Love Me Back (Amelia and Daniel) novel Chapter 10

Amelia choked for a moment. “No, it’s just… Violet’s back.”

“That limping girl?” Grandma Edith smacked her thigh with gusto. “What’s there to be afraid of? You’ve got all your limbs working—can’t handle her?”

“Handle who, exactly?”

Daniel walked in just in time to catch the tail end of the old lady’s bold declaration.

“Your sweetheart,” Amelia shot back before she could stop herself.

Daniel’s eyes sparkled with a mischievous grin as he looked at Amelia. “What did you do to get on Grandma’s bad side? Now she wants you dead.”

He always had a way with words—when he was in a good mood, he could sweet-talk you until you lost all sense of direction, like you’d fallen into a vat of honey. But when he was annoyed, his sarcasm cut just as deep, and you’d wish you could explode on the spot.

Grandma Edith kept to her early bedtime routine, so after a brief chat, she headed back to her room.

As soon as she was gone, Daniel wrapped an arm around Amelia and led her outside. Suddenly, he stopped beneath a jujube tree.

“Help me out. Pick one of those for me.”

Amelia gave him a puzzled look. Why on earth did he want jujubes right now? But before she could protest, he lifted her so she could reach the branches. She picked a fruit and glanced at him. “You want to eat this?”

Daniel didn’t answer. Still holding her, he strode toward the car, his polished shoes splashing through puddles.

The driver spotted them and hurried to open the car door.

Daniel slid into the driver’s seat, gave her a nod toward the jujube in her hand. “Go on, try it. See if it’s sweet.”

“I haven’t washed it. I’m not eating that,” Amelia said, watching him start the car. “Where are we going?”

“I owe you a birthday celebration.”

So he remembered…

The neglected ache in her heart slowly began to thaw, and a wave of hurt, cold and sharp, rose up inside her. She wanted to lash out, to blame him for everything, to claw at him, bite him, tell him just how miserable and stifled she’d been these past days.

Just then, Daniel Campbell’s phone rang.

The car was far too quiet.

His phone was far too clear.

Late-night love songs trickled through the speakers, full of heartbreak and longing—

“Your silhouette slips away, blurring my vision.”

“All those sweet moments, now just broken pieces.”

“I stand where I was, but the past is out of reach.”

The driver realized his mistake and hurriedly turned off the radio, awkward and embarrassed.

He could turn off the music, but nothing could dam the flood of emotion inside Amelia. Her eyes rimmed red as wave after wave of bitterness welled up, tears trembling on her lashes but never falling.

She wouldn’t cry. Not with the driver sitting right there. She refused to make a scene, refused to lose face.

Desperate for distraction, she reached for her phone. As she did, a business card slipped out and landed in her lap.

It was the divorce lawyer’s card Sophia had given her.

Staring through tear-blurred eyes at the number, she hesitated for a long time, then finally opened WhatsApp, typed in the lawyer’s number, and hit “add contact.”