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Chapter 2244
After turning on his phone, a deluge of notifications cascaded onto the screen.
Wayne's breathing was rapid. The air conditioning in the hospital room was cranked up high, but beads of sweat still dotted his forehead.
The minute after he turned on his phone felt excruciatingly long, stretched to the brink of his patience. Wayne could hear his heartbeat thundering.
The other Wayne across the room caught sight of him and let out a laugh—a sharp, grating sound that filled his ears.
Once the cacophony of alerts subsided, Wayne's gaze locked onto the WhatsApp interface.
He had pinned three contacts to the top of his chat list. The first was his wife Rosalynn, followed by Ivy and Cory.d2
At this moment, all three showed a daunting number of unread messages.
Cory's chat had the least-just three messages.
Rosalynn and Ivy's, however, were both at that unnerving 99+.
Wayne felt a sting in his eyes.
"What do you think this will change?" A mocking voice broke the silence. The other Wayne paced in front of the bed, hands clasped behind his back. "After reading these, all you'll have is a heavier conscience when you inevitably fall back into old habits... nothing more."
Wayne glanced at him before reaching for the Bluetooth headphones on the bedside table.
He slipped them on, activating noise cancellation.
The taunting voice disappeared, and Wayne didn't bother to look at him again.
Taking a deep breath, he tapped on Rosalynn's icon.
The oldest unread message dated back to the third day after his disappearance-it was a voice message.
Wayne pressed play, and it felt as though his heart was impaled by an invisible blade.
"Wayne, it's been three days. You need to come home, or I'm really going to get mad."
Subsequent messages were a mix of voice notes, text, and life updates.
What she had for breakfast, where she went for lunch, her business trips, the kids' sports day, parent-teacher meetings where both Cory and Ivy were praised, flowers by the roadside, clouds in the sky... Rosalynn had shared every glimpse of beauty her eyes caught and every emotion she felt, all with Wayne, whose fate was unknown.
But it wasn't just the good things she shared. She also vented her frustrations, lamenting how let down she felt, threatening separation, recalling how he had persistently wooed and cajoled her into marriage. She talked about wanting to die with him since he refused, leaving her to bear the agony of their separation alone.
One message would curse him for his irresponsibility, threatening divorce.
The next would be laced with sobs, offering forgiveness for his actions, expressing her longing, begging him to come home.
For over half a year, thousands of messages went unanswered.
Wayne carefully read each one, listened intently to every word, tears streaming down his face continuously.
Apart from the few months when Wayne had returned home and the stream of messages ceased, since his hospitalization, Rosalynn had sent daily updates to him.Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org