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홈 / Ninety-Nine Messages, One Goodbye / Chapter 2

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Chapter 2

작가: Heliotrope
I remained on the rug for a long time. When the pain from the surgery finally eased, I continued packing the things our baby would never use.

Adrian had chosen the pale yellow onesie himself. He said yellow would suit either a boy or a girl.

Beside it lay a pair of socks embroidered with stars. My mother had made them stitch by stitch, using the softest cotton thread so they would not irritate a newborn’s skin.

The crib was still unassembled. A moon-shaped night-light sat beside it, and a gray elephant was hidden at the bottom of the closet. Adrian had brought the toy home from Sicily as his first gift for our child.

Every item I placed in the box tightened the ache in my chest.

I packed everything carefully. I would take it all to Boston.

The next morning, I woke on the sofa. Adrian had not returned, and there were no messages from him.

Bianca had posted a photograph half an hour earlier.

Adrian was asleep on a sofa at the Bellini estate. His collar was open, and his coat covered Bianca’s legs.

Her caption contained only one sentence.

“No night feels dark when you are here.”

I stared at it for several seconds, then pressed Like.

Bianca called almost immediately.

“Elena, please don’t misunderstand.”

Her voice trembled with carefully restrained tears.

“Adrian was worried about leaving me alone. He stayed until dawn and fell asleep. Nothing happened between us.”

“I know.”

I kept my voice calm.

“Your father once took a bullet for the Moretti family, and Adrian promised to protect you. He has always considered you a younger sister.”

Adrian had said those words countless times.

Bianca was twenty-five. She had her own estate, guards, and private doctors. Yet one power failure could still bring the Don of the Moretti family to her door within ten minutes.

As long as they never shared a bed, Adrian believed his favoritism caused no harm.

The line fell silent.

I heard a low sound of displeasure in the background.

Adrian was awake.

Bianca either failed to notice his reaction or chose to ignore it.

“Elena, I have a hospital appointment today. Can I borrow Adrian for one more day? My doctor may change my medication, and I’m afraid to go alone.”

I looked at the baby clothes inside the box.

Adrian had accompanied me to the hospital during my pregnancy. He always arrived on time, and his men cleared the quietest waiting room at the Moretti family’s private medical center.

We never completed an appointment together.

Bianca would call while I was having blood drawn and claim she could not breathe.

She would send a photograph of a scratch on her wrist while the doctor explained my results.

Once, just as I lay down for an examination, she locked herself in a bathroom and refused to speak to anyone.

Every time, Adrian squeezed my hand and promised he would return soon.

Every time, I left the hospital alone with my results.

“You don't need to borrow him anymore,” I said.

Bianca paused.

“What do you mean?”

“From now on, he's yours.”

Her breathing changed.

“Elena, are you angry? Is this because of me?”

She began to cry.

“I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked him to stay. If I've ruined things between you, I don't know how I can live with myself.”

I heard footsteps, then Adrian took the phone.

“Elena, can you stop being jealous for once? You know she isn't well.”

I folded the last pair of baby socks and laid them in the box.

“She asked whether you could stay. I said she didn't need my permission.”

“Then why say it like that? You knew how she'd take it.”

He sounded certain that I had called to start another argument.

“I'm not asking you to leave her,” I said. “I need you to listen to me.”

“About what?”

“Our baby—”

“Adrian, did I ruin everything?”

Bianca's sobs covered my voice.

“I can leave New York. I can do whatever Elena wants. Please don't let her hate me.”

His voice softened at once.

“No one's making you leave. Sit down and breathe.”

Then he spoke to me again.

“We'll talk when I get home. We have plenty of time.”

The call ended before I could answer.

I put the phone down and closed the box.

He thought I would wait until Bianca no longer needed him. My flight left in six days.
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  • Ninety-Nine Messages, One Goodbye   Chapter 9

    The following morning, I called my attorney.“Proceed with the divorce.”Several weeks later, Adrian and I met at my attorney’s Manhattan office to sign the final uncontested affidavits. He had waived his right to contest the settlement and signed every remaining document before I arrived.We sat on opposite sides of the conference table without speaking.My attorney reviewed the papers, then looked at each of us.“Do both of you wish to proceed?”“Yes,” I said.Adrian lowered his eyes.“Yes.”The court entered the final judgment two weeks later.After leaving the attorney’s office, I placed my copies inside my bag.Adrian stopped several feet away.“Can I visit your mother’s grave?”His voice was careful.“I don’t expect you to come with me. I only want to apologize.”I raised my hand for a taxi.“She needed you while she was alive.”He went still.“You don’t need to visit her now.”The taxi pulled to the curb. I entered without looking back.My life in Boston gradually became ordinar

