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Lahat ng Kabanata ng Dumped in the Dark, Saved by Myself: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

10 Kabanata

Chapter 1

I sat wrapped in the blanket the officer had given me, clutching a paper cup filled with hot water. Ripples appeared in circles on the liquid due to my trembling hands. The water reflected my pale face.When I gave my statement, I was so terrified that even the simplest one-syllable words got stuck in my throat. They were reduced to nothing but ragged breaths.Seeing my condition, the officer didn't rush me. Instead, he brought me a stack of blank paper and a pen. With trembling hands, I wrote down everything that had happened. I recounted everything from the moment the three drunk men began following me.Two long hours later, hurried footsteps echoed from the end of the hallway.Hugo Sheridan strode into the room, with Lorelei Judge close behind him.He was still wearing the dark gray hiking jacket he'd put on while camping. "Well, Andrea, look at you. We asked you to buy some water, and you somehow ended up at the police station. Do you have any idea how long I've been looking f

Chapter 2

When we walked out of the police station, a light drizzle had started to fall. Hugo opened his umbrella and instinctively tilted it toward Lorelei.On the drive home, Lorelei naturally took the passenger seat. She lowered the seat, connected her phone to the Bluetooth, and played some upbeat pop music.I sat in the corner of the back seat, watching the streets slide past outside the window. The car heater was blasting, but I still felt cold. The cup of hot water hadn't warmed me at all, as the chill had already seeped into my bones.After dropping me off, Hugo drove away with Lorelei without another word.I dragged my aching legs home, limping the entire way.When I pushed open the front door, a small lamp cast a warm yellow glow across the living room. My grandmother, Adeline Wood, was sitting on the couch in her robe. The moment she saw me, she hurried over, her eyes immediately falling on my bloodied knee. "Oh, Andrea, what happened to your knee?"Her eyes filled with concer

Chapter 3

Hugo didn't come to see Grandma even once during the following week.He only messaged me twice on WhatsApp to ask how she was doing. After I replied, "She's okay," he didn't say anything else.Grandma's test results didn't look too good. The doctor recommended keeping her in the hospital under observation for a few days while preparing for her upcoming bypass surgery.Every day, I went back and forth between the hospital and the apartment. I settled into a busy routine of making soup for Grandma and washing our clothes.One night, I went to the pantry at the end of the hallway to fill the thermos. As I passed the nurses' station, I overheard two young nurses working the night shift whispering to each other."Did you guys see Lorelei's livestream today? It was insane.""I did. I never would've guessed that stuttering girl who acts so helpless all the time was actually so disgusting.""I heard that stutter is completely fake. She pretends to have it to make men feel sorry for her

Chapter 4

The rumors spread across the internet far faster than I'd imagined. The online harassment spread into the real world without warning like a creeping epidemic.In the afternoon, I went to the billing counter on the first floor to pay Grandma's medical bill. When I returned to her hospital room with the printed receipt, I found a large crowd gathered in the hallway.There was shouting, along with the sound of things being knocked over. I recognized the woman leading the mob. She was Lorelei's personal assistant.She pointed her camera into the hospital room. Then, she glanced back and gave the people behind her a signal.She said, "Make sure you get a clear shot. This is the deadbeat grandmother of the stuttering girl. Let's show everyone online the kind of person who raised a shameless young woman like that."Several people laughed as they shoved the door open. They pointed their cameras at the elderly woman lying helplessly in the hospital bed mockingly.My mind went blank with a

Chapter 5

Hugo frowned and tapped on the notification. When he read the contents, the color drained from his face.His fingers trembled as he tapped on my chat. His messages wouldn't go through, and my number couldn't be reached.He stumbled toward the parking lot. On his way home, he ran three red lights along the way.When he pushed open the front door, he found the apartment cold and empty. Half the closet was bare. At the very center of his pillow lay the tablet that had been restored to its factory settings.The screen was lit, displaying only one line. "Welcome. Please complete the initial setup."As Hugo stood in the empty home, his mind went blank for a moment. He dialed my number again."I'm sorry. The number you have dialed is no longer in service."He immediately switched to WhatsApp. Every message he'd sent showed only one gray tick below them.On the coffee table in the living room sat a spare key. There wasn't even a note beside it. Everything was spotless, as though I'd ne

