CHAPTER 11: “The Masks Falls”
1566 Words
“Oh, no! Never am I going to allow you two brats to put up my hard-earned property with this shit.”
The most recent thread made her stomach twist.
Daniel: She signed the last papers today like a good little wife. Titles are almost ours. Once we flip the Ohio properties, we pay off the sharks and disappear. Chicago’s too small for us after this.
Ethan: LOL. She still thinks we’re rebuilding our “family empire.”
Daniel: Told you marrying her was the smartest play. Her land alone is worth millions. After we sell everything, split it and ghost. No loose ends.
Olivia’s breath caught. She scrolled up, heart hammering. Voice notes. Dozens of them.
She tapped the most recent one, volume low, and pressed play.
Daniel’s voice, lazy and smug:
“…and tell that b***h Olivia I love her? Man, I can barely stand looking at her. The moment we get the final transfer, we dump her ass. File for divorce on some fake grounds. She’ll be broke and broken, just like her old man wanted her to be—independent. f**k that.”
Daniel’s laughter crackled through the tiny speaker.
“Yeah, yeah. She’s been extra sweet lately, though. Almost makes me feel bad. Almost.”
Another message, timestamped yesterday: bank screenshots, forged signatures, shell company names. Her childhood home. Her mother’s farmland. Everything her father had left her, quietly transferred while she played the devoted wife.
The phone shook in her grip. A tear slipped down her cheek and landed on the screen, blurring Daniel’s words.
She replayed the voice note. Then another. And another.
Each one drove the knife deeper.
“She’s too stupid to notice…”
“Once we have the money, Liv can rot.”
“Never loved her. Just the properties.”
Olivia rose slowly and walked to the bathroom on unsteady legs. She locked the door, leaned over the sink, and stared at her reflection in the harsh fluorescent light.
Her eyes were red, but they weren’t soft anymore.
The woman looking back at her was a stranger—jaw tight, lips pressed into a thin, dangerous line. The naive Olivia who had believed every “I love you,” every gentle touch, every promise of a better future… she was gone.
“You took everything from me,” she whispered, voice trembling at first, then hardening like steel. “My father’s legacy. My security. My heart. You and your greedy brother turned me into a fool.”
She pulled off her wedding ring and dropped it into the sink with a sharp clink. It spun once before settling over the drain.
“No more.” Her fists clenched on the cold porcelain. “I’m done crying. Done trusting. From tonight, I become what you made me.”
She opened the voice notes again, forwarded several to her own phone, then cleared the “recently played” list. Evidence secured.
The masks had finally fallen.
Olivia wiped her face, straightened her shoulders, and unlocked the bathroom door. Ethan was still sprawled on the bed, legs wide open, mouth slightly agape—completely oblivious.
She placed his phone gently beside him, exactly where she’d found it.
Then she dressed in silence, grabbed her bag, and walked out.
The hotel door clicked shut behind her like a gunshot.
The masks had finally fallen.
The night seemed to have made her miserable. “But I’m glad I found out earlier. I swear I’m going to do whatever it takes to stop this.”
She said, with her head resting on the seat.
When she got to the house, everywhere seemed quiet. She opened her bag, took out a key, and opened the door.
Daniel wasn’t around. Olivia wondered where he would be at this time. “Oh well, I don’t care,” she mumbled, walking into the bedroom.
“Daniel is a big liar and greedy! He never loved me, I’m sure. No wonder he treated me so badly after getting everything he wanted. Such a lazy brat — he’s surely going to pay for this.”
Throughout the night, her mind was filled with thoughts of how to take the two greedy brothers down and reclaim everything that was rightfully hers.
Ethan stirred as pale morning light filtered through the thin hotel curtains. His head felt heavy from last night’s drinks, and his mouth tasted like regret. He reached blindly for his phone on the nightstand — but it wasn’t there.
He sat up slowly, blinking.
The phone was lying face-up on the bed, right beside the warm spot where Olivia had slept.
