Returning the Ten Years I Stole

I got up in such a hurry that I knocked my chair over. Everyone in the library looked at me at once.

I didn't even bother apologizing as I rushed out of the library while calling Leanna on the phone.

"Leanna? Do you have time in the afternoon? I'd like to meet you for coffee."

When we met at the cafe, and she found out that I was just asking her to accompany me to get a full-body checkup, she couldn't help chuckling out loud.

"Why did you suddenly think about getting a medical checkup? Are you feeling sick?"

I made up an excuse and said, "It's for some college event. I'm too afraid to go on my own, Leanna. Can't you please come along with me?"

She stared at me a little suspiciously. "Really?"

I tried to make myself look as sincere as possible. "Really. And maybe you could also get one since you're already there? Just… Just think of it as a premarital checkup. You're marrying Gram soon, aren't you?"

Leanna's face turned red. She pursed her lips and lightly chided, "How could you—"

Just then, her phone rang. It was Graham.

"Where are you?"

"Having coffee with Gwyn."

There was a short pause on the other end of the line before he said, "Come back soon."

After hanging up, Leanna chuckled slightly and called him clingy.

The corners of my lips tugged upward. Then, I excused myself, saying I had class and that I would meet her again on the weekend for the medical checkup.

I'd only just reached the campus entrance when I saw Graham's car parked by the gate. He got out, grabbed me by my arm, and dragged me into a corner.

Before I'd even managed to get a sense of what was happening, he'd already flung me off. I lost my balance and stumbled, falling to the ground on all fours.

A sharp sting flared in my knees and elbows. I looked down and saw that I'd scraped them on the ground, and blood was seeping out of the wounds.

Graham looked down at me, his eyes as cold as ice.

"I'm warning you, Gwyneth Rowland. Stay away from Leanna if you know what's best for you. Don't you dare say or do anything that you shouldn't. And keep your mouth shut."

I braced my arm against the ground and got up, my voice shaky. "I never did. I just asked her to come to a medical checkup with me."

He froze. "Are you sick?"

He seemed to have blurted that out instinctively.

I stared at him blankly for a while before shaking my head. "No. Just a routine one required by the college."

He stared at me for a long time, his expression slowly changing. It was as if he'd just thought of something or was confirming something in his head.

A short while later, he crouched down and inspected the cuts on my knees.

"Get in the car."

He drove me to a pharmacy, where he bought gauze and iodine before kneeling by the roadside to bandage my wounds. He wasn't exactly gentle, but he was very careful.

He spoke in a low voice. "I'll bring you both for the medical checkup this weekend."

I just kept my head down as I stared at my shoes, my vision turning blurry.

…

Leanna wouldn't stop crying and trembling on the day we got our results back.

She had stage-one bone cancer.

The doctor said, "Since it was discovered very early on, she has a very high chance of recovery."

Graham hugged her tightly, his hand trembling with fear as it finally dawned on him.

Leanna looked at me with tear-filled eyes. "Thank you, Gwyn… Just… Thank you so much…"

I shook my head and patted her on the back.

Graham looked past her shoulders, his gaze landing on me. It was deep and unreadable.

I recalled the day when Leanna died in my past life. It was raining very hard.

When he found out that she had left in disappointment after learning that we'd slept together, he stayed up all night before her grave in the thunderstorm. And when he got back, he smashed everything he could get his hands on before discovering my diary hidden away in a corner.

That was when he decided that I had deliberately told Leanna about our night together.

I tried explaining myself to him, but he wouldn't listen. He divorced me, made me leave without a penny to my name, and even blocked me from ever finding a job in the city.

Ultimately, I died alone in my rented apartment, with no one by my side.

But now, everything could still be salvaged.

Leanna would live.

Graham wouldn't blame me for her death.

And I would leave.

I felt a giant weight being lifted from my shoulders.

By the time we left the hospital, the sun was setting. Graham had gone to handle the paperwork, and I was keeping Leanna company as we waited in the hospital lobby.

She leaned against my arm and said quietly, "I'm scared, Gwyn."

I patted her arm. "You don't have to be scared. Gram is still there for you. He'll always be by your side."

…

Leanna was hospitalized after that.

The operation was a success, and the next step was chemotherapy.

Graham canceled his work appointments and kept her company at the hospital every day. Meanwhile, I was kept on my toes as I ran between college and the hospital while also preparing to further my studies abroad.

One day, while coming back from the hospital, Graham suddenly called out to me.