"Let's get in the car first and I'll tell you on the way."

Vero frowned, opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end, she chose to help me into the car.

On the way, I told Vero everything that had happened to me over the years. She was so angry that she almost fainted. She yelled at the driver to stop, saying she wanted to go beat up Elowen, but I stopped her.

"It's already happened. There’s no point in going after him now and I don't want to see him again."

Vero furrowed her brows and asked unwillingly, "Are you just going to let him off the hook? Callista, this isn't like you. You've always been someone who takes revenge on those who hurt you. We haven't seen each other for just a short while and you've become so weak."

Seeing the disappointment in her eyes, I lightly smiled and replied, "Who said I'm letting him off the hook? I've prepared a big gift for him."

"What big gift?" Vero asked, her face full of curiosity as she leaned in.

I pretended to be mysterious and told her, "It's a secret, but I can guarantee that this big gift will make Elowen remember it for the rest of his life."

***

On the other side, Elowen grew even more furious when he saw that I hadn't gone to the hospital to apologize to Maya. He took out his phone and sent me a message.

[Didn't I ask you to come to the hospital? How long has it been and where are you?]

In the past, because Elowen was often busy with work, we rarely had the chance to chat. To avoid missing his messages, my phone would stay on with notifications for them. I would always reply almost immediately when he sent something.

But this time, ten whole minutes had passed and Elowen still hadn't received a reply.

He became increasingly irritated and decided to call me.

"Callista, you..."

But before he could finish speaking, the busy tone from the call being disconnected echoed through the phone.

We've been together for so many years and while we've had our arguments, no matter how angry we were, I would never hang up on him if he called to apologize. It had become an unspoken understanding between us. But now, I hung up on him without hesitation, which left him a little stunned. It took him a while to process it. Unwilling to accept it, he was about to call me again when he was stopped by Maya, who was lying in the hospital bed.

"Elowen, did she hang up on you? I think she might be mad at you. Women always use tactics like this to get a man's attention. If you call her again, she'll just get more upset and push you away. You need to act cold toward her. I can see that she loves you so much and I bet she’ll come looking for you within a day. You shouldn’t call her again."

Elowen felt that her words made sense. After all, no matter how heated our arguments had been before, I had never treated him this way. He probably thought that it was because he kicked me, which made me angry and broke the understanding between us.

But I had hurt Maya first and Maya was the woman he loved the most. He wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt her.

Since I wanted to make a scene, he would play along to the end and see how long I could hold out.

So, he gave up on calling me and turned to peel an apple for Maya.

"Since Callista likes to make a fuss, let her. We shouldn't bother with her. What's most important is that you recover your health."

***

As we neared the airport, Elowen suddenly sent me a message.

[Didn't I ask you to come to the hospital? How long has it been, where are you?]

I guessed that it was because I hadn't gone to the hospital and Elowen was getting impatient, which led him to send me this message.

But I had no intention of replying to him. I continued to focus on the journey.

Ten minutes later, we finally arrived at the airport. Just as we were about to walk into the terminal, Elowen called me again.

"Callista, you..."

Instinctively, I pressed the answer button, but as soon as I realized what I was doing, I quickly hung up.

Hearing the sound, Vero leaned in close.

"I heard that scumbag's voice. Did he call you?"

Not wanting to discuss Elowen any further, I quickly covered my phone and shook my head.

"No, you misheard."

Vero scoffed.

"If he dares to call you, I'll curse him out. That damn scumbag! He really turned my precious best friend into this state."

I remained silent, simply deleting and blocking all of Elowen’s contacts.

From now on, we were truly strangers.

I hoped we would never cross paths again in this lifetime.