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He Called Me Clingy, Then Begged Me to Stay
Novelix
Completed
Emma Hayes spent her life loving Adrian Black, the cold heir to a ruthless mafia empire. She texted him every joy, every fear, every ordinary piece of her heart, and he called it harassment. The night before their wedding, Emma learns he reported her to the police while answering every message from his secretary. Humiliated and finally awake, she cancels the wedding and disappears. Adrian thinks she is throwing another tantrum—until the empty altar, blocked calls, and another man force him to understand what he lost. He begged too late; the girl who waited was already gone for good forever.
Chapters (3)
第1章
I liked telling my fiancé, Don Adrian Black, about every funny little thing that happened to me.
He never once responded, but I never got tired of it.
Not until the night before our wedding, when the NYPD showed up at my door. That was when I found out Adrian had filed a report against me for "severe harassment."
After sitting through a formal warning at the station and getting bailed out by a lawyer, I clutched my nearly shattered heart and wanted to ask him why.
But before I could get a word out, I heard him say, "People should keep a healthy distance from each other. Try to be quieter from now on."
The next second, a message came in from his personal secretary, Chloe.
Adrian pulled out his phone without a moment's hesitation and replied.
That was when I finally saw it. His chat with Chloe was full of back-and-forth messages.
Good mornings and good nights. Black Holdings business and what she'd had for dinner. Dock shipment handoffs and how she was scared to walk home alone.
It finally hit me.
Adrian wasn't incapable of responding. He just never wanted to respond to me.
"I've got something to take care of. I won't be able to see you home."
After we left the station, Adrian kept his head down, typing away. When he spoke to me, he didn't even look up.
I saw clearly that his latest message was from Chloe.
She'd written: "Boss, I'm already at the restaurant waiting for you."
Below it was a selfie. She was smiling playfully, like she knew for certain he'd come.
Adrian replied: "Okay, I'll be there soon. If you're hungry, go ahead and order some dessert first."
After sending the message, he didn't spare me a single glance. He walked straight to the black car parked at the curb.
He walked fast.
By the time I snapped out of it and reached for him, all I caught was a gust of cold air.
Before, I would've called him over and over, whined for him to take me home, pestered him about when he'd be back.
But now I stood at the entrance of the police station, watching in silence as his car pulled away.
Because I suddenly remembered the female officer who'd given me the warning. After learning about my relationship with Adrian, her stern expression had softened into something close to pity.
She'd said, "No matter whose fiancée you are, don't bet your entire life on one man. Learning to love yourself matters more than waiting for someone to look back."
Before the talk, she'd seen my chat history with Adrian.
The entire screen was me talking to myself.
I'd asked him what time he was coming home, whether he'd eaten, how business was going.
I'd told him I saw a dog steal a bread roll at a coffee shop, told him I went with Mia to see a movie that was terrible but hilarious, told him my dad had spent half the day yelling at his bodyguard again.
Not a single reply from him.
At the time, I hadn't thought much of it.
I'd assumed Adrian saw everything. He just wasn't the type to text back.
It wasn't until just now that I understood.
He was perfectly capable of responding to everything. The person he wanted to respond to just wasn't me.
I stared down the street until his car was long gone. My eyes burned and my chest was so tight I could barely breathe.
That was when my mom called.
"Emma, your custom wedding dress arrived at the shop. When are you and Adrian free to go try it on?"
My throat locked up. "Mom, I don't want to marry Adrian anymore."
The other end went silent for a second.
"What? Emma, what happened?"
My mom's voice was pure shock.
After all, for as long as anyone could remember, I was the one who clung to Adrian. I'd even declared in front of both families that I would marry Adrian Black or no one at all.
"Let me just... take a breath. I'll tell you everything when I get home, okay?"
She heard the tears in my voice and said immediately, "Okay. Just come home first. We'll talk when you're here."
After I hung up, the tears came and wouldn't stop.
Before, even when Adrian told me to get lost with ice on his face, even when he called me a nuisance he couldn't shake, I'd never cried this hard.
I couldn't make sense of it.
If Adrian didn't like me, why was he with me?
Why did he propose?
Why did he give me hope, only to crush it with his own hands?
