He Took Her To Bali While I Buried My Parents Alone Chapter 05
Landon felt like he was dreaming.
He didn’t know where he was, but in the dream, he was already at college.
Everything went according to their original plan. Elise not only stayed, she chattered at him to carry her luggage.
He walked her to her dorm, settled his own stuff, then went with her to pick up their campus
IDs. They ended up in the same class group chat.
Everything seemed normal.
But after the rush died down, he sat in his dorm staring at a photo of the freshman English Lit majors, and his mind drifted.
An hour later, when Tessa asked if he wanted to go out for dinner, he said yes immediately.
When he got there, he realized it was an English Lit department hangout. He was the only one from a different major.
And Elise-who’d been supposed to come-Tessa told him she wasn’t feeling well, so she’d declined.
At the dinner, he watched Tessa shine in the middle of the crowd, her bright, bold face, and drank one glass after another.
In the end, Tessa walked him to a nearby hotel to rest.
The second the door opened, she kissed him.
And in the heat of the moment, he didn’t push her away.
“Landon, I know you have feelings for me too.”
After that night, everything changed.
At first he felt guilty. For a long time, he couldn’t even look Elise in the eye.
But soon, he started enjoying it.
A childhood sweetheart who gave you everything was nice, sure. But having another person secretly and passionately adore him at the same time-that thrill was something else.
He accepted love from both sides. Gradually, his heart leaned toward Tessa.
Because what Tessa felt for him was pure.
Not like Elise.
Her love came with a debt he had to repay. It always made him feel trapped.
Even if he genuinely liked Elise, even if everyone called them childhood sweethearts, sometimes he just felt smothered.
So he got tired of that “inevitability.” He wanted to be “free.”
And Elise soon noticed something was off. She forced Landon to cut ties with Tessa, crying as she demanded, “Landon, just tell me straight. Who do you really love?”
He looked at her tear-streaked face, then remembered the debt, his parents’ constant reminders, and could only push it aside for the moment. He chose to calm Elise down first.
The Landon from ten years ago absorbed the future memories bit by bit. He didn’t want to believe it, but he had to.
Because that was who he was. He could see himself doing those things.
He watched himself move forward, all the way to the night before the engagement party.
He and Tessa played a game. He lost. So as punishment, Tessa made him confess everything to Elise at the engagement party.
He was about to refuse, but Tessa said, “What, you’re scared? But honestly, I don’t think Elise loves you that much anyway.”
“Bring up her grandmother. I bet she’ll drop you in a heartbeat for that old woman.
Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was all the suppressed frustration. He acted on impulse.
He did exactly what Tessa said.
And the result was exactly what he thought. Elise took off her ring, fell to her knees at his feet, and begged him for the money.
He had never seen Elise look so destroyed. Only then did he remember-her grandmother was her last living relative.
He felt a flicker of regret. But by the time he tried to make things right, it was already too late.
The Landon from ten years ago watched Elise charge at him and slap him hard across the face She cried, demanded to know why he believed Tessa and not her.
“She walks in, the camera dies. No way it was just a few words. She did something else -”
Elise was falling apart. She grabbed Tessa, trying to drag her to the police station, to make her And in the struggle, he raised his hand and slapped her back.
Her thin figure tumbled down the stairs. Ten-years-ago Landon watched in horror as blood spread beneath her.
“No way…”
How could his future self have caused such a tragedy?
He saw himself holding Elise in regret, waiting outside the ER, slumped with exhaustion.
He finally realized he’d gone too far.
He thought, after she wakes up, he would talk to her properly. Make it up to her.
But he never got that chance.
After the miscarriage, Elise lost her mind.
She didn’t recognize anyone. If anything got near her, she’d freak out and smash things.
The only things she recognized were her grandmother and her parents’ belongings.
“Landon, we should send Elise to a real treatment facility. This isn’t working.”
Tessa’s suggestive voice repeated over and over. Landon looked tiredly at Elise, hollow-eyed in the corner, and finally agreed.
He actually wanted to hold her.
He didn’t want to admit she was crazy. He wanted to hold her, comfort her, slowly bring her back.
But for some reason, he listened to Tessa and had Elise committed.
And one month later-
He got the news that Elise was dead.