He Thought I Was Being Good, I Was Just Getting Ready to leave Chapter 16

He Thought I Was Being Good, I Was Just Getting Ready to leave Chapter 16

I settled into my new life overseas, learning to adjust to the time difference and understand the accents.

No old dramas followed me here. Even the air felt unfamiliar.

I didn’t get much peace. Harrison found out where I was and showed up outside my apartment like a bad dream.

He was too comfortable, too casual, like there was nothing between us.

“You should’ve told me you wanted to study abroad. I would’ve sent you right after graduation. Look how much time you wasted.”

He looked around my small apartment with disapproval.

“I own a place near your school. You can move in there. Two housekeepers, too. They’ll take care of you.”

I kept unpacking my things without answering.

Men like Harrison, the more you push them away, the harder they push back.

Back then, when I’d cry and scream and pick fights, he thought it was funny.

Sometimes he’d humor me. Most of the time, I was the one who caved.

This time, I didn’t push him away. I just let him hover around me.

He acted like he was my partner, driving away any man who showed interest in me.

He looked down on all of them, pointing fingers, scoffing.

“We’re not even the same species. You really find that attractive?”

“Foreign guys are like that. They act warm, but they have no boundaries.”

“All muscle and body odor. How does he have the nerve to come near you?”

My coursework was brutal. He had nothing better to do, so I let him run interference. It actually made my life easier.

The local food here was surprisingly terrible. I didn’t take him up on his offer to move, but I stopped saying no to his housekeepers.

They’d come from back home and knew how to cook all the things I missed. Every day after class, I’d come home and wait for that meal. It was the only thing keeping me going.

For a year, Harrison flew back and forth constantly.

Sometimes he’d stay for a few days. Then he’d catch a red-eye home just in time for a morning meeting.

Derek told me that when Harrison went back, people asked him where he kept disappearing to.

He’d shrug and say, kind of showing off, “My girlfriend’s studying abroad. I’m keeping her company.”

Derek called me overseas. He was furious.

“You—I swear to God, Ella.”

“How are you back together with him? You really are the dumbest, most love-addicted fool I’ve ever met.”

He hesitated. “You’re over there with your head in the books. Do you have any idea what he’s doing back home?”

I closed my book and asked calmly, “Did he find someone new?”

Derek was quiet. Then he hung up without answering.

Of course I knew what I was doing.