Chapter 7
819 Words
Sabrina did not go anywhere the next day. She stayed home and waited quietly for the divorce certificate to arrive.
But before two in the afternoon, several strange men in black suits broke into the villa. Without a word of explanation, they tied her up, dragged her into a car, and said coldly, "Mr. Hayes wants you to come with us."
The car drove all the way into the business center before finally stopping at a place she knew all too well, Bluenight Lounge.
The lounge seemed to have been cleared out. It was eerily quiet.
Sabrina was taken into the same private room from five years ago. The door closed behind her.
John sat expressionlessly on the central sofa, while Lana leaned against him intimately.
Standing beside them was none other than Jake, the man whose head she had split open with a wine bottle five years ago, along with several old employees of Bluenight Lounge.
Sabrina's heart sank at once.
John walked toward her step by step, his expression icy. "Surprised? I brought them all here."
Beside him, Lana added softly, "Sabrina, you can't keep lying to John forever. It's come to this. Stop acting."
"What exactly am I acting out?" Sabrina asked coldly.
"Acting?" John pointed at Jake. "Tell me, five years ago, when you smashed a bottle over his head, wasn't that all a show you staged yourself? He said you paid him to play along, just so you could get my attention."
Jake immediately nodded and bowed, desperate to accuse her. "Mr. Hayes, it's true! Back then, Ms. Fry came to me and said that as long as I helped her put on a little act and pretended to harass her, she'd pay me this much..." He made a gesture with his fingers. "I was short on money, so I made a stupid mistake and agreed. Please see the truth, Mr. Hayes!"
The employees beside him all chimed in as well, saying they had personally seen Sabrina give Jake the money.
Sabrina shook her head in disbelief. "John, you actually believe such an obvious lie?"
Lana cut in sharply, "Sabrina, stop trying to defend yourself. All that talk about your father being driven to jump off a building and your mother dying from grief, that was just a story you made up to win John's sympathy, wasn't it? You're a liar! In front of John, you pretended to be noble and said you didn't care about money, while secretly selling the jewelry he gave you for cash. You were using John from the very beginning!"
John suddenly reached out and seized Sabrina's chin, his grip so hard that pain made her frown.
"Sabrina," he said through clenched teeth, almost forcing each word out, "tell me. Have you been lying to me all this time? Were you with me for money too? Say it!"
Forced to look up at him, Sabrina's eyes filled with disappointment and an indescribable sorrow.
He actually believed it.
He believed these accusations full of holes. He believed Lana's provocation.
So their five years together had been this fragile all along.
Suddenly, she laughed, tears sliding from the corners of her eyes. "You've already believed them and found me guilty. No matter what I say now, it will only sound like an excuse, won't it?"
Her refusal to explain only made John angrier.
"Good. Very good!" He shoved her chin away and took a step back. The last trace of hesitation in his eyes was replaced by cruelty. Turning to Jake, he said, "How did she smash you with that bottle back then? Do it exactly the same way today."
Jake's body trembled at those words. But under John's oppressive stare, he still lifted the wine bottle and smashed it hard against Sabrina's forehead.
The moment the sharp pain struck, Sabrina heard John say, "Lock her in here. Without my permission, no one lets her out."
When Sabrina woke in the empty private room, the blood at her temple had already dried.
She instinctively reached for her phone, only to find her pocket empty.
Biting her lip against the pain, she struggled out through the window and staggered to the street, where she hailed a taxi.
"Sir, please wait for me for five minutes," she said hoarsely when they arrived back at the villa.
In the living room, an envelope sat on the coffee table. She tore it open and took the copy that belonged to her.
Then she went straight upstairs into the bedroom, only to find her phone lying quietly on the bed.
She lit up the screen. A bank transfer notification was glaring back at her.
She let out a cold laugh, picked up the suitcase she had packed long ago, and called someone as she walked downstairs. "Lily, I'm going to start my new life."
The car carried her into the night, heading straight for the airport.
- Writer
