Then she searched for Elias’s name and pressed call.
Chapter 2
The phone rang.
And rang.
And rang.
But he didn’t pick up.
Amara swallowed hard and quickly ended the call before dialing again.
Her fingers started trembling even more as the call continued ringing unanswered.
Slowly, her eyes dropped toward the wallpaper on her phone screen.
It was a photo of her and Elias from the first dinner they had gone to together after getting married.
She still remembered how happy she had been that night. She had spent nearly two hours choosing her dress, nervously fixing her makeup over and over because it was their first dinner as husband and wife. In the photo, she was smiling brightly at the camera while holding onto Elias’s arm, her eyes full of happiness that she hadn’t even tried to hide.
Elias stood beside her in his black suit, calm and unreadable as always, but Amara had treasured that picture like it was something precious.
Back then, just standing beside him had felt enough to make her happy.
Now, staring at the picture carefully…
She suddenly realized it didn’t look like he had truly wanted to smile at all.
It looked forced.
Small.
Restrained.
Now that she looked at the picture again, it almost seemed like he had only smiled because she had been holding his hand so tightly and looking so happy beside him.
As if he had forced himself to smile for her sake.
The picture suddenly felt haunting.
Painful.
And then a terrifying thought crossed her mind.
‘If I died from this illness… would he even come to pick up my corpse?’
Amara’s fingers tightened painfully around the phone.
Except for the times she dragged him out herself or begged him to come home early, Elias was always busy.
So busy that sometimes she wouldn’t even see him for days.
Her trembling fingers pressed call again.
This time, just as the phone was about to disconnect—
The call connected.
