Chapter 17
Ewan returned to Berning, but he couldn’t stop himself from keeping tabs on Nova.
Every photo the private investigator sent him had Flynn in it. His eyes lost their sparkle, and he was barely recognizable from the man he used to be. Ever since he found out Nova was with Flynn, it was like something inside him had died. The confidence he once had was gone, and he spent each day going through the motions like a machine. He ate three meals a day on schedule, but never once smiled.
He stubbornly restored Nova’s room to the way it had been before she left, as if pretending she still lived there could numb the pain. Bit by bit, his grip on reality began to slip.
He started sleeping in her room every night, whispering her name under his breath. He called her number over and over, even though they sent him straight to voicemail. Still, he never stopped dialing.
On the days he missed her the most, he would use a new number just to hear her voice answer once. When she ended the call without knowing it was him, that tiny moment of hearing her was enough to carry him through another day.
Robert and Marilyn tried to help. They introduced him to the daughters of prestigious families. They were all beautiful and talented by all standards. However, he didn’t even glance at them. It was as if he were no longer interested in women. He spent half a year feeling hollow, numb, and gray.
Then one day, a friend took him to the hospital. The diagnosis was clear. He had severe depression.
The doctor urged him again and again to take his medicine. His friends tried to convince and comfort him.
However, Ewan wouldn’t listen and refused the pills. Deep down, he knew medicine couldn’t fix him. He already knew where the cure was, but he would never have it.
Eventually, the military discharged him, and they told him to focus on recovery. So, he locked himself away at home, pulling the curtains shut and letting no light in.
One day, he suddenly remembered that he had once mocked Nova’s love letters, saying how they meant nothing to him and tossing them into the trash. At that thought, he repeatedly apologized to Nova under his breath.
That night, he picked up a pen. He wrote her a letter every day and placed it carefully on her desk.
Although he knew she would never read them, he kept writing. He didn’t stop even when the letters were starting to pile up.
One day, Ewan was stabbed while he was out buying letters. The person who did it was Wynter. After stabbing him, she took her own life.
Her body had already been failing, and she had smuggled herself back into the country with one goal in mind, which was to kill Ewan. Now that she had, she could die in peace.
What she didn’t expect was that Ewan would survive. The wound wasn’t fatal. However, it left him in a vegetative state, confined to a bed for the rest of his life.
After getting stabbed that day, Ewan only had one thought in mind – he could never write Nova another letter again. This time, it was goodbye for real.
