Chapter 3
1435 Words
Elena stood in the hallway with one hand still holding the bedroom door.
Vanessa’s voice came through Adrian’s phone.
“You need to come to Crane Medical Centre. It’s about Elena’s test results.”
Elena’s blood turned cold.
She had never taken any test at Crane Medical Centre.
Not recently.
Not secretly.
Not at all.
Adrian turned toward her.
“Elena, wait.”
She saw the question in his eyes, but she also saw the phone pressed against his ear.
Vanessa still had his attention.
Even now.
“What test results?” Adrian asked.
Vanessa spoke too softly for Elena to hear the answer.
Adrian’s face became serious.
“When did this happen?”
Elena wanted to stay.
She wanted to take the phone from him and demand to know why Vanessa was using her name. She wanted Adrian to question Vanessa instead of believing her.
But she had stayed too many times before.
She had stayed through excuses.
She had stayed through broken promises.
She had stayed whenever Vanessa created another problem that only Adrian could solve.
Not tonight.
Elena tightened her fingers around the handle of her suitcase and walked away.
“Elena!”
Adrian’s voice followed her.
She did not turn.
Her shoes made soft sounds against the marble floor as she moved through the dark penthouse. Each step felt heavy, but she kept going.
Behind her, Adrian spoke sharply into the phone.
“Vanessa, hold on.”
Elena reached the living room.
The large room was cold and perfect. Nothing was out of place. The white furniture looked untouched. The glass walls showed the bright city below.
It had never truly felt like her home.
Adrian had chosen almost everything inside it before they married. Whenever Elena tried to add warmth, he said they would make changes when he had more time.
There was never more time.
She reached the front door.
Adrian came after her.
He had ended the call.
“Elena, stop.”
His voice carried the command that made workers, lawyers, and business leaders obey him.
Elena opened the door.
Adrian caught it before she could step out.
“You cannot leave after hearing that,” he said.
“I can.”
“Vanessa said she received information about you from the hospital.”
“And you believed her.”
“I did not say that.”
“You answered her call.”
“She said it was urgent.”
“It is always urgent when Vanessa calls.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“This may concern your health.”
“My health is not Vanessa’s business.”
“That is why I need to know what she is talking about.”
Elena gave him a tired smile.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Then explain it to me.”
“I should not have to explain why my husband should trust me before another woman.”
Adrian stared at her.
His hand remained against the door.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Elena could smell his expensive perfume. She remembered buying him the first bottle during their first year of marriage. He had smiled when he opened it and pulled her into his arms.
That memory felt as if it belonged to another woman.
“Elena,” Adrian said, quieter now, “come back inside.”
“No.”
“We will call the hospital together.”
“No.”
“Then tell me where you are going.”
“Somewhere I can breathe.”
His eyes hardened.
“You are running away.”
“I am saving what is left of me.”
Adrian looked at the suitcase.
His face changed slightly, as if the sight of it had finally made the moment real.
“How long will you be gone?”
Elena’s heart twisted.
He still thought this was temporary.
She lowered her gaze to his hand on the door.
“Please move.”
Adrian did not.
“Elena, I am not letting you walk out in the middle of the night.”
“You have no right to lock me inside.”
“I am trying to protect you.”
“No. You are trying to control what you do not understand.”
His fingers slowly left the door.
Elena stepped into the private hallway.
The lift stood only a few metres away.
Adrian followed her.
“At least take a driver.”
“I already arranged a car.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You planned every part of this.”
“Yes.”
“And you did not think I deserved to know?”
Elena pressed the lift button.
“I spent three years telling you what I needed. You decided not to hear me.”
The lift doors opened.
She stepped inside and turned.
Adrian stood outside, barefoot and still dressed in his white shirt and dark trousers. His hair was untidy. Anger and disbelief filled his face.
He looked less like a billionaire now.
He looked like a man who had just realised that something belonged to him only because it had never left before.
The doors began to close.
Adrian placed his hand between them.
They opened again.
“Do not do this,” he said.
Elena looked at him one last time.
She studied the sharp line of his jaw, the small scar near his eyebrow, and the grey eyes she had once believed would always look at her with love.
She wanted to remember him as he was in that moment.
Not powerful.
Not perfect.
Just too late.
“I already did,” she whispered.
Adrian stepped forward.
His phone rang again.
Vanessa’s name appeared on the screen.
His eyes moved toward it for one second.
That second was enough.
Elena pressed the button.
The doors closed between them.
Adrian hit the lift button, but it was already moving.
“Elena!”
His voice disappeared as she went down.
Inside the lift, Elena covered her mouth to stop herself from crying aloud.
She had imagined leaving many times.
In those dreams, she felt free the moment she walked away.
But freedom did not feel light.
It felt like tearing her own heart from her chest and carrying it inside a suitcase.
When the lift reached the underground garage, Elena wiped her face.
A dark car waited near the exit.
The driver stepped out and took her suitcase without asking questions.
Elena entered the back seat.
As the car moved away, she looked through the window at Vale Tower rising above the city.
Adrian was somewhere near the top.
For three years, she had waited for him to look down and see her.
Now she prayed he would not find her.
Upstairs, Adrian stood before the closed lift doors.
Vanessa’s phone call had stopped.
He called Elena.
Her phone rang inside the penthouse.
Adrian followed the sound back to the bedroom.
It lay on the nightstand beside the divorce papers.
She had left it behind.
He picked it up and stared at the dark screen.
Then he looked at the bed.
Her side was empty.
The pillow still carried the shape of her head. A few strands of her dark hair rested against the white cloth. The blanket was folded back neatly, as if she had simply risen to get a glass of water.
But the closet was almost bare.
Her favourite books were gone.
The small picture of her late mother had disappeared from the shelf.
Even the blue cup she used every morning was missing.
Adrian sat on the edge of the bed.
The silence of the room changed.
It was no longer peaceful.
It was cruel.
His eyes fell on the papers and the ring lying on top of them.
For the first time, fear pushed through his anger.
He grabbed his phone and called building security.
“This is Adrian Vale,” he said. “Stop the car that just left the private garage.”
The guard hesitated.
“Sir, no car left through the main security point.”
Adrian stood.
“That is impossible.”
“The service gate opened three minutes ago, but we cannot see who used it.”
“Why not?”
“The cameras went offline just before Mrs Vale entered the garage.”
Adrian’s grip tightened around the phone.
“Who turned them off?”
There was a pause.
Then the guard answered carefully.
“The system says the cameras were disabled with your private executive code, sir.”
Adrian went still.
He had never given that code to Elena.
Only one other person knew it.
Vanessa Crane.
- Writer