Chapter 6

Nayworth was a small seaside town with a mild, pleasant climate. Life was slow there, and the elderly people on the streets spoke in local dialects I couldn't understand.I rented a tiny one-room apartment with a small courtyard in the old part of town and found a job at a flower shop at the entrance to an alley. The owner was a kind middle-aged woman who didn't mind that I rarely spoke.In a city where no one knew me, I learned to breathe again.After work, I would lock the doors and windows in my apartment and put on some instrumental music. Then, I would stand in front of the bathroom mirror to practice speaking over and over again.I started with the simplest sounds. After a while, I moved on to words and phrases. Finally, I started speaking in complete sentences.Hugo used to stroke my hair and say, "You don't have to talk if you don't want to. I'll always be here."I'd lost the ability to live independently inside the cage he'd built for me. Now that the cage was shattered,

Chapter 7

Hugo froze as an expression of shock and disbelief appeared on his face. "You can speak! You… You're not stuttering anymore…"He took a step forward, trying to pull me into his arms.I stepped to the side and put some distance between us. "If you're not here to buy flowers, please don't block the doorway. You're obstructing our business."My voice was calm, as though I were speaking to a complete stranger.Hugo's hand froze in midair. The color drained completely from his face.His voice trembled, and his tone was almost pleading. "Andrea, don't be so cold… I know what happened to Grandma. It was all my fault. I came too late. I punished Lorelei and made sure she was blacklisted everywhere. I ruined her entire career. She'll never be able to return to the country."I also sued the people who spread those lies online. And I paid for the best possible headstone for Grandma…"I listened quietly as he listed all of his accomplishments. Then, I picked up my scissors and continued tri

Chapter 8

From that day on, Hugo stayed at a small motel across the flower shop. No matter if it was rain or shine, he showed up at the flower shop right on time every single day. He bought all of the sunflowers in the store.Sunflowers had always been his favorite flowers. He used to say I was his little ray of sunshine, the one who could chase away all the darkness in his life.The shop owner was more than happy to let me handle such a generous customer myself.I didn't object. I simply took his orders, handled the payments, and wrapped the flowers as I would for any other customer. After all, business was business.There seemed to be no end to the rain in Nayworth.One evening, the temperature suddenly dropped, and the damp air turned bitterly cold.Hugo stood beneath the streetlamp outside the flower shop without an umbrella. He was soaked from head to toe. His face was unnaturally flushed from a fever, and his body swayed in the wind with every violent cough.In the past, even the sl

Chapter 9

Hugo went to Grandma's grave and bribed one of the cemetery employees to let him in. He knelt in front of her grave for three whole days.During that time, he refused to eat or drink. He endured the wind and rain until he finally collapsed from exhaustion. Expensive imported health supplements and bouquets of white roses crowded the space in front of Grandma's tombstone.On the eve of Memorial Day, I went up the mountain to visit Grandma's grave.The sky was gray, and a light drizzle was falling. From a distance, I spotted the figure lying on the moss-covered stone steps.I walked over and stepped over him. His pale lips moved faintly in the rain as he unconsciously murmured my name.If this had happened in the past, I probably would have cried from seeing Hugo like this. Now, all I felt was bitter irony.He was trying to make my heart soften by deliberately putting himself through misery, as if he was so sure that would be the outcome. This was just like back then, when he assum

Chapter 10

After that final confrontation, Hugo disappeared from my life.The owner of the flower shop later told me that the man from the north who had bought flowers every day had looked like a soulless husk when he left.I quit my job at the flower shop and left Nayworth. I moved to an even quieter and more remote town in the southwest.Time was the best medicine for healing everything, as long as one was willing to keep moving forward.Two years later, I passed the exams and earned my teaching certificate through self-study. I became a teacher at a special education school, where I worked specifically with children who had speech and language difficulties.The sun was shining brightly over the playground, and a gentle breeze stirred the treetops. I stood at the front of the classroom with a colorful children's picture book in my hands."Everyone, read it with me. Sun… shine…"My pronunciation was clear. Every word carried the vigor of life, without a trace of the fear that had once hel

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