The House I Paid For Was Never Mine Chapter 08

The House I Paid For Was Never Mine Chapter 08

“What’s the hurry? The house isn’t going 

anywhere.” 

It had not gone anywhere. 

It had simply never belonged to me. 

Gavin sat among those records all night. The next 

morning, he offered to sell his car and part of his 

company equity to repay me first. 

For the first time, Brielle screamed at him. “She 

lived in the house for five years. 

“Why should she get every dollar back?” 

“Besides, I wasn’t the only person who deceived. 

her into making those payments.” 

Gavin’s face turned white. 

Her accusation was true. Brielle may have taken 

the title, but Gavin had always been the one 

person who could have stopped it. 

During my second month in Seattle, the project 

entered its most demanding stage. At first, I slept 

badly every night. 

The unfamiliar apartment was quiet, and my old routines no longer told me what to do next. 

I had to learn that loneliness was not the same as wanting the people who had hurt me back. 

In the silence, I remembered birthdays Gavin had made up for and times when my parents had seemed to love me. Yet I still rose on time each morning. 

Work gradually filled the hollow place in my chest with a new life. 

My decisions mattered there. 

Coworkers waited for my judgment instead of asking me to surrender something for someone else, and each completed task restored a little of 

my confidence. 

Three months after my transfer, the project reached its first milestone ahead of schedule. 

When our celebration ended, Gavin was waiting 

outside the hotel. 

He had lost weight, and his eyes were bloodshot. 

The moment he saw me, he stepped forward. 

“Laurel.” 

I stopped several feet away. “How did you find 

me?” 

“The company website published the project. 

leads.” His voice was hoarse. 

“I went to every place you used to visit and 

contacted everyone who knew you. Then I realized 

didn’t even know where you lived.” 

My old life had revolved around him. Once I left, he 

no longer had the right to find me. 

Gavin took the crumpled note from his pocket. “I 

emptied the house.” 

“Brielle moved back in with your parents, and I’ll 

return every dollar you paid. After the baby is born, 

I’ll divorce her.” 

I reminded him calmly, “She’s carrying your child.” 

“I’ll fulfill every responsibility as the father, but I 

don’t love her.” 

His eyes slowly reddened. “I only understand now 

that you were always the person I loved.” 

He told me that every illness made Brielle depend 

on him and every meeting brought worship into 

her eyes. 

Being needed made him think he had found a 

more passionate love. 

I knew him too well and could care for myself too easily. He had treated my patience as something 

that could never run out. 

Only after returning to a house without me did he 

realize I lived inside every memory he had of 

home. 

I was the first person he wanted to tell when he 

was happy and the person he always wanted 

beside him when he was tired. 

“I only took a wrong turn,” he said. “Give me one 

more chance, Laurel. 

“Please.” 

I studied him for a long time. 

This man had spent fourteen hours on a bus to 

attend my graduation. He had also walked into the County Clerk’s Office with another woman while I 

miscarried alone. 

Both memories were true. I no longer needed to 

choose one to prove whether he had loved me. 

“You didn’t just discover that you love me, Gavin.” 

“You only discovered that I won’t keep loving you.” 

The color slowly left his face. 

I took the old note from his hand, tore it in half, 

and dropped it into a nearby trash can. “If I forget 

my keys now, I won’t call you.”