Chapter 4

Third-Person POV

The next afternoon, Kaia was roused by the incessant throbbing in her head. She instinctively reached out to the nightstand for some water.

Whenever she returned home drunk in the past, there would always be a glass of warm honey water at the nightstand as soon as she woke up, along with a handwritten note from Evan reminding her to take care of herself.

But today, her hand met nothing but empty space.

Kaia frowned, grunting as she sat up and stared at the bare nightstand, an inexplicable wave of irritation washing over her.

"Evan?" she called out, but no one answered. Only silence greeted her.

"Are you still throwing a tantrum?"

Kaia scoffed and grabbed her phone. The screen was completely empty. No missed calls nor WhatsApp messages.

Something wasn't right.

Even when they'd fought in the past, Evan would send her dozens of long messages complaining about how cold she'd been toward him. Sometimes, he'd flood her chat with angry memes, hoping she'd comfort him.

He'd never gone silent like this before. It was as if he'd vanished off the face of the earth.

She dialed the number she knew by heart.

"I'm sorry. The number you have dialed is currently switched off."

The cold, automated voice made her heart skip a beat.

She called Isabelle next.

"Isabelle, have you heard from Evan?"

Isabelle had only just woken up herself.

"No. He's probably sulking at home," she replied, her voice still groggy. "Don't panic. We need to hold our ground. Whoever gives in first loses."

Kaia hung up, but the sense of unease in her chest only grew stronger. She didn't even bother washing up. Grabbing her car keys, she rushed out the door.

She sped all the way to the Gardner estate.

Gordon Jenkins, the butler who usually greeted her with a smile, stood at the entrance with a stern expression and blocked her way.

"Ms. Olsen, I'm afraid you'll have to leave. Mr. Gardner has instructed us not to receive any visitors."

"I'm here to see Evan!" Kaia tried to push past him.

"Mr. Gardner isn't here."

"He's not here? Where could he possibly have gone? Where else would he go besides here?"

Unwilling to believe him, Kaia shoved Gordon aside and headed straight for Evan's detached villa.

Gordon didn't try to stop her again. He merely watched her go, his eyes holding a strange mixture of pity and scorn.

Kaia raced up the stairs to the second floor and flung open Evan's bedroom door.

"Evan, have you had enough of this—"

Her voice died in her throat.

The room was spotless, with everything in its place and sunlight streaming through the windows.

But it was far too neat. The bottles and trinkets that had once cluttered his desk were gone. So were the stuffed animals by Evan's bed. The closet stood open, with more than half its contents missing.

An eerie stillness hung over the room, as though its owner had been gone for a very long time.

On the desk lay a black bank card, neatly cut in half.

It was the supplementary card Kaia had given Evan, with no spending limit. He'd once used it to indulge in all sorts of extravagant purchases he didn't need.

Isabelle and Anna arrived shortly afterward.

"Kaia, what… What happened here?"

Isabelle spotted the enormous black trash bag beside the bin. She opened it and rummaged through its contents, only for the color to drain from her face.

"These are all the things we gave him."

Anna noticed something glinting in a narrow gap by the windowsill. She walked over, and the moment she recognized what it was, she sucked in a sharp breath.

"Kaia, look down there."

Kaia rushed to the window. Right below, beside a storm drain cover, a diamond ring was caught in a narrow gap.

It was the pink diamond she'd given Evan when she'd proposed.

In the sunlight, its brilliance was almost blinding, sharp enough to bring tears to her eyes.

"Boris! Where's Evan?"

Kaia raced downstairs like a woman possessed and stormed into the main wing of the Gardner estate.

Boris sat in a grand armchair, turning a chess piece between his fingers. He regarded the young woman he'd once considered a potential granddaughter-in-law with a cold, detached gaze.

"He's gone."

Boris' voice was weathered but authoritative, devoid of warmth.

"Gone where? We'll go get him!" Kaia cried, desperation thick in her voice. "Boris, I was wrong yesterday. I'd had too much to drink. I'll apologize to him!"

"Go get him?" Boris let out a cold laugh and flung a document at her.

It was the confirmation letter for the Nambara development project, along with the agreement for the arranged marriage.

"He's gone to the most dangerous district in Nambara to oversee the development project, and he's already agreed to marry into the Sullivan family. The plane has landed by now," Boris ground out. "Kaia, you bunch of ungrateful fools! Don't ever expect to see him again!"

"N-Nambara? The Sullivan family?"

Kaia's hands trembled violently as she clutched the documents.

The Sullivans controlled the mineral mines across Nambara, notorious for their ruthless methods and feared for their merciless matriarch, Frida Sullivan, who was known as the devil incarnate.

"No… That's impossible," Kaia muttered in disbelief, her face as white as a sheet. "Evan can't stand the heat, he hates bugs, and he can't handle hardship. How could he possibly go somewhere like that?"

"That's right. He can't stand hardship."

Boris rose to his feet, his gaze sharp and unwavering. "But he'd rather endure all that than put up with another moment of humiliation from you people. Kaia, you drove him away with your own hands."

At that moment, Kaia's knees gave way, and she collapsed to the floor.

A wave of terror engulfed her. She finally understood that the clingy man who had always come running back to her, no matter how badly she had hurt him, was gone for good.

Her loyal little puppy had finally stopped following her.

This time, Evan really was done with her.