even chased away the boys who dared to come near me.
“And when I was abroad, all I had to do was say I missed you, and you’d fly over immediately!
“Callum, you love me! You just don’t realize it yet!”
Her words were like nails sealing the coffin of the argument I had made days ago–how he used the guise of sibling affection to blur the lines of propriety.
His face darkened instantly and he shook her off as if her touch burned him.
“It’s Eloise that I love,” he stated with cold finality.
M
“What I feel for you is nothing more than habit–a brother’s instinct to care for his sister.”
Then he turned back to me, his voice softening.
“Eloise, you have to believe me. Back then, I only spent time with her because you were always so reserved.
“I wanted to make you jealous, to see you get angry for my sake. Later… I don’t even know how things ended up like this.
“But I swear to you, Eloise, I never touched her,” Callum said, his voice trembling with urgency. “I’ve only ever loved you.”
His words shattered any remaining shred of logic in the world he had built around himself. For the first time, I felt the sting of regret–not just for loving him, but for wasting five precious years of my life on someone so utterly undeserving.
Up until today, I had refused to regret our past. Good or bad, it had shaped me into who I was. But in that moment, as he stood there with his absurd declarations, I couldn’t help but laathe him.
I hated how he reduced my love to a mockery, how he turned it into something grotesque. Even looking at him made my skin crawl.
Behind us, Hannah wailed uncontrollably as she slammed into the edge of a table.
Then, in a dramatic flourish, she grabbed a fruit knife from a platter on the table and pressed
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it against her wrist.
“Fine, Callum! If you don’t love me, then watch me die!”
The sight of crimson blood dripping from her wrist made Callum flinch. He hesitated, struggling between his pride and guilt, before letting out a resigned sigh.
Finally, he moved toward her and pulled her into his arms.
“I’m sorry, Eloise,” he said to me, his tone heavy with defeat.
“Her mother saved my life. I can’t stand by and let her die.”
Cradled in his embrace, Hannah turned her head to shoot me a smug smile, her victory evident in her tear–streaked face.
I stared at the pathetic tableau before me and felt nothing but repugnance.
The absurdity of it all dulled my senses, and I found myself wishing, with all sincerity, that
the two would lock themselves away in their toxic bubble forever.
Let them drown in their shared madness, far, far away from my life.
