No More Waiting, She Chooses Love

Chapter 628



They say men don't easily shed tears.

Especially in front of women.

But there I was, witnessing Grant's eyes turn red before me, then tears cascading down his cheeks.

I didn't try to console him. Instead, I left his office, giving him space to mourn his bond with Ernest.Content protected by Nôv/el(D)rama.Org.

Grant had told me the company was Ernest's idea, but Grant was the one running it. That alone spoke volumes about their friendship; Ernest trusted him enough to leave everything in his hands.

But now Ernest was gone, leaving Grant waiting for a return that would never happen.

That pain must be no less than mine in losing Ernest!

I left Grant's office for Ernest's lab. He was in R&D, always testing his own theories, so his office was filled with all sorts of gadgets and gizmos. Despite the chaos, it was an organized chaos.

Looking at those tools, the experiment logbooks on his desk with data and his strong, confident handwriting, my heart twisted in pain.

Everything about Ernest reminded me of him, yet he was out of reach, a feeling only those who've lost can understand.

Eventually, I sat at Ernest's desk, opening his drawer. His pen, flash drive, notebooks, Bluetooth earpiece...

And there, a clear box containing something slender.

I opened it to find a bracelet, its material unlike anything commercially available, lacking a clasp.

I thought the clasp might have fallen off and searched the box, discovering unassembled parts and a piece of paper with the bracelet's design, including the clasp and a pendant.

The pendant was a little bell, engraved with my name: Licia.

Ernest meant to give it to me, but he never finished it.

Yolande said he left to protect me. Now, this bell served as proof that even in separation, he thought of

me; be wouldn't have made this

bracelet otherwise.

to

I shook the bell, its sound clear and sweet. I started assembling the incomplete bracelet, but the missing clasp halted my progress.

Ernest hadn't finished it before his departure, his untimely accident.

But I refused to let this bracelet remain hidden in a box. It was Ernest's gift to me; I wanted to wear it.

With no clasp, I figured I'd make one myself, just like Ernest would have done.

When Grant found me, I had just finished attaching the bracelet with a red thread clasp around my wrist.

The little bell tinkled with every movement of my hand.

"Did you get that from Ernest's things?" Grant asked, his eyes still swollen from crying.

He must have seen Ernest working on it.

"Yeah, found it in his drawer. Sadly, he didn't finish it," I said, shaking my wrist to let the bell ring again, "but I managed to complete it."

"The material of that bracelet is

et

quite unique, he extracted it from some aerospace-grade materials, claiming it was resistant to melting, breaking... basically, it's incredibly durable, meant to last a century," Grant's words surprised me:

I looked at the bracelet, understanding now why its material felt so unusual.

As I was lost in thought, Grant sighed, "You're not kidding, right?"

I looked up, puzzled.

"I can't believe Ernest is gone. He was so capable, survived several peacekeeping missions, and walked away from major explosions unscathed," Grant shared details I was unaware of.