When You're Gone (Colette) novel Chapter 11

James' head snapped up. He stared at the closet before him, but he could not summon the courage to open it.

The closer he got to the closet, the more his heart raced. He had a feeling that the closet contained an earth-shattering secret.

He raised his trembling hands but struggled to open the closet doors. Sophie wandered into the room at that moment. She looked confused as to why he froze in front of the closet.

"What's wrong, James? I came to check on you because I heard a noise." She scanned the empty bedroom. Colette was unexpectedly gone.

A thought struck Sophie. Could Colette have willingly moved out?

James remained standing in front of the closet wordlessly. That prompted Sophie to look at the closet too.

Without thinking, she opened the closet, only to scream her lungs out at the sight that greeted her.

Her scream pulled James back to reality. His heart dropped when he saw what was in the closet—Colette's blood-stained body.

Colette's eyes were tightly shut. Her body, slightly preserved in the tightly sealed closet, rapidly decomposed when exposed to the air. Her skin was already discolored. The rotten smell of the corpse filled the air.

James teared up immediately when he saw Colette's lifeless body. He cried out in a shaking voice, "Lettie!"

He had never openly cried, but he could no longer hold back his tears. "How did this happen?"

How could he ever move on with his life? He deliberately gave Colette the cold shoulder just to put a stop to her romantic crush on him. He was gone for only five days, but he didn't expect it to be farewell.

Drowning in his sorrows, he covered his face and sobbed. After a while, he finally said to Sophie in a hoarse voice, "You can leave now."

Stunned, Sophie realized he wasn't joking around. She frantically went up to him. "James, I'm not responsible for Colette's death! I am really in love with you. How could you kick me out?"

Sounding exhausted, he let out a sad chuckle and distanced himself from Sophie. "I will pay you according to what we agreed on. Take the money and leave."