ホーム / Childhood Sweethearts No More / チャプター 1 - チャプター 9

Childhood Sweethearts No More のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 1 - チャプター 9

9 チャプター

Chapter 1

Rachel Drew stood in the entryway, her brow faintly furrowed, as if she were waiting for me to blow up at her the way I always did.After all, for the past twenty years, any time so much as another man came near her, I'd made a scene about it. And today, of all days, was the day she'd picked up her new Porsche Panamera.I'd eaten simple bread alongside her for three straight months and helped her polish more proposals than I could count, all so she could land the deal that let her pay for that car in full. The first thing she did once she had the keys in hand was put Dennis Collin in the passenger seat and leave me standing alone outside the dealership."You really don't mind?"Rachel had changed into her slippers and come to stand in front of me, studying my face. I kept my head down, folding clothes into my suitcase, and didn't bother looking up."I don't mind. Dennis's delicate. It's only right you take extra care of him."Her frown deepened. She grabbed my hand mid-fold.

続きを読む

Chapter 2

Rachel had liked a photo Dennis had posted, one of him at some fancy fine-dining meal."There's no more pasta in the kitchen. Order yourself something," I said, and kept dragging my suitcase toward the bedroom.Rachel grabbed my wrist hard enough to leave a red mark instantly."Adrian, I've spent the last ten minutes swallowing my pride to talk you down. Are you seriously still going?"Pain shot up my wrist, and I flinched on instinct. Rachel's eyes caught on the ugly burn scar running up my right arm, flickering for a moment before she finally let go.That scar was from the night I was eighteen, when her family's house caught fire and I ran in to drag her out. Because of it, I'd given up my dream of testing into flight school. I'd picked up a spatula instead, and taken over the run-down stew house my mother had left me.Back then, Rachel had held me while I was covered in blood and sobbed that she'd take care of me for the rest of her life. Now, the smell of the stew house on

続きを読む

Chapter 3

I could see the sign my mother had painted with her own two hands from a distance, tossed out onto the muddy street.Dennis Collin stood under Rachel's umbrella, covering his nose, watching with obvious disgust as pots and pans were carried out of the shop."Rachel, this place is so dirty. Are you sure you can turn it into a dessert shop?""Don't worry, Dennis. I'll have it sanitized. They're tearing out every last floor tile and relaying it, so there won't be a trace of that smoke smell left."Rachel's voice was gentle, nothing like the way she'd screamed at me the night before.I pushed through the crowd and my eyes landed immediately on the old wooden box sitting on top of a pile thrown out for the trash.That box was everything to me. Inside it wasn't just my mother's secret stew recipe, the one thing she'd never shared with anyone else, but also the wooden spatula Rachel had carved for me with her own hands when she was fifteen. She'd cut her fingers doing it, and laughed

続きを読む

Chapter 4

"Dennis's still waiting for you. Don't let him catch the smell of someone like me."I braced myself against the wall and pulled myself upright, limping.Dennis walked over and held out a tissue, but his eyes were full of a victor's mockery."Don't be too hard on Rachel, Adrian. She's doing this for your own good. A grown man reeking of stew all day, how are you ever going to find a wife?"I didn't take the tissue. I just looked at him, cold."Dennis, you'd better pray you never catch a whiff of real cooking for the rest of your life."I turned and walked off into the rain.Behind me, Rachel's voice rang out, unhinged."Adrian! If you leave today, don't ever think about coming back through my door again!"I didn't look back, and I didn't slow down.Back at the apartment, I packed up everything that was mine, down to the last item. Aside from a few clothes I actually wore and my acceptance letter to Le Cordon Violet, I didn't take a thing.I looked around the empty room one la

