Obedience No More He's the One I Deserved novel Chapter 206

The two of them strolled through the neighborhood, old memories surfacing along the way.

She pointed at a nearby drainage ditch.

Because of the slope there, that spot always floods and clogs up. The property office had it fixed countless times, but it never worked. Every time it rained, the smell brought in a wave of complaints.

"Do you remember how you once pushed me down there?"

"Hm?"

Ethan turned his head, giving her a sidelong glance. "That really happened?"

"Yes." Dawn nodded firmly. "You told me to call you ‘big brother.' When I refused, you tossed me down there, then just stood around laughing at me."

Ethan chuckled. "That was pushing?"

He clearly remembered it as picking her up and setting her down gently.

Dawn puffed her cheeks. "Doesn't matter. It was still a prank. No difference in essence."

"There is a difference," Ethan said, recalling the things he had done as a teenager. He let out a sigh. "One is just making fun of someone. The other is ... "

His words cut off, making Dawn turn to him.

"The other is what?"

He gave a low laugh. "Wanting you to call me ‘big brother.'"

It had been his way of grabbing her attention, of proving he was not just anyone in her eyes—a reckless bet with himself.

But back then, he was too young to know the difference between liking someone and thinking they were special.

By the time he figured it out, her eyes were already on another man.

"Whether I call you that or not, you're still older than me," Dawn mumbled.

As she said this, they happened to pass by the back of the Osborne Estate.

The upstairs window was lit, and a shadowy figure could be seen at the sill.

She stayed quiet, only noticing Ethan's grip on her hand tightening. His gaze in the dark was so intense it was hard to put into words. His voice dropped as he muttered, "Don't look at him."

Dawn turned her head away, then heard him murmur even lower, "I'll get jealous."

She could not help laughing and squeezed his hand back inside her pocket. "Even if I looked, it was just instinct. I wasn't really trying to see him. If anyone was standing there, I'd look—it's just reflex."

"Okay. But from now on, only look at me."

"Okay, Sir."

They whispered as they passed.

Austin, of course, noticed them. The girl he had raised did not even look up at him—like a fleeting illusion, leaving no trace.

His chest ached with a dull pain, and his brows knit together as he instinctively rejected the feeling.

Back at home.

The night before, Dawn had stayed at the Osborne Estate's place, even wearing her old pajamas.

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