Loved Him 15 Years, Then I Left

Chapter 8

The question froze Lucas on the spot in an instant, every muscle in his body locking up so tight he could barely move.

Love? For the first half of his life, Yanna had occupied every last corner of his heart and mind. All the patience and care he'd shown Danica? That was only ever because she was his legal wife, nothing more.

He hesitated for a long moment, then gave a small, slow shake of his head.

Yanna let out a soft sigh. "If you don't love her, then why are you this torn up over her leaving?"

"I..."

The image of Danica standing all alone in the corner on the day they got their marriage license popped into Yanna's head, her eyes heavy with bitterness and loneliness.

As a fellow woman, her heart ached for Danica, and she knew better than anyone just how much hurt and resentment the other woman had bottled up inside over the years.

"Lucas, I think Danica just got sick of being cooped up in this villa. She probably went out to chase the freedom she's always deserved."

Watching the sympathy glint in his crush's eyes, Lucas' head swam even harder, confusion clouding every thought.

"I've never treated her badly in seven years. I bent over backwards to accommodate her every need. Did I still not do enough? Is that why she's so worn out?"

Yanna sighed again, helpless. It wasn't his fault, really. You could never force love to bloom where it didn't want to. But the cruelest irony of all was that people almost never noticed when they'd already fallen for the person they spent every single day with.

"Have you ever stopped to think that the 'kindness' you thought you were giving her was the worst kind of torture for Danica? There's nothing more brutal than watching the person you love dote on someone else, give all their softness and care to someone who isn't you."

After he left Yanna's room, Lucas wandered the villa like a ghost, his steps heavy and his mind blank. The grand mansion he'd known like the back of his hand felt cold and alien now, hollowed out like something vital had been ripped right out of it.

By the time he snapped out of his daze, he was standing at the entrance of the small courtyard that had belonged exclusively to Danica. The flowers and plants that had once bloomed riotously all across the yard were all wilted and dead now, nothing but bare, empty dirt left in their place.

"Did Danica say anything to any of you about where she was going before she left?"

The housekeepers in the yard all shook their heads in unison.

"Mr. Monroe, Madam never mentioned anything about leaving. She didn't act any different from normal these past few weeks."

Lucas couldn't wrap his head around it. She hadn't even breathed a word of her plans to the women who had taken care of her day in and day out?

He clutched at the last lifeline he could think of and ordered his staff to bring Carol, Danica's personal maid, to him.

The servant's face twisted with discomfort, and they hesitated for ages before finally speaking.

"Mr. Monroe, Carol wasn't feeling well a while back. She quit and went back to her hometown. She hasn't worked at the villa in a long time."

All the servants Danica had brought with her from her family home had been sent away by her well in advance. Only the original Monroe family staff remain in the villa now.

A tight, suffocating pressure clamped down on Lucas' chest, leaving him gasping for air.

She'd been planning to leave this entire time. He'd just never paid any attention to her mood, never noticed any of her quiet disappointment.

If he'd just paid even a little more attention to her, would things have ever gotten to this point?

A pearl pendant on the living room coffee table caught his eye. It was the exact one he'd given Danica all those years ago.

Every single one of Danica's personal belongings was gone from the entire villa, but everything else was perfectly untouched.

A sharp, stabbing pain thudded through his heart.

She'd only taken what was hers. Not a single cent of the Monroe family's money, not a single extra trinket. She didn't leave a single room for doubt: she was cutting ties with this place completely, no take-backs.

Lucas stumbled back several steps, unable to wrap his head around this brutal truth. He couldn't put a name to the tangled mess of emotions churning in his chest, but one thing was crystal clear... he had to find Danica, no matter what it took. From that day forward, he'd pour every last ounce of effort into treating her right, and he'd never, ever let her walk away again.

He couldn't lose Danica!

"What's this?"

A cloth bundle sat right next to the pendant.

A servant stepped forward and untied it, revealing several pairs of neatly folded, hand-knitted knee braces inside.

The housekeeper who used to care for Danica caught sight of them and hurried to explain, "Mr. Monroe, these are the knee braces Madam stayed up night after night knitting these for you with her own two hands. She said your knees ache terribly every winter, so she wanted to make them ahead of time and have them ready for you. We were all confused back then, wondering why Madam was in such a rush when winter was still months away. Now it makes sense…"

Lucas' eyes burned and reddened in an instant.

He picked up the knee braces with trembling, careful fingers, clutching them tight against his chest.

He could picture Danica so clearly in his mind, carefully stitching each brace stitch by stitch.

What had been going through her head back then? Was she resenting him? Or had she already given up on him completely?

Just as the ache in his chest threatened to swallow him whole, a frantic shout cut through the silence.

"Mr. Monroe! Mr. Monroe! We just got word from the south. Someone caught sight of Madam!"