A Wrong Surrogate for the CEO-Chapter 118: Someone to talk to

Curtis was devastated.

His heart had broken into a million tiny pieces, and those pieces had been shattered into another million pieces.

In simpler words, his heart, mind, soul and body, was in shreds.

Lara had left him.

There was a hollow silence in his bones, a silence that grew louder with each passing moment.

His wife. The love of his fucking life. She had left.

He couldn’t breathe. How could he, when he has watched her leave? How dare he draw air into his lungs, when his limbs had failed him when he needed them the most?

Lara had walked away from him, and he had watched her leave, too helpless to stop her.

His life had lost all colour. Everything was gray. Dull. Depressing.

His phone was ringing. The sound jarred him out of the mindless fog he had descended into since Lara had left him days ago, but he didn’t stir.

He didn’t even look at the phone to see who was calling. Curtis only wanted to talk to one person, and that person was Lara.

And she wouldn’t call him. He had tried calling her several times since she left, but her phone had been turned off.

Lazarus and the rest of the bodyguards could not find her either, and Curtis felt as though he was about to lose his mind.

Somewhere down the hall, he heard the door open. His heart leapt into his throat at the sound. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Curtis jumped up and walked to the door, his heart slamming violently against his rib cage. Maybe it was Lara. Maybe she had remembered everything and was back.

Hope grew in his chest, so swift that it took his breath away. But when he came face to face with his sister, the hope died a swift, brutal death.

Disappointment slammed back into him, crushing his soul and snatching the air away from his lungs.

Laura stopped dead at the sight of her brother.

He looked... horrible.

"Curtis? Are you okay? I...I have been calling you since yesterday but you aren’t picking my calls. I just wanted to check up on you, but I figured you probably thought I was calling because of mum," she explained.

Curtis said nothing. He trudged back to the couch and plopped back down. He was so exhausted.

So fucking exhausted.

Laura could sense that something had changed in her brother. He looked... empty.

A chill ran down Laura’s spine as the silence stretched between them. He wasn’t crying like he did at the hospital when Lara was at the verge of death.

And he wasn’t asking her what she was doing in his house.

He was just...there. Like a broken doll.

Laura connected the dots, and her stomach dropped as she stepped closer to her brother.

"Curtis. Where is Lara?" she asked softly.

At the question, Curtis raised his head to stare at his sister. His eyes were blank, no emotion shining through. His skin was pale, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

"Where is your wife, Curtis?" Laura asked again. In the deepest, farthest corner of her mind, Laura already knew the answer.

But she was unwilling to believe it. Because if Lara had indeed left her brother...it would lead to a disaster.

But Lara wouldn’t have left her husband, right? They loved each other too much for her to leave, right?

"She’s gone," Curtis croaked.

Laura’s eyes fluttered close as pain slashed through her. Her suspicions had been right.

Curtis’s sister gently walked to the couch to sit beside her brother. She gently took his hand in hers.

"What happened, Curtis?"

And as if he had been waiting for someone to ask him that question, Curtis opened up and started to talk.

There was no feeling in his voice, and he sounded like a robot. Laura knew that the lack of emotion was because her brother was shutting down. Hard.

And her heart ached for him.

"And she walked away from me. No matter how much I tried to call her back, Lara didn’t look back at me. She just...left. She left me, Laura. My wife left me," he whispered.

Laura dragged her brother into a hug, her heart aching ferociously for him. Just when she thought everything was over. Just when she believed that all was well with their world again.

She said nothing as she hugged him, and Curtis stayed in his sister’s embrace without a word.

A few minutes passed before Laura spoke again.

"Did she...did she take the kids with her?"

Curtis sat up at the question. A brief flicker of emotion flashed through his eyes, and Laura was glad to see that his children still meant something to him.

"The twins are with me," he responded.

"Good. Curtis. I need you to listen to me. I know you’re hurting, and you have every right to. But you need to give Lara her space. Her memories are going to come back fully, and when that happens, she is going to see that you were right. And trust me, Lara will come back to you. To your kids."

She paused, making sure she had her brother’s attention before she went on.

"But right now, you need to stop thinking about her. At least for now. You have your kids to look after, Curtis. They need you. To be both their father and their mother."

Those words stirred something in Curtis. "What if she doesn’t come back?" he asked softly.

Laura smiled at the question. "The love between you guys can never be broken. You’ve gone through a lot together. This is just a phase. Lara is going to remember, and she is going to come back to you. You’ll see," she said, her voice reassuring.

Curtis heaved a deep breath. His sister was right. Lara would remember, and she would come back to him.

Until then, he had to be a good father to his children. His precious babies.

He sat up and smiled at his sister. "I think you’re right. Thank you so much, Laura."

She smiled back at him, but her mind was whirling with thoughts.

Lara had to come back. And Laura had an inkling of where her brother’s wife might be hiding.

But to convince Lara to come back without remembering everything, Laura needed the help of one person.

The only person that would be able to convince Lara.

Lisa.