Chapter 223: James Proposes to End
When Mia saw James's phone number pop up on her screen, her heart couldn't help but skip a beat.
Even though she'd been trying hard to act like she didn't care at all lately.
On the surface, whether James was around or not didn't seem to affect her much.
But deep down, she knew very well—it was all an act.
She wasn't as indifferent as she appeared to be.
James would always hold a special place in her heart.
His sudden disappearance—she did care about it.
It's just that her deep-rooted distrust of him, her distrust of this relationship, prevented her from showing it.
She didn't want to be the weaker party anymore.
Didn't want to lose control in their relationship again, being led around by James, falling back into the same old pattern.
She admitted it.
She was scared.
Holding her phone, looking at that string of numbers—unmarked but firmly etched in her mind—she didn't answer right away.
She let the phone vibrate for a while before finally swiping to answer.
Without revealing her true emotions, she asked in a calm voice, "What's up?"
Always maintaining the boundaries of their relationship.
Not questioning why he hadn't contacted her for over half a month.
Not showing anger or resentment either.
Her calmness, to James on the other end of the line, was like a poisoned blade stabbing straight into his heart.
The pain made his breath catch, and his already pale face turned deathly white.
The calmer she was, the more it showed she didn't care.
And the more he loved her, the more he cared about her every word and action.
Mia's every emotion tugged at his heart.
He would be overjoyed because she remembered his birthday and surprised him with a cake.
And he would feel his heart being torn apart by her calm "What's up?"
James lay in his hospital bed, his large hand gripping the blanket tightly.
The words he'd been preparing since early morning, rehearsing all day long, were now stuck.
Mia, who had been waiting for James to explain, heard nothing after a long pause.
She quietly suppressed her emotional turmoil, her tone growing even more detached, "If there's nothing, I'm hanging up."
She couldn't play these mind games.
She didn't have James's patience.
Her cold, distant words turned into another arrow, stabbing at his heart.
Each one sharper than the last.
The pain made his chest convulse violently.
His deep eyes filled with the agony of being wounded!
James bit down hard on his lip, suppressing the pain in his heart, using all his self-control to steady his emotions and keep his voice stable, "Don't you have anything you want to ask me?"
He hadn't known how to start, had spent the entire day thinking about what to say.
Had tried his best to organize his words, wanting to use his business negotiation skills to make Mia believe his story.
But now—
Hearing Mia's indifferent, uncaring words, he realized his struggle was completely unnecessary.
She simply didn't care.
His anxiety was a joke.
His worry that Mia would be suspicious was too presumptuous.
Thinking that after all this time together, Mia had actually accepted him deep down.
Thinking that he held a place in her heart.
In reality...
It was just his own assumption.
Clearly, this was what he wanted most.
Mia not caring about him was more beneficial for him now. He should be happy.
But he couldn't feel happy.
He was the one who wanted to hide things.
Yet when he woke up, got his phone, and saw that apart from the text she sent on his birthday, there had been nothing else in the past half month—not a single call.
He should have understood then that to him, Mia was a deep love kept in his heart.
But to Mia, he had always been dispensable.
If he hadn't kept pushing his way into her life, leaving her no choice, they wouldn't have had this time together.
Once he stopped taking the initiative, she would immediately retreat to a position even more distant than ordinary friends.
This realization still stung him.
He had overestimated himself.
Mia didn't understand what James meant, didn't know what he was trying to prove.
Hearing him ask this, she replied coolly, "What is there to ask?"
This counter-question made James grip the blanket even tighter.
So tight that the veins on the back of his hand bulged clearly.
Her indifference really hurt him too much.
He was the one who pursued her passionately.
He was also the one who suddenly stopped contacting her.
And now after going cold, he came asking her?
What was she supposed to ask?
Thinking about the loss and hurt she'd been unwilling to admit these past days, Mia felt like her tail had been stepped on.
Her tone became aggressive, "James, I told you from the start—you're just on probation."
"You're nobody to me. You're just one of many pursuers."
"We don't have any real relationship. I don't need to report my business to you, and likewise, you don't need to report everything to me."
"With our kind of relationship, isn't it normal that I don't ask? Wouldn't it be weird if I did ask?"
Yes!
All along, Mia's attitude had been very clear.
They were just friends.
At most, she'd agreed to let him pursue her, giving him a trial period.
He was the one circling around her.
He was the one who voluntarily reported everything to her.
She had never asked him to.
Had never voluntarily reported anything to him either.
It had always been his one-sided wishful thinking, his own assumptions.
Thinking that as long as he wholeheartedly treated her well, laid his sincere heart bare before her without reservation, someday she would see his sincerity, see his true feelings.
That one day, she would open her heart to him again and accept him.
But all of this was just his fantasy.
He wasn't as irreplaceable as he thought.
To Mia, he really wasn't important.
His heart tore apart, shattered into pieces, impossible to put back together.
The more it hurt, the easier it became for James to say what came next.
A bitter smile curved his lips.
But his eyes grew redder and redder, tears faintly shimmering in them.
It was good that he wasn't important.
Not being important meant he could smoothly say everything that followed, without worrying whether Mia would believe him.
"Mia, in a relationship, you can't take everything for granted."
Every word James spoke was like self-inflicted torture.
As soon as he finished speaking, Mia's breath caught.
So that's how it was.
After such a short time, he already felt tired of giving.
His so-called sincerity and devotion—this was all it amounted to.