Chapter 1 The Unanswered Calls
I got into a car accident while Declan Whitmore was calling to tell me where he was.
"She's getting married today. I have to go."
Pain twisted through my lower abdomen as I clutched my stomach, my voice trembling. "Please... take me to the hospital first. Someone rear-ended me, and the car—"
Before I could finish, Declan cut me off, impatience already creeping into his tone. "Enough. I told you I'd come back to this marriage, and I meant it. I'm just seeing her one last time. She's getting married too, so what exactly are you afraid of? Stop pulling cheap stunts just to keep me around."
Then he hung up.
By the time the ambulance brought me to the hospital, blood had already soaked through the stretcher beneath me. The miscarriage surgery required a family member's signature, but no matter how many times I called, Declan never answered. Seventeen calls. Not a single response.
That same night, the man who had never once posted on i********: suddenly updated his account.
Declan: Not being with you will always be the greatest regret of my life. I only want you to be happy.
In the photo, Serena Delacourt stood beside him in her wedding dress, smiling softly as she leaned against his shoulder. They looked far more like the bride and groom than Serena and the man she had actually married.
After the surgery, I forced myself out of bed and personally delivered the divorce papers I had signed four years ago to the county clerk's office.
*****
During the entire week I remained hospitalized, Declan never visited once. Still, he texted me every day as though reporting his schedule.
Declan: Attending Serena's wedding today.
Declan: Helping Serena settle her relatives today.
Declan: Accompanying Serena and her husband around the city today.
I was too exhausted to reply.
Declan must have mistaken my silence for another tantrum because, for the first time in a long while, he finally called.
"Are you done sulking yet? This is the last time I'll see her." Halfway through the sentence, his voice faltered slightly, betraying the emotion he failed to hide. "She's married now. I just wanted to see whether her husband treats her well."
After a brief pause, he added more quietly, "Liam said you're in the hospital. I'll pick you up tomorrow and bring you home."
He hung up before I could say a word.
But the next day, I waited until nightfall, and he never came. By evening, the pain in my abdomen had become almost unbearable, so I checked myself out and took a cab home alone.
When I walked into the villa, Declan was standing in the kitchen wearing an apron, lowering chunks of beef into a pot of stew. The moment he saw me, he froze, then instinctively began explaining himself.
"I was just about to come get you. Why didn't you wait for me? I only got home not long ago."
My gaze drifted toward the thermos sitting beside him, already packed and ready to go, and the last trace of warmth inside me quietly faded away.
I had never been able to stomach beef stew. The smell alone made me nauseous. Only Serena liked it.
The meat had already been simmered until it practically fell apart. It would have taken at least three hours, which meant Declan had probably been home since noon.
I looked at him silently for a long moment before swallowing the bitterness rising in my chest.
"It's fine."
Relief immediately flickered across his face when he realized I wasn't going to question him further. He grabbed the thermos and headed for the door, his pace noticeably quicker than usual.
"One of my clients is sick. I'm dropping this off and discussing a contract while I'm there."
The door shut behind him.
Three minutes later, I followed. Declan hadn't gone far. The hotel Serena was staying at was less than ten minutes from our villa.
The moment I saw the woman standing beneath the hotel lights, a sharp pain pierced straight through my chest, as though invisible needles were driving themselves into my flesh. Serena was the woman Declan had cheated with four years ago, the woman he had once thrown away all dignity for as he knelt in front of me and begged for a divorce so he could marry her.
Now another man stood beside her—her husband, apparently.
Declan handed her the thermos while carefully keeping his distance, but the longing in his eyes was impossible to hide. Serena accepted it with a smile, thanked him softly, then walked into the hotel with her husband.
That night, Declan came home drunk out of his mind. Even in his sleep, he kept mumbling her name over and over. "Senna... Senna..."
So even after Serena got married, he still couldn't let her go.
I almost laughed. The man who once refused to touch alcohol because I disliked the smell had spent the last few years drinking himself senseless over another woman.
My hands and feet turned ice-cold. I had thought my heart was already shattered beyond repair, but somehow it still found new ways to break all over again.
Quietly, I began packing my things. Two more weeks. Once the cooling-off period ended, the divorce would finally become official.
