All Chapters of The Future He'll Never Reach: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I turned and walked toward the door of the private dining room.The room went dead silent for a moment, then burst into laughter."Whoa, Jason, your little girlfriend's got quite the temper.""Seriously, getting jealous over Vivian? She can't take a joke."Jason's humiliation burned. His expression darkened like a thundercloud.Hurried footsteps sounded behind me.He seized my wrist."Aria, what the hell is wrong with you?"His voice was low, thick with impatience and warning."Vivian just speaks her mind. She's always hung out with the guys. It was just a joke."Do you really have to blow this out of proportion and embarrass me in front of everyone?"I wrenched my hand free.An angry red mark bloomed around my wrist."A joke?"I looked at him coldly."Who jokes around with bite marks on their chest?"That bite mark was yours, wasn't it?"Jason's gaze flickered.He rubbed his nose without thinking, his go-to tell whenever guilt got the better of him."We were playing truth or dare and

Below the photo came a voice message."Aria, Jason said this anklet really complements my skin tone."He even knelt down and put it on me himself."He promised to make me his date for the gala tonight, so why don't you just stay home and think about what you've done."I stared at the bracelet on the screen.How could a sacred artifact of the Elves end up on a human's ankle?It was the only medium through which the life bond could be dissolved. I had to get it back.I walked to the window and looked down from the third floor.An Elven body was far stronger than a human one, but the backlash from the bond's dissolution had already begun.A dull ache throbbed in my chest, as though a thousand needles were piercing it.I pushed the window open and swung down the drainpipe with practiced ease.A jolt of pain shot through my knees on landing.I ignored it and hailed a cab straight to the hotel.The banquet hall blazed with light, filled with well-dressed guests.Jason's mother, Patricia Call

The light above the emergency room stayed red all night.The hospital's top blood specialists were called back in the middle of the night, rotating in and out of the room.Patricia sat in the corridor, trembling from head to toe.Her pearl necklace had scattered across the floor, forgotten.Vivian sat in a corner with her ankle wrapped in gauze, her eyes darting restlessly.She couldn't understand how Jason, who had been brimming with arrogant confidence just hours ago, was now bleeding from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, unconscious on the floor.The emergency room door swung open with a bang.The head of hematology stepped out, holding a stack of critical-condition forms.Patricia stumbled toward him, clutching his sleeve."Doctor! How is my son? He's always been perfectly healthy. He barely even catches a cold!"He flipped through the test results, his frown deepening with every page."Mrs. Calloway, your son has a rare blood-wasting syndrome. Did you really not know? It's medical

"Aria... Ari..."Jason's voice was raw and broken.He shoved aside the bodyguard trying to help him. His legs buckled, and he crumpled from the wheelchair to the marble floor.The surrounding guests backed away, clearing a wide space around him.Jason paid no attention to the stares.He dragged himself across the marble on hands and knees, hauling his wasted body forward.Every movement brought ragged gasps and stifled coughing.He finally reached the bottom of the staircase.He stretched out a skeletal hand, reaching for the hem of my gown."Ari... I finally found you..."Do you have any idea what this past month has been like for me?"He lifted his face, smeared with tears and blood, his voice reduced to nothing but panic and pleading."I was wrong... I know I was wrong!"I shouldn't have treated you that way. I shouldn't have taken everything you gave me for granted..."Please, forgive me. Come home with me?"I stood two steps above him, looking down with cold detachment.No retreat

Thud! Thud! Thud!Patricia slammed her forehead into the marble floor, drawing blood after only a few blows."Aria! This is all Jay's fault! It's my fault for not raising him right!"I'm begging you, for the sake of everything you two had over the past three years, have mercy and save his life!"If you save him, everything the Calloways own is yours! I'm on my knees!"Tears and snot streamed down her face, every trace of the society matron gone.The guests exchanged uneasy glances. The atmosphere pressed down like a physical weight.I looked down at this mother and son.Back when I'd lived in the Calloway household, curled up in my room drenched in cold sweat from the bond's backlash, what had Patricia said?She'd called me dramatic and accused me of faking. Then she'd forced me out of bed and into the kitchen to make Jason chicken soup."Everything we had?"I let out a cold laugh and took an ancient parchment scroll from Kael."Mrs. Calloway, this is what everything we had for three y