Chapter 4
1229 Words
I clenched my fists and fled.
The snow fell harder and harder, soaking through my clothes as I shivered uncontrollably.
With numb fingers, I sent a message to the only friend I still trusted.
Olivia: Please help me verify something. Is the baby I conceived through IVF actually mine?
After that, I returned to the home I shared with Gary.
I hadn't expected him to come back that night. Yet sometime after midnight, he returned.
Cold air clung to him as he climbed into bed beside me.
For the first time in three years, he moved the divider that separated us.
Then, through the barrier of his own blanket, he wrapped his arms around me from behind.
"Olivia, are you still angry?" His voice was low and patient, as though he were humoring a child. "Come on. Don't be petty. I know you're jealous, but I can explain everything. Don't take Anna to heart."
He tightened his arms slightly. "If I could have been with her, you never would have entered my life in the first place. I'll always be your husband.
"Be good. We'll keep living exactly the way we always have. Nothing has changed."
A bitter laugh nearly escaped me.
Nothing had changed?
Suppressing the wave of disgust rising inside me, I pulled away from his embrace.
Then I looked him in the eye and said, "Gary. We need to get a divorce."
For the first time that night, genuine surprise crossed his face.
His brows drew together as if he finally intended to say something meaningful.
Then his phone rang.
The moment he answered, his expression changed dramatically. Without another word, he strode out of the room.
He was in such a hurry that he completely forgot I'd just asked him for a divorce.
Not long after he left, my phone vibrated with an incoming call.
"I'll pick you up at dawn."
I didn't hesitate.
I packed my belongings.
Everything Gary had ever given me, from jewelry to gifts to photographs, I tossed straight into the trash.
As dawn began to lighten the sky, I dragged my suitcase downstairs.
The front door had barely opened when Gary suddenly appeared. His eyes were bloodshot.
Before I could react... a violent slap landed across my face.
My head snapped to the side.
"Olivia!" His voice was hoarse and hysterical. "I'd only ask once. Where is Anna?"
I touched the corner of my bleeding lip and looked at him.
A hollow sense of irony washed through me.
"I don't know."
The disgust in his eyes deepened, as if I were something filthy and beneath him.
He shoved me to the ground.
Then he immediately pulled a bottle of sanitizer from his pocket and scrubbed his hands as though touching me had contaminated him.
"Take her to the estate." He barked the order at his bodyguards. "I want her to watch every second of it being demolished."
My heart dropped.
The estate.
My grandmother's estate.
The only thing she had left me.
"No!" I struggled wildly. "Gary, no!"
But nobody listened.
I was dragged into a car and taken there against my will.
When we arrived, I almost stopped breathing.
Everything was gone.
The gardens.
The flowers.
The old oak trees.
The greenhouse my grandmother loved.
Bulldozed.
Destroyed.
Reduced to rubble.
I fought against the guards with everything I had.
Tears blurred my vision.
"Gary, please!" I was begging now. "Please don't do this! This is the only thing Grandma left me!
"I swear I don't know where Anna is! Please... just stop..."
Gary looked down at me with cold contempt. "Olivia. You know everything now, don't you? Stop pretending."
His voice was sharp with hatred. "You're petty. Vindictive. You never let anything go. Now that you've learned the truth, do you really expect me to believe you'd leave Anna alone?"
He grabbed my jaw.
The force of it made me cry out.
"Anna sent me a message from this place. She begged me to save her. Then she disappeared."
His eyes were terrifying.
Cold.
Merciless.
"She's kind. She's never hurt anyone. So tell me. If you didn't take her... Who did?"
I shook my head desperately. "I didn't! I swear I didn't!"
But he wasn't listening.
In the distance, another excavator smashed through a section of the house.
The walls collapsed.
Years of memories disappeared in seconds.
My grandmother's home.
My sanctuary.
My last safe place in the world.
Gone.
Gary suddenly pulled a document from his jacket and threw it into my face.
The papers scattered across the snow.
The divorce agreement.
"You wanted a divorce, didn't you? You wanted one hundred and fifty million dollars? You wanted freedom? Fine. You can have it all."
His eyes narrowed. "Now tell me where Anna is."
I said nothing.
I simply stared at him.
The fury inside me burned hotter than the freezing air around us.
His expression darkened.
Then he pointed toward a group of filthy homeless men standing outside the gates.
My blood ran cold.
His next words were even colder. "Aren't you lonely? If you still refuse to talk, I'll let them help refresh your memory. One by one. Until you remember exactly where Anna is."
His gaze swept over me with cruel contempt. "You've been sexually frustrated for years, haven't you? Maybe these men can help you relieve some of that tension."
For a moment, I couldn't even breathe.
I stared at him, at the man I had once loved more than my own life.
And I realized I no longer recognized him.
Just then, his phone rang.
The second he saw the caller ID, everything changed.
He answered immediately.
Anna's lazy, sleepy voice drifted through the speaker.
"Gary... I fell asleep in the game room. I'm hungry. Come pick me up."
A pout entered her voice. "And what's wrong with you? The other team's strategy is way too aggressive. I can't beat them. I told you to come save me. Why didn't you answer?"
A teasing laugh followed. "Don't tell me your useless wife finally managed to seduce you into bed."
Instantly, the cruelty vanished from Gary's face.
His entire expression softened.
His voice became impossibly gentle.
"Okay. Wait for me. I'm coming."
Then he left.
Just like that.
Without another glance in my direction.
The moment Anna reappeared, I ceased to exist.
End of Olivia's POV
Later, Gary booked out one of the city's most exclusive restaurants.
He peeled shrimp for her.
Served her food.
Watched her with eyes overflowing with affection.
When Anna casually mentioned wanting to spend a few days in Hawaii, he agreed without hesitation.
Then he turned off his phone for seven entire days, ignoring the rest of the world while he devoted himself completely to her.
Seven days later, he finally turned his phone back on.
The first call he made was to his assistant.
His tone was casual.
Businesslike.
As if nothing significant had happened.
"Tell Olivia to accompany me to the family banquet tonight."
Silence.
A long silence.
Then his assistant finally spoke. His voice trembled, "M-Mr. Lint. Seven days ago... Not long after you left. That estate caught fire."
Gary frowned.
The assistant's voice broke. "The fire spread too quickly. Miss Olivia was trapped inside. There was no way out."
Another silence.
Then the final words, "She never made it out, sir. She's still there... forever."
- Writer
