Chapter 204
\nThree Years Later, He Came Back Begging novel Chapter 204<\/p>\n
\u201cLawrence, this isn\u2019t on you. Hannah\u2019s the one who crossed the line. You don\u2019t have to carry all the blame\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, that\u2019s not it,\u201d Lawrence said, his voice barely above a whisper. \u201cI mean\u2026 with Bonnie. Was I really that awful to her?\u201d<\/p>\n
Abbot hesitated, caught off guard. He\u2019d thought Lawrence was upset about keeping Hannah locked in her room and making a public statement she never agreed to, the sort of thing that could ruin her reputation forever. But this was about Bonnie.<\/p>\n
Lawrence waited for a response, but nothing came. The silence pressed in, heavy and cold. He straightened up, shoulders squared, and kept walking, as if moving forward might help him escape what he was feeling.<\/p>\n
From the outside, he looked like he had everything anyone could ever want. He was Hannah\u2019s husband, Jasper\u2019s dad, the one people envied and followed online, thinking his life was picture-perfect.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d seen every carefully curated post Hannah had shared. The anecdotes about their \u201chappy life\u201d together, the photos, the heartfelt captions. And the thing was, he couldn\u2019t even remember half the things she described, let alone cooking a meal for her. That photo of him at the stove, back turned\u2014he remembered the day, barely. Hannah had thrown one of her tantrums, and he\u2019d rushed home, panicked, only to find everything fine. He ended up numbly cleaning up, putting away the kitchen knives she\u2019d pulled out.<\/p>\n
She always managed to find them, no matter what the staff did to hide or lock them away.<\/p>\n
Eventually, no one bothered locking them up anymore. Sometimes he was just too drained to come home and calm her down, and that was the time she\u2019d cut up her arms. He returned to the villa, exhausted and scared, but Hannah was already settled on the couch, watching him with icy eyes. She forced him to peel fruit for her with the bloody knife, arranging the pieces on a plate in the shape of a heart.<\/p>\n
It looked just like how he used to treat Bonnie, back when they were still together. Those afternoons Bonnie would come over and he\u2019d slice strawberries into little hearts, setting them on a plate in a neat, sweet pattern.<\/p>\n
It was dumb, honestly, but it made Bonnie beam. He\u2019d feed her the little heart-shaped pieces, and out of the corner of his eye, he\u2019d spot Hannah on the stairs, silent and watching. She\u2019d come down, pretend everything was fine, but she never touched the fruit he offered.<\/p>\n
This was how Hannah punished him, keeping him trapped and twisted up inside, then spinning stories for the world to see, painting their life as some kind of love story.<\/p>\n
He never guessed that the same photo could mean something completely different if you just changed the lighting, the angle, the story behind it.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s happy, he told himself. Don\u2019t mess that up.<\/p>\n
But there was another voice echoing in his head, darker and desperate, whispering that if he let go now, he\u2019d regret it every single day. He\u2019d never stop wishing he could turn back the clock.<\/p>\n
Are you really okay with this? Don\u2019t you wish things were different?<\/p>\n
Soon enough, she\u2019ll build her life with someone else. You\u2019ll just be a distant memory, a handful of years she hardly thinks about anymore.<\/p>\n
Maybe, just like how she quietly stopped reaching out after the breakup, one day even the anger and resentment she felt toward him would fade out completely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-872","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kampoengnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter\/872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kampoengnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kampoengnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kampoengnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}