Chapter 5

By the time I reached the house, the water had already risen to my calves. I then spent two hours alone in the dirty, icy water.

I carried boxes containing old photo albums and diaries upstairs, one by one. When I finally came back out of the house, I was soaked to the skin and covered in mud, shivering from the cold.

On the drive back, my car suddenly stalled on a street. The flooding had been so bad that water had gotten into the exhaust pipe.

There were no streetlights around, just the deafening roar of rain pounding heavily against the roof of my car.

I took out my phone and realized that I only had 15% battery left.

I called Levi. This was my most instinctive reaction every time I ran into some trouble in my seven years of marriage.

The phone rang for a long time before he finally picked up.

"Hello? Anna?"

The sound on his end was chaotic. There seemed to be arguing and crying in the background.

"Levi, my car broke down on Southring Street," I said. My hands, gripping the steering wheel, were numb from the cold. "The rain is too heavy, so I can't get a cab out here. Can you come and get me?"

There was a brief silence on the phone. Then, Belinda's loud crying screams could be heard.

"I don't want to live anymore! I can't pay back this massive sum! Just let me die!"

Levi's voice immediately turned stern and anxious. "Get down from there! What do you think you're doing, climbing onto the railing like that?"

Then, he spoke into the phone in a hurry. "Anna, the project that Linda was in charge of went wrong, causing serious losses for the company. She's very emotionally unstable right now and is threatening to jump off the roof. I can't leave now."

After a short pause, he said, "Try calling a tow truck service instead, or just get a cab home. I'll pay you back for it. That's all. I'm hanging up now."

The call was then disconnected, and I heard the steady beeping tone from his end of the line.

I stared at my darkened phone screen, suddenly feeling as though the inside of the car had plunged below subzero temperatures, colder than the dirty, sheeting rain outside.

I didn't call him again. I didn't call a tow truck either.

I just opened the door and walked into the rain.

The rain completely soaked me through in a flash. I then slowly waded through ankle-deep water alone as I made my way toward the only light I could see ahead.

I walked for nearly five miles before finally reaching a convenience store, where I managed to hail a cab to bring me home.

It was 10:00 pm by the time I got home. The place was pitch-dark, but I didn't bother turning on the lights.

I headed straight to the bedroom, opened the wardrobe, and took out a suitcase. I packed a few of my most-worn outfits into it, along with some toiletries and daily essentials. I didn't touch a single one of the jewelry or purses that Levi gave me and just left them in their places.

After I was done packing, I went into the study, turned on the computer, and printed out a document. Then, I sat down at the desk, grabbed my pen, and signed my name on the last page of the document.

Anastasia Evans.

My signature was neat and signed with a flourish without a single tremor. Then, I placed the document on the coffee table in the living room, where it couldn't be missed.

I also left the spare keys Levi had given me right beside it.

When I was done, I dragged my suitcase out of the door and walked out of the home that I had lived in for seven years.

The moment the door closed behind me, my heart felt utterly empty.

…

Early the next morning, Levi dragged his exhausted body home and opened the door. He'd only just managed to calm Belinda and send her back to her apartment.

"I'm back, Anna," he called out, changing into his indoor slippers.

Nobody responded. He frowned and flipped on the light in the living room. Almost immediately, he saw the document I'd left on the coffee table.

He crossed the room, picked it up, and flipped through a couple of pages. However, the moment he realized what it was, his breath caught in his throat, and he couldn't breathe.

He glared at the divorce agreement for a long time, his eyes boring holes into the signature I had signed onto the document in black ink. Panic rose in his chest.

Right at that moment, the number above his head that was originally fewer than 100 days suddenly flashed eerily, and the number jumped from [89 days, 12 hours, 5 minutes] to [125 days, 7 hours, 30 minutes].

This was the first time the number had actually gone up.