No More Waiting, She Chooses Love

Chapter 35



"Girl." The voice on the other end of the phone was thick, familiar, yet distant.

A familiar face flashed before my eyes, and I called out, "Dustin."

I had thought changing my number would keep the Wagner family at bay, but I never expected Conrad's brother Dustin to track me down. Even more surprising was his decision to reach out.

"Looks like you saved my number. Didn't forget about me," Dustin teased.

He was only a few years older than Conrad. Before he went abroad, he always looked out for me, fondly calling me "little girl."

I was at a loss for words, detecting a hint of complaint in his tone. We'd occasionally talk during the first two years after he left, asking about each other's lives. Gradually, those calls faded. Dustin was never one to initiate, maintaining sparse contact even with his family, let alone with me.

sudden call must be about my broken engagement with Conrad. Despite Dustin's sporadic communication with

straightforward by nature, preferring to ask rather than

borrowed money from me once to pay your phone bill." Dustin's memory impressed me. He remembered a

But I was short on cash and too embarrassed to ask his parents for money, so I turned to Dustin. Concerned I might

forgotten to repay him for that bill, so when he

that's right,"

followed his lead. "Then I'll transfer it to

"Felicia," Dustin interrupted.

gripped my phone tighter

are worried about you. They can't find

and Jacqueline would be upset, but I hadn't anticipated

with some high blood pressure because of all the stress," Dustin paused before continuing, "Felicia, did Rad do something

was no avoiding it. I had to face this question again.

headache. I massaged my temples, "Didn't you ask Conrad?