第2章
I sat in the park near the police station for a long time.
Long enough for my eyes to swell shut and the tears to run dry before I finally got up and headed home.
But when I reached the apartment, I found the door had been changed.
The old key lock was gone, replaced by an unfamiliar digital keypad.
I froze for two seconds. I was just about to knock when the landlord stepped out of the elevator.
She saw me and looked confused. "Emma, didn't you and your boyfriend cancel the lease yesterday? What are you still doing here?"
That was how I found out.
While I was at the police station sitting through a warning, Adrian had moved out and terminated the lease on the apartment we'd shared for two years.
And as his fiancée, I knew nothing about it.
Just like every time he'd taken off to Vegas to handle casino business without telling me.
I wouldn't know he'd left New York until I waited up for him, couldn't reach him, and finally tracked him down at Black Holdings headquarters.
The landlord looked at my swollen eyes, seemed to put it together, and softened her voice.
"He didn't take everything. There are two boxes in the stairwell. Go see if you still want any of it."
I went to the stairwell and found the two boxes she'd mentioned.
One was filled with every gift I'd ever given Adrian over the years.
The other held my clothes and personal things.
They'd been tossed carelessly into a corner, like two boxes of garbage nobody wanted.
Just then, Chloe sent me a message.
"Miss Hayes, Boss bought a new place and moved in yesterday. I wasn't sure what to do with your things, so I packed them into boxes for now."
Then she sent a location pin.
Adrian's new home.
She followed up: "The front entrance at the new place uses facial recognition. Boss has something tonight and won't be back. If you want to go over, let me know ahead of time and I can come let you in."
When Adrian and I first set the wedding date, Victoria had said it wasn't proper for us to keep living in a rental after we were married. She told Adrian to buy a place as a marital home so I wouldn't be shortchanged.
At the time, Adrian had only said, "It's the same wherever we live."
He said moving was a hassle and told me, "When you get a chance, ask the landlord if she'd sell. If she will, we'll just buy this place."
I thought he really meant to turn the apartment we'd shared for two years into a real home.
After finding out the landlord was open to selling, I was over the moon. I swapped out furniture again and again, pouring my heart into decorating our little home every single day.
But now, he'd moved without a second thought.
And before I even knew a new home existed, another woman already knew everything.
She even had access to get in.
I didn't reply to Chloe. I put my phone away and turned to the landlord, who was still waiting by the door.
"I don't want any of this. Do whatever you want with it."
With that, I left the building.
The moment I got into a taxi, Chloe messaged again.
"Miss Hayes, are you not replying because you're angry?"
"It's all my fault. If I hadn't mentioned that living in that neighborhood alone made me a little scared, Boss wouldn't have bought the house next to mine, and he wouldn't have moved so fast. If you're going to be mad, be mad at me. Don't blame Boss."
Reading that message, something clicked into place.
The first year we were together, I'd rented a place just one street over from Adrian's apartment so I could be closer to him.
One night during a thunderstorm, I was so scared I called him, crying, begging him to come be with me.
All he said was one sentence.
"Emma Hayes, don't you have parents?"
Back then I didn't understand why he was always so cold to me.
Now I did.
The person he loved wasn't me.
No matter what I did, he would never care.
第3章
I still didn't reply to Chloe.
I went home to my parents.
The second my mom saw my red, swollen eyes, her own eyes welled up. She kept asking me what happened.
There was no hiding it.
I told her everything.
She was so furious she started cursing on the spot. "Has Adrian Black lost his mind? He actually called the police and reported you for harassment? You're his fiancée!"
My dad's face went dark with rage.
"What's the point of this wedding? She's not marrying him. End of discussion."
They backed me completely.
First thing the next morning, my parents showed up with a lawyer and returned everything the Black family had sent over. The engagement ring, the prenuptial trust documents, the bride price. All of it.
Shortly after, Adrian called me. For the first time in recent memory.
"Emma, what are you throwing a fit about now?"
His voice was the same as always. Flat. Not a trace of emotion.
As if the person on the other end wasn't his fiancée, but a stranger.
I gripped my phone tight and said quietly, "Adrian, let's call off the wedding. I..."
Before I could finish, Chloe's voice cut in from the background.
