Louis POV "You owe me the truth. Tell me now! Have you been the one blackmailing me? Have you been pretending all this time?!"My voice cracked as the words left my throat. I didn’t plan to yell. I didn’t plan to break like that. But I did.And then, she broke too.Tears.Tears spilled from her eyes in a flood that caught me off guard. No sound. No wailing. Just silent, steady weeping, like a river that had broken through a dam. She didn’t make a sound. Not even a sniffle. Just tears. Pure and heartbreaking.Her body shook like she had been holding it all in for years. And when she moved her hands, it wasn’t to cover her face. It was like she was trying to reach for something, me?, and then she just let her arms fall.It felt like I was watching a child whose favorite toy had just been yanked out of her hands and thrown into a fire. She mouthed something. Her lips trembled, parting to form silent words I couldn’t read. But her eyes screamed, I didn’t mean to. Again and again. Her eye
Louis' POV“Are you alright, sir?” someone asked. Their faces blurred, voices buzzed around me like background static in a nightmare I couldn't wake up from.I didn’t answer. I didn’t want to. I didn’t have it in me. I pushed past the crowd, past the noise and questions, past the well-meaning hands trying to offer comfort or concern, whatever it was. I was already in the news for something I didn’t want to remember. Something I hadn’t come to terms with. And now, this? It was too much. Too damn much. All I could think about was how the headlines would twist it again, drag my name through the mud one more time. And worst of all, I couldn’t blame them.So I ran. I got into the car, slammed the door shut, and just drove. I didn’t think. I didn’t even blink. My foot hit the accelerator so hard I nearly tore the engine out of the damn car. The streets blurred. All I saw was red.I drove straight to the house. Through the underground route. The one no one ever entered without permission.
Louis' POVI yanked my clothes on with trembling hands, my chest tight with nerves I couldn’t name. My heart thudded hard, pounding against my ribs like it was trying to talk me out of this madness. I shouldn’t be doing this. I knew it. Every bone in my body screamed that this was reckless, stupid, even. But I couldn’t stop.There were reporters crawling outside the gates like ants. If I stepped out the front door, I’d be swarmed and questioned. So I slipped through the hidden corridor at the side of the mansion, a secret path that only a few of us knew about. I wrapped my scarf around my face, pulled the hoodie low over my head, and ducked into the shadows. I had to be invisible.What kind of man meets a stranger, an anonymous caller, who claims to have information about his wife? What kind of fool does that? Me. I was that fool. But desperation does that to you. It makes you believe that maybe, just maybe, truth can be found in the unlikeliest places. And right now, truth was all I
Louis' POVI yanked my clothes on with trembling hands, my chest tight with nerves I couldn’t name. My heart thudded hard, pounding against my ribs like it was trying to talk me out of this madness. I shouldn’t be doing this. I knew it. Every bone in my body screamed that this was reckless, stupid, even. But I couldn’t stop.There were reporters crawling outside the gates like ants. If I stepped out the front door, I’d be swarmed and questioned. So I slipped through the hidden corridor at the side of the mansion, a secret path that only a few of us knew about. I wrapped my scarf around my face, pulled the hoodie low over my head, and ducked into the shadows. I had to be invisible.What kind of man meets a stranger, an anonymous caller, who claims to have information about his wife? What kind of fool does that? Me. I was that fool. But desperation does that to you. It makes you believe that maybe, just maybe, truth can be found in the unlikeliest places. And right now, truth was all I
Louis’ POVI hadn’t caught her yet, but something inside me already knew.That gut feeling… it wasn’t going away.It had started out as a quiet whisper. A flicker in the shadows. A strange tension in the air whenever she passed by.But now… now it was a roar in my head, pounding against my skull like a war drum.I couldn’t ignore it anymore.I knew it was her.My wife. Evelyn.The one person I had sworn to protect. The woman I built this entire world around.She was the one blackmailing me.Why?Why would she do this to me?I stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, my fists clenched, eyes scanning the sea of flashing cameras and shouting reporters below. My pulse was out of rhythm, thumping in a strange staccato against my ribs. I paced the length of the room, back and forth, my footsteps tapping like clock hands counting down to something I couldn’t stop.Where did she go?How the hell did she even leave the house?I turned and stormed down the hallway, my footsteps quick and
Louis' POV"What the heck!" I gasped, my eyes widening in disbelief.My heart pounded, echoing through my chest like war drums. The image on my phone stared back at me, mocking everything I thought I knew. Evelyn, my wife, the woman I married knowing she was mute, was holding a phone to her ear. And her lips... they were moving. Not in a fluke, not in confusion, but slowly, purposefully. She was talking.Talking.It felt like the floor shifted beneath me, like I was free-falling without a parachute. My wife could talk?No. No. That can't be right.I married her mute. I met her mute. I watched her for years, from a distance, signing to herself in that quiet room. Her hands always in motion, graceful like a dance of pain. I knew she wasn't born mute. The accident stole her voice. An accident that left her carrying the guilt of something that wasn't her fault. Everyone blamed her. Her parents. The town. The school. They blamed her for a death she didn't cause.Only... turns out the perso