All Chapters of The Rain Belongs to Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

Hannah's POVWhen I went back into the bedroom, Kenneth Ford was still fast asleep.A moment later, he waved his hand and murmured, "Berta, knock it off..."Berta Neal was that girl's name. She was his new assistant.They shouldn't have been close enough for her name to come so naturally to him, especially not in his sleep.I stood there for a while, staring at him before finally grabbing my pillow and going to the guest room. I sat on the edge of the bed in the dark, too numb to think.At five the next morning, the door flew open."Hannah, did yesterday's rain fry your brain?" Kenneth snapped. "What the hell did you say to Berta?"The bedroom light blazed on, and I winced at the sudden glare."Did I say something wrong?" I said, my voice rough with sleep."I was late yesterday," he sulked. "That was my fault, but I already apologized...""Kenneth!" I cut him off. "How many times have you walked her home under that umbrella for it to become a habit? And how close are you two

Chapter 2

It wasn't until the words left his mouth that Kenneth finally realized he'd gone too far.He rubbed his temples, muttered a stiff apology, and hurried out.About 15 minutes later, the door opened again. The familiar smell of hot lattes and cinnamon rolls drifted into the room.Kenneth came over, took my hand, and led me to the table before pulling out a chair and making me sit. He awkwardly set down the drinks and pastries, then gave me a tentative smile."I'm sorry. I lost my temper back there."Normally, I would have pulled out my phone, snapped a picture of the food, and posted it on Instagram with a sweet caption.[Dating your childhood sweetheart and realizing how lucky you are.]But this time, I just looked at him and asked quietly, "You bought all this for her too, didn't you?"I didn't need to spell that name. He knew who I was referring to.Kenneth's hand stopped halfway through setting down a napkin. By the time he lowered both hands to the table, the warmth had disa

Chapter 3

Kenneth didn't get angry.He looked genuinely stunned, as if he'd never imagined I could be the one to walk away.My defiance got under his skin, and he scoffed, "You have nothing going for you. What makes you think you can end everything like that?"A moment later, he let out a mocking laugh. "Are you trying to play hard-to-get now? Nice try, but that isn't going to work on me."He slipped on his coat, straightened his cuffs, and gave me a cold look from the corner of his eye. "Berta isn't just some random woman. I expect you to show her some basic respect and courtesy. Grow up and stop acting like a child every time you're upset."I stared at him, almost unable to believe what I was hearing.I was his girlfriend, and Berta was the woman he'd been getting closer and closer to right under my nose. So, why was I the one expected to treat her with respect and courtesy?But instead of retorting, I just stayed quiet. He nodded, thinking I had finally backed down."I've got dinner w

Chapter 4

Kenneth was silent for eight full seconds. I counted it.Then his reply finally came through: [Come over. I'll explain.]I closed my hand around the condom packet and drove straight to the address he'd sent me. A crowd had gathered in the backyard, laughing, drinking, and enjoying a summer cookout around the grill.Berta sat right in the middle, chatting and laughing as though she owned the place, while I looked like the outsider who had just wandered into the wrong party.The moment they saw me, the laughter stopped."Come here."Kenneth frowned and waved dismissively. The cold impatience in his eyes sent a sharp pain through me.I didn't move, but Berta did. With a smug smile, she walked over, caught me by the arm, and tried to pull me toward the grill."I heard your dad was stabbed to death by your mom, and then your mom killed herself in a psychiatric hospital," she taunted. "So, does that make you the daughter of a crazy woman?"Met with my glare, she continued innocently

Chapter 5

Third-person POVKenneth's phone remained silent throughout the day. There were no messages or calls from Hannah. The silence left him strangely restless.Part of him knew he had gone too far and owed her an apology, but another part still felt that she had been too unreasonable and needed to learn that she couldn't keep pushing him like this.By the time evening came, he drove home, expecting to find her waiting there. Instead, the house was pitch dark."Hannah? Hannah!" he called out, kicking off his shoes.He headed straight for the bedroom as usual and pushed open the door. Everything looked almost exactly as it always had, yet the familiar space felt strangely empty, as though something important had disappeared.He checked the rest of the house, but there was no sign of her anywhere. The flicker of unease turned into panic when he pulled out his phone and tried to call her, only to find that her phone was switched off.The automated message that came through sounded co

Chapter 6

The phone slipped from Kenneth's hand and clattered onto the floor. He stood there in stunned silence, his mind spinning as his blood ran cold. He had never imagined that Hannah would stop answering his calls, much less block his number.Could the girl who used to split her chocolate chip cookie with him even when she was hungry herself really be gone from his life for good? He couldn't let himself think about it, because the possibility was too frightening to face.Outside, a drizzle had begun to fall, but for once, there was no one waiting at the entrance to hold an umbrella over him.Kenneth walked straight into the rain and let it soak through his clothes, barely seeming to notice the cold as his wet hair plastered itself to his forehead.Then he remembered what happened the other afternoon. The rain had been pouring even harder that day, and he'd tilted his umbrella so far toward Berta that half of his own body had been left exposed to the downpour.He hadn't spared any tho

Chapter 7

Hannah's POVIt was early morning in the quiet town of Woodstock, with a bright moon hanging in a clear, star-filled sky when I finally arrived.I recognized my college friend the moment I saw her.We hadn't seen each other in years, but one look at the dark circles beneath my eyes and the strained smile I was wearing was enough for her to understand that I wasn't doing well.Grace Carson didn't ask any questions. Instead, she smiled, opened the passenger door, and told me to get in.She was still the same girl I remembered—bright, lively, and incapable of sitting in silence for more than five minutes. Throughout the drive, she kept me entertained with stories about her 38th ill-fated romance and her hopeless ex-husband, chatting so naturally that the years apart seemed to disappear.When we pulled up outside her cottage, Grace grabbed my suitcase from the trunk and carried it inside. The dining table was already set with a comforting home-cooked meal.The moment I saw the food

Chapter 8

Our bakery's soft opening was a huge success.In the first month, we'd already cleared tens of thousands of dollars in profit, and Grace immediately put her business instincts to work.She arranged for our pastries to be packaged and shipped nationwide, while promoting them as local specialties for tourists.Between the baking, the orders, and the endless stream of customers, I was too busy to dwell on the past, and little by little, even Kenneth's face—the face I'd looked at every day for more than ten years—began to fade from my thoughts.The days bled into weeks, and the weeks slipped quietly into months. No matter how painful a wound was, time had a way of dulling the ache.Grace found herself a new man to pursue her, while the line outside our shop seemed to stretch farther down the block with every passing day.Then, one rainy afternoon, I caught sight of a familiar figure standing outside the shop window.It was Kenneth, who had lost a noticeable amount of weight. His onc

Chapter 9

Kenneth looked into my eyes, as though he were finally beginning to understand something.A choked sob escaped his throat, and he continued painfully, "Berta approaching me was nothing but a business arrangement. If I married her, she would get a 20 percent stake in the firm, and in return, her family would help me secure the president's position.He lowered his head, his voice shaky. "I was tempted by the opportunity, but I regretted it afterward. That's why I resigned."I don't care about becoming president anymore. I taped the picture back together, and I went through the trash and picked up everything you threw away."He hurriedly unlocked his phone and held it out to me. The screen showed photographs of the balcony, where the flowers had been carefully tended back to life, along with the binder of movie ticket stubs he'd salvaged.The stains had been cleaned, the wrinkled tickets carefully flattened, and even the photograph I'd cut in half had been painstakingly taped back to

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