Chapter 224: James Initiates Ending 2
A cold, indifferent smile curved at the corner of Mia's lips, her voice shifting from calm to icy.
"James, I need you to understand something. During this time, have I ever asked you to do anything for me?"
"Everything you did, you did willingly. I never forced you."
"From the very beginning, I made our relationship crystal clear, didn't I?"
From start to finish, he was the one who approached her, disrupting her peaceful life.
He was the one who shamelessly pursued her, insisting on being good to her.
He was the one who proposed trying to salvage their relationship, desperately selling himself to her andbegging for another chance to prove himself.
If he hadn't been so convincing, making it all sound so good.
Making her actually believe he was sincere, that he truly wanted to start over with her, she wouldn't have given him the chance to try again.
Now,it was simply because she hadn't moved past the shadows of their history and couldn't give him the same response in return.
He was accusing her of taking his efforts for granted?
What right did he have?
Mia didn’t want to get angry.
But when she heard him say this about her, she couldn’thelp feeling hurt.
Even though she still had feelings for him deep down, was it wrong that she didn’t want to trust him so easily again?
Was it wrong that the pain he caused her before made it impossible for her to open her heart to him again so readily?
She was willing to move past the hurt, to try letting go of those memories she didn’t want to revisit.
She thought he was genuinely sincere, so she wanted to give them both a chance.
This was already the biggest compromise she could make.
She was also trying hard to give him everything she could at this stage.
And he, once his patience ran out, played mind games with her.
When that didn't work, he turned around and blamed her!
Mia kept taking deep breaths, desperately trying to control her overwhelming emotions.
After she finished speaking, the line fell into dead silence.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
The silence lingered.
After a long while, James finally moved his lips.
Things had come to this point.
He just needed to say those final words, and he could end this bloodless torture.
But when the words reached his lips.
His thin lips opened and closed.
Over and over again.
Each time the words were on the tip of his tongue, he swallowed them back.
He knew he had to say it.
But he really couldn't bear to.
Once he said it, knowing Mia's personality and how little she cared about him now.
They would truly become strangers from then on.
Everything he'd worked so hard to gain during this time would be lost in an instant.
But no matter how hard it was to say, he still had to say it.
Thinking about the words he was about to speak, James’s eyes grew redder and redder, as if they might bleed.
His slightly parted lips kept trembling.
After a long pause, he finally forced out the words that had circled in his mouth countless times: "Yes, you're right. Before, I was the one making one-sided efforts."
"I thought I could wait slowly without expecting anything in return, but I'm tired. I don't want to continue anymore."
"We..."
Jamesspoke ruthlessly, but in the end, he still choked up.
This time, after only a few seconds' pause, hecontinued.
Forcing himself to say the hardest words: "Let's end it here."
One sentence: let's end it here.
Heart-wrenching pain.
A heart dripping blood.
His words hurt not only his own heart.
But Mia's too.
Even though she knew from the moment he accused her of taking his efforts for granted how this phone call would end, she understood in her heart.
But actually hearing himsay,"let's end it here," her heart still ached.
Mia immediately bit down hard on her lip, forcing back the wetness in her eyes.
Before her emotions could break down, she forced herself to say in a cold tone, "Fine."
A clean, decisive agreement.
she wouldn’t let herself drag it out.
She didn’t letJames detect even a hint of her reluctance.
She didn't want to reveal her sadness to a man who wasn't firm in his feelings.
After speaking, she hung up immediately.
The moment she did, the wetness Mia had been suppressing surged uncontrollably back into her eyes, swirling around.
She tried hard to hold it back, not wanting to cry over James again so pathetically.
Her lips pressed tightly together, trembling from the effort .
But after holding back for so long, she still couldn't suppress the tears, which finally spilled out.
Her heart ached.
She cared more thanshe had realized.
On the other end of the line.
James listened to the disconnected tone.
Until it turned into a busy signal, his hand dropped powerlessly, and the phone sliding from his hand onto the bed.
It was over.
He had personally told Mia it was over.
The trial period he had begged for hadn't even become permanent, and now it was completelyfinished.
James remained the same position, sitting blankly on the hospital bed.
His gaze, fixed on some point, slowly grew hollow.
The light that had rekindled in his eyes during this time , simply because he could be close to Mia was extinguished once again.
He just sat there with his head down.
His vision growing increasingly blurred.
Hot liquid rolled from his eyes.
Falling onto the white sheetsandspreading.
After the first drop, more and more tears followed.
The sheets were soon soaked through.
After a longwhile, they finally stopped.