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Chapter 3

Author: Chelsea
Two days before the port banquet, I returned to the Vison estate and noticed that one of the cars was missing from the garage.

It was the black SUV Charles had given me in the second year of our marriage. I rarely drove it, but every bodyguard knew that the car belonged only to me.

Now it was parked in front of the main house, and Sandra was sitting in the back seat. When she saw me, she lowered the window.

“Helen, my car broke down. Charles said I could use yours for now.”

I simply shrugged. “Go ahead.”

Sandra froze for a moment. She had probably prepared a whole explanation in advance, but I hadn’t questioned her at all.

When I entered the main house, Ivy came over to me.

“Your two bodyguards have also been reassigned to Sandra.”

“Okay.”

“And the eastern safe house.”

I stopped walking.

“She’s moving in there?”

Ivy nodded. “Tonight.”

The eastern safe house was directly connected to the main house.

After a shooting two years ago, Charles had reinforced it. Only an enclosed corridor separated it from our bedroom.

I had once joked with him, “Are you planning to lock me inside a safe?”

Charles had held me in his arms and replied, “A safe isn’t worth as much as you are.”

Now, the safest place had been given to Sandra.

During dinner, I brought up the matter. Charles kept cutting his steak.

“They found Sandra’s safe house yesterday. The eastern wing has the highest level of security.”

I put down my knife and fork and looked at him.

“My car, my bodyguards, and now even the safest part of the main house is hers.”

Sandra, who was sitting across from me, looked uncomfortable.

“Helen, if you mind, I can—”

“You don’t need to move.”

Charles interrupted her immediately. Only after that did he look at me.

“It’s only for two days. After the banquet is over, none of this will matter to you anymore.”

The table fell silent. He probably realized almost immediately how his words had sounded.

“Helen.”

I smiled.

“You’re right.”

Two days later, Helen would be dead.

Whose car it was, who the bodyguards protected, and which room I lived in would no longer matter.

Charles put down his cutlery.

“The house on the island is ready. The bedroom faces the sea. You like the sea.”

I looked up at him.

“I don’t.”

He paused.

“What?”

“I’ve never liked the sea.”

Charles said nothing.

I had only liked those winter walks by the sea because they were among the few times Charles had time for me. I loved being with him, not the sea.

But there was no point explaining that anymore.

The following night, Ivy helped me pack my luggage.

The new passport Charles had prepared for me was lying on the bed. I picked it up and then placed it back where it was.

Ivy looked at me.

“You really aren’t going to use it?”

“I’m not.”

“Then how are you planning to leave?”

I handed her the private dock access pass my father had given me.

“Someone will come for me.”

She stared at me for a long moment before asking in alarm, “Does Charles know?”

“No.”

“Helen, are you crazy?”

“He wants me to disappear, doesn’t he? Then I’ll give him what he wants.”

Ivy lowered her voice anxiously.

“This isn’t the same.”

“Of course it isn’t.”

I looked at her seriously.

“I’m not leaving just because I’m angry. They want me gone from Sicily. So I’m leaving for good.”

I slipped my wedding ring off my finger and put it in my pocket. It would be useful later.

Just then, a commotion broke out downstairs. Several of Charles’s men rushed into the main house.

A few minutes later, Charles pushed open the door.

“Sandra’s old safe house was bombed.”

Ivy’s expression changed immediately, but I remained calm.

“What about her?”

“She’s fine.”

Charles walked toward me.

“We’re moving the plan up. The banquet will still take place tomorrow night, but the explosion will happen twenty minutes earlier.”

I looked at him.

“Even the explosion can be moved up?”

“They’ve already started to suspect something.”

He spoke quickly, his brow furrowed.

“We don’t have a second chance.”

I nodded.

“Okay.”

Charles frowned. Perhaps my immediate agreement unsettled him.

“Helen.”

He reached out and touched my face.

“Tomorrow night, listen to me. Two minutes before the explosion, I’ll have someone take you to the west side. The car will be waiting at the exit.”

“Don’t be afraid.”

For a moment, I saw the familiar tenderness in his eyes, and I suddenly asked, “Charles, what if you never see me again after tomorrow?”

His expression darkened immediately.

“Don’t say things like that. You’re not really going to die.”

He pulled me into his arms.

“Don’t worry. I have everything planned out. You’ll be safe.”

At his confident reassurance, I buried my face against him one last time and let out a quiet laugh.

He would find out tomorrow night whether I really would be fine.
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    Six months later, my room remained exactly as it had been, and Sandra never returned to the Vison estate again.Charles withdrew all the people, vehicles, and account permissions she had been able to access.The black SUV was parked back in the garage, and the keys remained in their original place.My mother came over once every week.Sometimes she sat beside my bed for an entire afternoon.Once, when a servant went in to deliver water, she heard my mother speaking to the empty room.“Helen, Mom will come again next week.”After saying that, she sat there in silence for a long time.My father locked the private dock access card inside a drawer in his study.But Charles never stopped searching for me.The surveillance footage around the harbor was reviewed countless times.Finally, in the third month, they found a blurry recording.Seven minutes after the explosion, an old car drove out of the back alley.His underboss enlarged the footage.“The car had a fake license plate and entered

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    Preparations for my funeral began.My father wanted to take my “body” back to the family cemetery, but Charles refused.“She is my wife.”My father’s expression turned grim.“She is also my daughter.”The two men stood on opposite sides of the long table, neither willing to give in.In the end, because neither of them was willing to compromise, the burial site was chosen on a private hillside outside Palermo.On the day of the funeral, my mother held the gold chain I had worn as a child the entire time.When the coffin was about to be closed, she suddenly rushed forward.“Wait!”The staff stopped.My mother placed the gold chain inside.“Helen couldn’t sleep if she was away from home for even one night when she was little. This needs to go with her.”Ivy stood beside her and suddenly spoke.“Madam.”My mother looked up and met Ivy’s red-rimmed eyes.“She was afraid of being alone when she was alive too.”My mother’s hand stopped.“But you still sent her alone to North America.”The gol

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    By the time morning arrived, Charles finally returned to the estate.He hadn’t changed his clothes. His suit was covered in dust, and his right palm was wrapped in a temporary bandage.When he pushed open the bedroom door, his footsteps stopped.My suitcase was still beside the bed, only half packed.A few pieces of clothing were scattered across the bed, while the new passport and the documents for my new identity were left on the table.Charles walked over and picked them up.Ellen Rossi, thirty-four years old, widowed, no children.His eyes remained fixed on the words “widowed.” After a moment, he suddenly threw the documents against the wall.“Who wrote this?”His underboss, standing at the doorway, froze for a moment.“What?”“Who told them to write that she was widowed on her identity documents?”“This was arranged beforehand to avoid being traced—”“Rip it up.”Before his underboss could step forward, Charles had already walked over and torn the thick stack of documents in half.

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