HATE ME LIKE YOU LOVED ME..

CHAPTER 3

THE OFFER SHE REFUSED

.......

Amelia finally found a place to work. She started right away, glad for the chance.

Encountering Alfie again had almost ruined her mood, but money mattered more than emotions she had no time for.

Her boss was kind and praised almost everything she did, paying her more than the usual rate for a day's work.

The money was small, but it could feed her and her brother, with a little left over.

"If I work a month, I can pay for his medical bills," she said to herself.

She went on to a second job. This one drained her more than the first, but she kept at it, thinking of Elias.

"Why can't you arrange the spoons like the sample?" her second boss snapped, snatching them from her hands to arrange them herself. "Such a lazy young girl."

The woman eyed her up and down.

Nothing Amelia did pleased her. The complaints continued through the week, but as long as the pay came, she could bear it.

Walking home after one such day, Amelia felt a car following her. She stopped, and the car stopped too.

She walked faster, turning back again and again, fear growing inside her.

She bumped into someone.

Startled, she looked up, but he caught her hand and held her steady.

"Raymond?" she breathed in his familiar scent and hugged him tight. "Thank goodness it's you."

Seeing her relief, Ray let her go.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm okay. Nothing happened. I just felt a car was following me."

He looked behind her, but the car was gone.

"You must have imagined it," he said.

"I must have," she agreed, though her heart hadn't slowed down yet.

"You're looking beautiful this morning," he said, kissing her forehead the way he always did when she was tense.

Because of their closeness, Ray's girlfriend had left him weeks ago. When she asked him to come back, he refused.

"I won't date someone who cannot accept my bond with Amelia," he told her. "They come and go, but she has always been here. Unless she leaves me, I won't leave her for anyone."

His words made Amelia cry. Ever since her parents died, Raymond had been her shadow, paying for Elias's checkups more times than she could count. Elias called him Uncle Ray, and called her Mummy.

As they stood there holding hands, a man in a parked car took pictures of them and sent every shot straight to Alfie.

Alfie was in a board meeting when the photos arrived on his phone. He slammed his hand on the table, and the room fell silent.

"The meeting is over," he said, standing and walking out.

The directors murmured to each other, Alfie never ended a meeting before the agenda was finished. No one asked why.

His mind stayed on the photos the whole ride down, Raymond's lips against her forehead.

He drove straight to Elias's school. The headmistress stood the moment he walked in. He asked question after question, and that was how he learned the truth about the boy's illness.

Before leaving, he promised to donate money to the school. The headmistress was thrilled to have someone of his standing visit.

He went to Amelia's house next, but she wasn't home. The neighbors said she had gone to work.

Since coming back to C City and finding her again, the peace he thought he'd buried had come crashing back. Every time he thought of the past, his chest tightened.

"Since I have no peace," he said to himself, "she won't have any either. She made this hell. We will be in it together."

He went to the hospital where Elias was being treated. The doctor explained everything, the illness, the urgency of the bone marrow transplant.

He left with a small, satisfied smile.

He called Alex, his assistant, and told him to send Amelia the job offer again, by email and by text.

Amelia got the message and dismissed it, just like before.

Her phone buzzed again a moment later. She glanced at the screen, expecting Alfie's name.

It was Mrs. Roseline calling from the school.