Chapter 4

I stared at him blankly.

"What, playing innocent again?"

"Every guard watching Serena was drugged last night, with the same sleeping pills you've been taking."

"The back-door camera caught it clear as day. Your guards were the ones who wheeled her out of the estate."

Dominic gripped my hand so tightly it ached.

"Noelle, how are you going to talk your way out of this one?!"

I looked into his blazing eyes, but all I could hear was the gentle voice of the woman from my dream.

My throat clenched.

I blinked back the tears and said quietly, "You're right.

"I did it."

Dominic's entire body went rigid. Disbelief flooded his face, and his grip on my collar loosened.

I peeled his fingers away one by one and spoke, word by careful word.

"And that's not all. The phone call from ten years in the future? I hired someone with a voice changer to make it."

"What did you just say?!"

I ignored his shock, my voice still steady.

"I couldn't give up the title of Donna, and I couldn't let go of my power.

"So I invented a future you didn't dare gamble against, and I used it to trap you in this marriage."

Dominic stared at me for a long time. Then he let out a cold, hollow laugh.

"But he knew every detail of my life, from childhood on. Things no one else could know."

I forced the corners of my lips up.

"Dominic, we've been married for seven years.

"Every time you got drunk, you'd lean against me and tell me things you never told anyone else.

"Or have you forgotten? The old you never kept a single secret from me."

Dominic's brow furrowed. He fixed me with a hard stare, clearly not entirely convinced.

But my nails were already digging deep into my palms.

Because this was the first time I'd ever lied to him.

Just then, his phone rang.

On the video, Serena was blindfolded, bound hand and foot, thrown in a basement, and screaming until her voice broke.

"She's really coming to kill me... I don't want to be burned alive, I really don't want to die..."

Dominic's face drained of color. He gripped the phone so hard his knuckles went white.

"Serena!"

I watched panic overtake him and laughed.

"Believe me now?"

He whipped around.

I met his bloodshot eyes and spoke with deliberate precision.

"Ten years from now, or right now. Whenever I want, she's dead."

Dominic was shaking from head to toe. The last trace of doubt in his eyes curdled into pure revulsion.

"Noelle, you're insane. Completely, utterly insane!"

"You really think you're untouchable, don't you? That you can toy with anyone's life on a whim!"

He spun around and barked at the door, "Get the divorce papers!"

Then he turned back to me, every word a blade.

"This time, you're signing."

He looked at the video still playing on the screen.

"Everyone on the other end, listen up. Noelle is about to lose her title as Donna.

"If you still want to risk your necks for her, think long and hard about what happens when you betray the Family."

The masked figures in the video froze. Their eyes shifted in unison past the camera, as if waiting for my command.

The disgust in Dominic's eyes deepened.

The divorce papers arrived quickly.

He signed his name without looking up, completely missing the way Serena on the video was biting down hard to keep from smiling.

Then the papers were pushed to me.

This was the eighteenth time.

And the only time I didn't refuse. I signed my name without a moment's hesitation.

Dominic took the papers and announced to the room, "From this moment, Noelle is no longer Donna."

He tossed a set of keys in front of me.

"The estate and everything in my name are yours. I won't be coming back, and I don't want to see you again."

On the other end of the video, the men panicked, dropped Serena, and scattered.

The camera shook violently, then went black.

Dominic's face turned ashen. He immediately ordered, "Trace that signal! Seal every exit in the area. No one gets out!"

The room emptied in seconds.

I stood there holding the divorce papers, looking at my wrist, already bruising from his grip.

Hurt again.

I laughed at myself.

Then I slipped off my ring and tossed it in the trash.

I fed the wedding photo that had hung for seven years into the incinerator.

The flames slowly consumed the two people smiling in each other's arms, until nothing was left but a handful of ash.

Seven years of marriage, finished.

I took my luggage straight to the airport.

I let the plane carry me away from this city of endless rain.

I didn't turn my phone back on until I landed.

A flood of missed calls and messages poured in.

Why won't you answer the phone?

The real cause of my father's death... I've never told a soul. There's no way you could have known.

That phone call was real, wasn't it? Noelle, why did you lie to me? Where are you?

New messages kept popping up.

I turned off my phone and waved at the person waiting in the crowd.