続きを読む

Chapter 5

The apartment was eerily quiet, the air thick with the sour smell of spoiled food.Rachel frowned faintly and called out on reflex, "Adrian, what did you leave out to rot?"No one answered.She changed out of her shoes and walked into the living room, only to find every trace of me gone. My throw pillows, my laundry hanging to dry, even my razor from the bathroom counter- all of it had disappeared.Rachel's heart skipped. She felt a chill rising from the soles of her feet.She strode over to the dining table and saw the sticky note pinned under the apartment key.[Stew's on the stove. Drink it while it's hot.]The handwriting was firm and steady, but there was a coldness running through it.Rachel's hand started to shake. She rushed into the kitchen and threw the lid off the pot.It really was the yam and rib stew she loved. But it had sat there for three full days, and a layer of green mold now floated across the surface, giving off a smell that turned her stomach.Nausea hi

続きを読む

Chapter 6

Three months later.With me gone, Rachel's life started falling apart.Her stomach problems grew worse, since there was no one left who could cook her a soup that actually agreed with it.Dennis tried to cook for her a few times. But his supposed germ phobia meant he wore three layers of medical gloves just to cut vegetables, and whatever he produced was completely inedible.Rachel started having trouble sleeping. The moment she closed her eyes, all she could see was the hollow look in my eyes as I watched that wooden box get crushed.She called in every favor she had to track me down, only to discover I'd closed out every account I had back home and vanished without a trace.Then, late one night, everything changed.Rachel was leaving a club after a business dinner when her car passed a run-down street lined with food stalls. She'd only glanced idly out the window, but the moment she spotted a familiar face, she slammed on the brakes.At a greasy little crawfish stand by the r

続きを読む

Chapter 7

On my face was a smile Rachel hadn't seen from me in years, one that actually reached my eyes.No greasy apron, no lingering smell of the stew house. Standing there in the light, I barely looked like myself to her."Adrian..."Rachel's voice trembled as she stumbled toward me.The moment I heard it, the smile vanished from my face.I turned and looked at the gaunt, hollow-eyed woman in front of me like she was a stranger.Rachel rushed up and reached for me without thinking, only for Sophie Lambert to step in and block her."Ma'am, what do you think you're doing?"Sophie frowned and pulled me behind her protectively.Rachel paid Sophie no attention at all. She stared straight at me, her eyes instantly rimmed red."Adrian, I finally found you. Come home with me, please?"I got rid of Dennis. The Collins' company is bankrupt. I've avenged you!"She was babbling, pleading, utterly abject.I watched her performance in silence until she'd finished, then spoke, my voice flat."

続きを読む

Chapter 8

Rachel's hands were covered in fine cuts, blood seeping out and staining the wooden handle."Adrian, I carved you a new one. It's not as pretty as the last one, but I'll keep practicing until I get it right, until it looks the way you'd like it."She looked at me, a careful, timid light in her eyes.I looked down at the blood-stained spatula in my hands and suddenly found the whole thing absurd."Rachel, do you think you're atoning for something?"I raised my head and looked straight at her."When you were busy protecting Dennis, you thought my recipe notebook was garbage. Now that you know he lied to you, you come running to carve me spatulas instead."You never loved me. You just couldn't stand being lied to, couldn't stand the fact that the loyal dog that used to follow you everywhere suddenly stopped circling you."Rachel went pale, shaking her head desperately."That's not true! I really do love you! I was just an idiot back then, too blind to see my own heart...""Enoug

続きを読む

Chapter 9

"Go home. Go sit in your empty Panamera and live out your fancy life, the one that doesn't have to smell like someone from the gutter."I turned and strode into the restaurant's kitchen, leaving Rachel to wail in the snow behind me.That was the last time I ever spoke to Rachel.From that day on, it was like she'd become a different person. She never came looking for me again, and she never went back home.I heard she sold off everything she owned, rented a basement room in a run-down corner of the city, and spent her days wandering the streets.She wore the same faded, threadbare coat every day, nothing like the designer outfits she used to favor. Every day, she went to a cheap corner grocer to buy ingredients, then went back to her basement and clumsily tried to teach herself how to make stew.But whatever she made either came out burnt or turned out bitter with salt.She'd eat it, then throw it up, then eat some more, over and over, until she developed a stomach ulcer. She wa

続きを読む

コードをスキャンしてアプリで読む

DMCA.com Protection Status