Manipulative Husband

Adele~

This can’t be real, even if it was.

My fingers fumbled for my phone like it was the only lifeline left in the world. I dialed his number with shaking hands, each ring pounding against my skull like a drum.

It rang once. Twice. Three times—

And then his voice, smooth and deep, spilled through the line. “Adele.”

He said my name like it belonged to him. Like it had always belonged to him.

My throat locked. Words jammed somewhere between my chest and my mouth. All I could manage was a shaky exhale.

“Adele…?” he repeated, softer this time. The way one might coax a frightened bird closer to the palm of their hand.

I swallowed hard. My pulse was sprinting, tripping, falling all over itself.

“What… what is this?” I whispered, staring at the black card, the scattered documents, the ring…everything, like they might bite me.

Silence.

A silence long enough to stretch across the earth, across galaxies, only to fold in on itself, consumed us, before he finally answered like it was the most