"Boss, is Miss Hayes upset because you reported her for harassment? I should've never suggested that idea."
Then Adrian's voice.
"It was a good idea, actually. At least she was quiet last night. Didn't bother me."
His tone shifted.
It was a warmth I had never heard before.
"Don't overthink it. She's just too loud. It has nothing to do with you."
His words slammed into my chest, and the pain spread fast.
He kept murmuring reassurances to Chloe, completely oblivious to the fact that the call was still connected.
Or maybe he'd simply never considered me worth noticing.
I swallowed the sting rising behind my eyes and said softly, "Adrian, we're done. I'll never bother you again..."
The line went dead before I finished.
I thought he'd accepted my decision.
A second later, Chloe messaged me.
"Miss Hayes, Boss just went into a meeting. He's going to be really busy after this. If there's anything you need, you can tell me and I'll pass it along."
"Also, the new place was decorated with me and Boss overseeing the whole process, so the style might not be your taste. Take a look. If you don't like it, I'll have Boss get someone to redo it."
She sent a flood of photos.
Every corner of the new home, captured in perfect detail.
The first thing I noticed was a half-eaten bag of chips sitting on the couch.
Adrian was a germophobe.
He never let me eat snacks in the apartment.
Once, I couldn't resist and bought a small bag of chips. When he found out, his eyes went ice-cold. He grabbed the bag and snapped, "Emma Hayes, can you seriously not control yourself? If you want to eat that, go back to your own house. Don't make a mess here."
But in these photos, an open bag of snacks had been tossed casually on the sofa, crumbs still visible beside it.
My fingertip trembled and accidentally swiped to the next photo.
On the clean bathroom floor, there were several long strands of hair tangled together.
In a daze, I remembered when we first moved in together and I forgot to clean up my hair in the bathroom.
Adrian's face had been stone cold. "Emma, look at that. Doesn't it disgust you?"
I didn't reply.
Chloe sent another message.
"Miss Hayes, I forgot to take photos earlier. When I stayed over at Boss's place last night, I suddenly thought I should show you the new house and forgot to tidy up first. Don't mind the mess."
In that moment, I finally understood.
Every privilege belongs only to the person who is loved.
Adrian liked her, so he responded to everything she said.
Because he liked her, there was no limit to what he'd tolerate.
Even years of obsessive cleanliness could be cured.
I stopped looking for Adrian. He stopped appearing in my dreams.
I started telling my mom about all the funny things I came across during the day.
As if there had never been a person named Adrian Black in my life.
Until the day before the wedding.
That day was also my birthday.
My parents threw a small birthday party at a hotel to celebrate. They wanted me to forget all the unhappy things and invited quite a few friends.
Adrian and I had known each other since childhood, so most of our friends overlapped.
The moment Mia spotted me, she handed her kid off to her husband and came running.
"Emma, today isn't just your birthday, it's your last single-girl party. A day this important, and it's just you and your parents? Where's Adrian?"
I'd forgotten to tell her that Adrian and I had already called off the engagement.
I opened my mouth to explain, but a burst of excited chatter rose up nearby.
"Wow, since when is Adrian this romantic? He actually got a heart-shaped cake?"
"I guess love really does change people. Even a cold-blooded robot like Adrian knows how to pull off a surprise now."
Hearing the laughter, I turned around instinctively.
And saw Adrian walking toward us, carrying an elegant cake.
Mia's eyes lit up. She leaned in close, nudging me with a grin.
"Your Adrian finally figured it out. On your past birthdays, I never even saw a card from him. And now he's giving you a surprise in front of everyone."
Watching him come closer, step by step, my heart clenched in spite of itself.
Even now, faintly, I still caught myself hoping.
Mia saw me frozen in place and laughed, pushing me forward. "Look how carefully he's carrying it. Go take it!"
But amid all the cheering, Adrian didn't stop.
He walked right past me.
Straight to the person standing behind me.
Only then did I realize Chloe had been there the whole time.
"Boss, I only mentioned once that I liked heart-shaped birthday cakes, and you actually got one. Thank you."
Chloe's eyes glistened with emotion, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Adrian gave a faint smile. "Happy birthday. Glad you like it."