That was wrong. He never left it on the bed. He always placed it on the nightstand, face down, away from him.
A cold prickle ran down his spine.
“Liv?” he called softly. No answer. The bathroom door was open, lights off. She was gone.
He grabbed the phone. The screen was still slightly warm. Battery lower than it should be for how little he’d used it last night.
He unlocked it.
The messaging app was open.
Not just open — it was sitting on the long thread with Daniel.
His stomach dropped.
He scrolled up with a shaking thumb. The last messages he remembered sending were still there, but below them…
No. He hadn’t sent those.
Or had he?
His eyes widened as he read the most recent voice note — the one he and Daniel had recorded yesterday afternoon while laughing over whiskey.
It was paused halfway through.
He pressed play, volume low.
Daniel’s voice filled the quiet room, cocky and careless:
“…she actually believes I love her. Pathetic. Once we flip the last properties — that big plot in Ohio and the farmland — we pay the sharks and vanish. Olivia can cry all she wants. She served her purpose.”
Ethan’s laugh crackled right after:
“Exactly. Tell her whatever she needs to hear. ‘Darling, we’re building our future.’ Bullshit. The moment the titles are fully in our names, we dump her. Divorce papers are already drafted. She’ll be left with nothing but her father’s grave to visit.”
Ethan’s heart slammed against his ribs.
He checked the “recently played” list. Multiple voice notes. Bank screenshots. Transfer confirmations. All of them had been opened and played between 2:47 a.m. and 3:12 a.m.
While he was sleeping.
“f**k…” he whispered, bolting upright.
He stood and paced the small hotel room, phone gripped so tight his knuckles turned white. The dusty floor felt unsteady under his bare feet.
“Did she… did she go through everything?”
He opened his call log. No outgoing calls from her. But she had forwarded several files — he could see the faint “sent” indicators.
His mind raced. Olivia had been so sweet lately. So affectionate. The way she looked at him with those soft eyes, the late-night talks, the way she melted when he touched her…
Was it all an act?
He typed a quick message with trembling fingers:
Ethan: Where did you go, Liv?
He stared at the screen, willing her to reply instantly.
A moment later, her response came:
Olivia: I came home. Had to take care of a few things, darling.
The word “darling” hit like a slap. She had never used it that way before — so casual, almost mocking.
Ethan ran a hand through his messy hair, tapping his forehead repeatedly.
“Oh God… what’s all this!”
He dressed in a hurry, pulling on yesterday’s shirt, not even bothering to button it properly. Panic clawed at his chest. Every small detail from the past weeks suddenly looked different — the way she asked innocent questions about his house, properties, and others.
She knew.
She had to know.
He grabbed his wallet and rushed out of the hotel, the heavy door banging behind him louder than he intended.
Outside, the morning air was already warm, but a chill still clung to his skin. He flagged down the first taxi he saw, practically throwing himself into the back seat.
“New City, fast.”
As the car pulled away, Ethan leaned his head against the window, staring at the passing streets without seeing them. His leg bounced uncontrollably.
Daniel was going to lose his mind.
Worse — if Olivia really knew everything, their entire plan was collapsing. The properties, the money, the escape from the loan sharks… all of it.
And if she had evidence?
Ethan swallowed hard, throat dry.
He was still feeling uneasy when the taxi stopped in front of the house. He paid the driver absentmindedly and stepped out.
The front door was already unlocked.
Daniel was inside, pacing the living room like a caged animal. He spun around the moment Ethan walked in.
“Ethan, where the hell did you go? I’ve been here for almost two hours!” Daniel’s eyes were bloodshot, voice thick with anger. “We have one week to get the money or those sharks will come for our heads, and you’re out playing all night? What has come over you?”
Ethan closed the door behind him and leaned against it, trying to steady his breathing.
“Daniel, you have to calm down. We’re all working towards it,” Ethan said as he walked past Daniel and sat on the sofa.
- Writer
