Chapter 330
“Is Chloe thinking of offing herself?” Russel asked me with a voice as flat as a pancake. His nonchalance sent a chill down my spine.
“Yeah, your fiancée’s thinking of kicking the bucket. Shouldn’t you go check on her?” I retorted, cold as ice.
“She’s a grown woman; she should take responsibility for her own life. I can’t control her choices.” Russel’s reply was so cold it left me gobsmacked.
His lack of warmth towards a woman he didn’t love was eerily similar to Neil from my past life.
“Regardless, she’s head over heels for you. Can’t you come back and help her out? Just be the good guy for once?” I pleaded.
“She knew I didn’t have the hots for her. She brought this on herself, right?” he replied with a smirk on his face.
Was this the Russel I knew? He was still a doctor. Where was his compassion? If he was this indifferent to his fiancée, how did he treat others?
Thinking of my past life and his collaboration with him gave me the heebie-jeebies. If I hadn’t kicked the bucket from a terminal illness, would we have butted heads?
But I didn’t have time to dwell on it. I just urged Russel, “Can you come back and talk some sense into her? Her folks promised me that if you can convince her not to off herself, they’ll work out a way to call off the engagement.”
“I don’t need them to promise me anything,” Russel’s voice suddenly turned heavy, “Instead, how about you promise me something?”
I could feel my heart in my throat, “What do you want me to promise?”
“Would you have dinner with me?” His request left me flabbergasted. That was his condition?
I was wary. What would I do if he was planning to throw me under the bus during this dinner? I had already been burnt once.
“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to you. I just want to have dinner and chat. The only catch is, you can’t bail until I say it’s over,” Russel seemed to read my mind.
Just as I was hemming and hawing, a cry erupted from the crowd, “Don’t jump!”
Chloe’s mom had already fainted. I looked up to see Chloe taking a step forward, one foot already hanging in the air.
I was scared out of my wits and quickly agreed, “Fine, I promise. Now call Chloe, calm her down, tell her to step back.”
As soon as the-words left my mouth, Russel was already on the phone.
I watched as Chloe held her phone up, seemingly answering a call.
A few minutes later, she seemed to let out a sigh of relief and stepped back. The rescue team rushed in to secure her.
I breathed a sigh of relief. It was insane to think, if Russel hadn’t made that call, what might have happened to Chloe? She looked like she was teetering on the edge.
As the firefighters were dealing with Chloe, I slipped away.
I hoped Chloe would cool her jets.
This stunt was bound to cause a stir tomorrow.
I immediately went home under the cover of darkness. Before entering my courtyard, I glanced at Neil’s dark mansion next door. He hadn’t come back today.
I wondered if he knew about Russel and Chloe calling off their engagement. I hoped he wouldn’t jump to conclusions. He was a suspicious guy. He would suspect any move from Russel had to do with me.
Chloe’s suicide attempt was all over the city the next day, even making the news.
As I was watching the news, Russel called and asked, “When are you free?”
“In the next couple of days,” I replied. Since I had already agreed to dinner with Russel, I might as well get it over with. I wanted to put this behind me.
“How about tomorrow night? I’ll send you the time and place,” Russel’s voice was gentle, so at odds with the cold guy from last night.
I was a bit troubled. I had tangled with Neil in my past life, and now I was tangled with Russel in this life.
I was always stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“Sure, just text me the details. I’ll be there on time,” I replied.
Russel chuckled before hanging up. I soon received a text from him with the time and place for dinner.
I didn’t reply. I would be there on time anyway.
Soon enough, it was the next evening. After work, I drove to the designated location.
The private room was just me and Russel.
Russel looked like he had just gotten off work too. He was dressed casually, but his coldness was replaced with a gloomy aura.
I sat across from Russel. We locked eyes, but neither of us spoke.
After a moment of silence, Russel finally broke the ice, “She’s okay now. You can relax.”
I knew he was talking about Chloe. I nodded and said, “She loves you to bits; you didn’t have to be so cold.”
“She does love me. If she hadn’t manipulated my parents into making me marry her, I might have felt something for her. But she made the wrong choice.” Russel’s voice was devoid of warmth, his eyes dull as dishwater.
His words sounded eerily familiar.
Neil had once told me the same thing. Men hated being forced into marrying someone they didn’t love. It bred resentment.
“Even if you were forced, isn’t that your own fault for not standing your ground? If you had ignored your mother’s objections back then, none of this would have happened, right?” I countered.
Russel just stared at me, his gaze unreadable.
I was getting worked up as I said, “If you were truly determined, you would have ignored your mother’s objections and refused the engagement. You’re a grown man. Shouldn’t you be responsible for your own decisions? You’re always going on about how you were ‘forced’ into things. Did someone actually hold a knife to your throat or what? Why do you gotta blame your own incompetence on some innocent chick? All she did was love you. Does that make her some sort of irredeemable sinner?” I could feel tears welling up in my eyes as I spoke. It was like I was talking about my own past self. And sitting across from me was another Neil.
