Ezra frowned, very unhappy with what I said.
“Stop. Did we not agree we do not talk about what happened before!”
Seeing him avoid the past, I instead felt it was both silly and sad.
She falsely accused me of cheating to get awards, led me to be hurt by extreme people online, caused my right ear to have lasting hearing loss, and made me forever unable to play the cello.
For a cello player to lose part of the sound, those painful days could not be spoken of.
Even his making up for my schizophrenia and helping her clear her suspicion could not be spoken of.
During that time, I tried so hard to get treatment, hoping to go back to the orchestra, but it all ended with one line, not to mention.
“Ezra, you still love her, right?”
My voice sounded very calm, but held many mixed feelings.
His body froze, as if he had not expected me to say that.
Then, he suddenly took my hand and softly said, “Evie, what’s done is done. Why keep holding onto it? Can’t we just live well together?”
I gently smiled and pulled my hand away.
“If you truly wanted to live well, you would not still have feelings for her, and you would not lose control again over her safety.”
“Ezra, you may fool others, but you cannot fool me.”
From the age of eight to twenty-eight, I had seen how he lost control because of love.
Once for me, and many times for Heidi.
When I was twenty, studying in England, I had acute gastroenteritis. I cried and called him.
“If you were here with me, it would be better.”
After a twelve-hour flight, he came to my side. When I had a high fever and fainted, his eyes turned red.
“I’m here, don’t fall asleep. I’ll stay with you.”
Later, he would worry over Heidi’s stomach pain during her period, stay by her bedside all night when she had a fever, and believe her tears when she said I made things hard for her…
In the end, he never lost control of me again, never panicked for me again.
“Let’s divorce. Like you once said, I’ll grant your wish.”
My words felt heavy, yet to him they were as light as air.
He smiled faintly with mockery. “Evie, you won’t divorce, for this family, for our daughter.”
“Between us, we have already gone beyond lovers; countless ties bind us tightly. You won’t be willing to divorce, because you love me deeply.”
I looked at his confident expression and felt it was absurd.
“What if this time, I truly mean it?”
Before I could hear his reply, a phone rang.
It was Heidi’s; if he no longer loved her, why, after so long, was his ringtone still her instrument recording?
Such poor skill, who else could it be but her?
I still remember when we argued about this. He had said, “Heidi’s playing isn’t that good, using it as a ringtone is just to acknowledge her, and even that you want to argue about?”
After the call finished, he nervously moved toward the door. I suddenly caught his sleeve without saying anything.
“Ezra, one last time, if you go see her today, we are totally over.”
He quickly pulled away from me and spoke in a strict voice.
“Stop it. Don’t cause problems; she is not feeling well right now. I’m going to check on her.”
“Why can’t you stop being jealous all the time? If you didn’t get someone to start that fire today, she wouldn’t be in the hospital!”
At last, the door slammed shut, and all I could hear around me was the wind.
After Ezra was unfaithful, I decided to forgive him. But over the past years, I spent every day and night hurting because of what he did. He kept thinking I was acting unfairly, always bringing up past issues, so starting now, let us fully separate.
Suddenly, my phone started to ring.
It was Attorney Harper calling, her voice a bit serious.
“Ms. Russo, Ezra has just taken the money from the trust fund account you created for your daughter.”
“Every amount has been moved into Heidi’s account.”
For her sake, Ezra even took this money illegally, which is really shameful.
After the call ended, I quickly called another number right away.
“Hello, I want to make a police report. Someone has committed fraud.”