  • Ninety-Nine Messages, One Goodbye   Chapter 8

    ELENA’S POVAutumn arrived late in Boston.The city felt unfamiliar enough to let me breathe.On my first day at the new office, my supervisor asked why I had left New York after so many years.“I wanted somewhere new.”I wanted a city where no street carried memories of Adrian or Bianca, somewhere far from my mother’s grave and the nursery I had prepared for a child who would never use it.I rented a small apartment near the office and filled my days with reports, meetings, and long walks. At night, I unpacked one box at a time.I kept the baby’s memory box in the bedroom closet.The heartbeat player remained broken.I had no intention of returning to New York or seeing anyone from my former life.A week after I started work, I left the office after nine and found Adrian waiting beneath a streetlamp.“Elena.”I stopped.He looked thinner. His coat hung loosely from his shoulders, and exhaustion shadowed his face.I turned away. My Boston address had been included in the divorce filing

  • Ninety-Nine Messages, One Goodbye   Chapter 7

    ADRIAN’S POVAdrian did not remember leaving the hospital.When he returned to the estate, lights glowed behind the front windows.For one impossible second, hope rose inside him.“Elena?”He opened the door.Bianca hurried across the entrance hall and reached for him.“Adrian, you’re finally back.”He stepped away before she could touch him.Her expression faltered.“I came here because I was frightened. The guards said you left Long Island without telling anyone.”She began describing the tightness in her chest and the panic she had felt while waiting. In the past, the sight of her tears would have made Adrian reassure her. Now he could only see Elena’s ninety-nine messages and the cartoon cat waving beneath each one.Bianca glanced toward the portrait in the living room.“That photograph scared me. Why would Elena put something so upsetting in the center of the house?”Adrian looked at her.“Elena’s mother is dead.”Bianca lowered her eyes.“I know that now. I thought Elena was tryi

  • Ninety-Nine Messages, One Goodbye   Chapter 6

    ADRIAN’S POVAdrian’s knees struck the floor.He stared at the portrait on the wall. Elena’s mother had treated him like a son. She had cooked for him, defended him when Elena’s relatives distrusted the Moretti name, and said her daughter had never felt safer than when he was near.Now she was dead, and he had not known.“Mom.”The word broke in his throat.Any hope that the documents were false disappeared. Elena would never use her mother’s death to punish him.Adrian took out his phone and opened his conversation with Elena.He returned to the afternoon of her surgery and began reading.3:07 p.m.“Adrian, something is wrong. My stomach hurts. Can you come home?”His phone had answered immediately.“Got it.”A cartoon cat waved cheerfully beneath the words.3:21 p.m.“I’m bleeding. I called you, but you didn’t answer. Please tell me where you are.”Another automatic response followed.“Got it.”The same cat continued waving.Adrian’s breathing became shallow.At that time, he had bee

  • Ninety-Nine Messages, One Goodbye   Chapter 5

    ADRIAN’S POVAdrian’s private phone vibrated on the dining table.He had spent several days at the Long Island house with Bianca, expecting Elena to calm down as she always had before. In seven years, a quiet dinner and an apology had repaired every conflict between them. He believed this time would be no different.Bianca carried a small shopping bag into the room and placed it beside him.“I found something for Elena in town. Do you think she’ll like it?”Adrian glanced at the wrapped box.“She will.”He spoke with complete confidence.Elena never remained angry with him for long.He picked up his phone and noticed two images waiting in their conversation.For the past week, the automatic replies had kept their conversation looking active, although Adrian had not opened Elena's messages. He assumed she was still angry about Bianca staying in the nursery. If he answered now, they would have the same argument again. He would take Elena to dinner when Bianca was settled, give her whate

  • Ninety-Nine Messages, One Goodbye   Chapter 4

    After Adrian followed Bianca out, I gathered the scattered items alone.The heartbeat player would no longer turn on. I smoothed the creased ultrasound and returned it to the memory box with the baby’s identification bracelet.Less than half an hour later, my phone rang.“Is this Elena Moretti? Your mother has suffered an acute heart attack. She is being treated now. Please come immediately.”The light above the emergency room was already red when I reached the medical center.Mom’s doctor had warned me that her condition was complicated. If an emergency occurred, Dr. Russo, the head of the cardiac unit, needed to supervise her treatment.I stopped a nurse.“Where is Dr. Russo? He knows my mother’s entire case.”The nurse stiffened.“He was called to another emergency room.”“Who called him away?”She lowered her voice.“Don Moretti.”My body went cold.“Miss Bellini took too much sedative medication and then developed chest pain and difficulty breathing. Mr. Moretti ordered Dr. Russo

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