Novel & Cerita He Let Me Drown

"Is this Mr. Patrick Holmes? Your wife was rescued after nearly drowning in the flood. She's currently being treated at Northside Hospital. Please come over as soon as possible." There was silence on the other end for a moment. Then, I heard the sound of porcelain shattering. A commotion broke out, and Patrick angrily questioned the doctor. He asked, "Who the hell are you? Everyone knows Esme drowned. Her body was never even found! If you're trying to scam money from me, forget it!" Seeing the doctor's embarrassed expression, I took the phone and spoke calmly, "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm very much alive. Get over here right now."

The slight stubble across his jaw. Tears travelled down his face and fell on my forehead. My eyelids were too heavy for me to open them again. I couldn't inhale anymore. I couldn't breathe. "Thank you for giving me a reason to stay." The end

The only sound that cut through the haze was Hayes’s voice, low and careful. “Ella… Lucas isn’t coming. He sent me in his place.” It took me a second to understand his words. To truly understand what they meant. Hayes continued to talk. “We can stop this. You can walk out. You don’t have to do anything.” He looked like he meant it. Like he wanted to protect me from something I hadn’t even processed yet. I forced myself to take a step forward. Then another. The whispers grew louder, but I kept walking until I reached the altar. Hayes swallowed hard, trying to hold himself steady.

His outstretched hand dropped limply to the snow before his body followed, collapsing face-first into the cold. While unconscious, Dylan had a vivid nightmare. From above, he watched himself and Zoe get married. But their marriage was filled with pain. He sank into depression—tormented by his longing for Jenny. For seven years, he treated Zoe with cold indifference, throwing cruel words at her every chance he got. In the end, he died. Zoe was left behind, blamed and despised by everyone. Alone and broken, she walked into the sea. Dylan tried to stop her. Screamed for her. Reached out to her. But he couldn’t touch her. He could only watch as she disappeared beneath the waves.

I pulled my hand out of his and told him the cruel truth. Even if the surgery was successful, he would live his whole life as a cripple. After that, he was kept under observation for a while. Then, on a quiet night, he went to the hospital's roof and jumped to his death. A video was posted to the Internet right after that. He was lying in his bed, crying and pleading for a chance to live. He confessed his sins and said he had treated me unfairly. He wanted to take his own life so he could keep himself alive in my memories forever.

Somewhere along the way, I had started believing it could be that place for me too. I picked up the remote and pressed play. The reel moved from the dock to the villas, from the dining deck to the ceremony lawn facing the water. White chairs had already been arranged for the preview shoot, and the wooden arch stood bare, waiting for flowers. For years, I had imagined Ethan there. Not because the island needed him, but because I had given him that place in my mind until I could no longer separate the beach from the promise. Tonight, for the first time, I looked at the screen and saw the island without him.

Fear getting the best of me as I wasn’t expecting anyone. I opened the door slowly, there was no one. I looked left and right, then I saw a white box on the floor, just right below me. I hesitated before picking it up slowly, there was no name. Nothing written outside. I took it in and locked the door. I opened it and inside, a single arrangement of white dandelions stained with blood. Someone’s blood. On seeing it, I yelled, jumin fear with my hand clutched to my chest as I shifted away.

His gaze dropped to my bare legs again, just for a second, then snapped back up like it pissed him off that he’d looked. “Showering is high risk,” he said. “You slip, you hit your head, you pass out. You drown.” His throat worked. “You don’t have the same reserves you think you do right now.” Drown. The word drown hit somewhere low in my chest. I swallowed. “I didn’t drown,” I said lightly. “Remember? No longer a brain-dead vegetable. Bounced right back.” “That isn’t funny.” “Didn’t say it was.” The silence stretched, thick and charged.

Just like I'm falling now, deeper into the ocean, not knowing when my body will hit the ground and the more, I seek the surface, the more water I find all around. I’m stuck and I want to breathe however can’t seem to pull my body up and grab some air before falling into an abyss. The dark world deep down with no limits. I want to let go, close my eyes, let the water sink inside my empty soul and make me drown. His hand is not consenting me that extravagance. He’s holding onto me even though I just ruined his world, “you take revenge too sweetly, princess.” His lips curved into a smirk beside my cheeks and the heat rose up to mine. He looked in my eyes, it’s not helping.

Let him suffer. Let him drown in the chaos I had created.