Before I could say anything more, she cut me off, her voice filled with anger. "Can you stop pretending just to get sympathy? Seriously, you're pulling these childish tricks like I'm going to fall for them!" She sighed and was frustrated. "You know how important this is for Conan—he's trying to get into a top prestigious school. I can’t just leave him for this."
Her voice grew colder. "If you put as much effort into working as you do into lying, maybe you wouldn’t still be stuck in that same small job after all these years."
"At your age, still lying like that, how are you this shameless?" She snorted, her voice filled with sarcasm. "Let me make this clear, I can’t let anything interfere with Conan’s studies right now."
Then, with no sign of interest, she added, "If you want to die, just do it somewhere else, so you don’t bother me."
A heavy silence settled between us, and I could hear Celeste's voice on the other end. She murmured, “Conan, don’t be scared. It’s all that bad person’s fault.”
With a quiet sigh, I set my phone aside, keeping my composure. Maybe I had simply grown numb to the way she treated me, so the sting didn’t cut as deep anymore.
But the truth lingered; I still found myself, at times, imagining them close again, even if it meant reopening old wounds behind closed doors.
One of the reasons I kept coming up with ways to pull Celeste back was hoping she would find her way into my arms again.
But now, as I lay on the brink of death, the realization hit me like a slap; how foolish I had been back then. I had nearly lost all sense of dignity, becoming nothing more than a man who bent to Celeste's every whim, terrified she would push me away.
But the worst was still to come. When I got home and opened the door, I saw Noah and Celeste, hand in hand on the sofa, looking every bit like a genuine couple.
Sitting across from them was an unfamiliar middle-aged woman who looked up at me, her expression a blend of wide-eyed surprise and curiosity.
“Um, Mr. Quinn, Miss Morgan, who is this man?” she asked, her gaze shifting between us.
I caught the flash of panic in Celeste’s eyes. She immediately pulled her hand away from Noah's grasp, saying, “Oh, he’s just Conan’s uncle.”
The woman on the side was taken aback but regained her composure, smiling as if she already knew, saying, “Ah, I see. You must be quite close if the uncle has a key to the house.”