Chapter Four

ADRIELLE~

I shut my eyes, trying to cage in my breath, trying to block out the sound of his voice, but his words clung like shards in my ears, cutting deeper each second. My chest shook with sobs that refused to be silenced, my body trembling as if I were standing in the dead of winter, stripped bare.

The sight of them scorched itself into me – him standing there, his arm welded around her waist like it was all her from the start, like I never existed. That was the truth, wasn’t it? This was him. No mask, no sweetened lies. Just the man behind it all. The bitter reality slid down my throat like glass, and my heart bled for it.

I forced my body to stand, every muscle aching, every movement slow and humiliating. Valen didn’t lift a finger to help me, didn’t even flinch. He just stared, eyes blank, as if I were some stranger interrupting his evening. My foot slipped halfway up and I grabbed the doorframe, my nails digging into the wood.

Tears stung as they streamed. My voice cracked, but my words came sharp. “Thanks for showing me your colors, Valen. Thanks for stabbing me when all I did was love you.”

I breathed deep, let the air burn in my lungs. Then, my tone hardened to steel. “Leave my house.”

If he could betray me like this, then I shouldn’t look back too.

“Hand over every card I gave you, every gift, the jewelry, the cars, the clothes, you’ll drop them all. You’ll leave the same way I met you, Valen. A broke, poor man.”

They exchanged a glance, then both burst into laughter. It was loud, careless, cruel. Each note of it shattered me.

“Leave my house, Valen! Take your whore and get out!” I screamed, my voice shaking but carrying.

“Oh, poor Adrielle.” The woman’s tone dripped sugar and venom at once. She turned her head toward him. “She doesn’t know.”

His mouth twisted into a smirk. “Oh, she doesn’t.”

Her fingers drifted lazily down his bare chest, nails grazing skin. “Mind telling her?” she purred.

“With pleasure,” he said, almost cheerfully.

I didn’t understand. My pulse thudded hard. “I won’t repeat myself again. Get out!”

He leaned back slightly, looking at me like I was a child throwing a tantrum. “Leave your house? No, Adrielle. If anyone’s leaving this mansion, it’s you.”

The words hit like cold water. “What do you mean?”

“What I mean,” he said, slow, deliberate, “is that you don’t have the power that makes Adrielle Holt anymore. You’re nothing now.”

My heart skipped, a hollow ache blooming in my chest. There was a darkness in his confidence, something dangerous.

Then he dropped it, the missile that ripped the floor from under me. “That day I visited you? Your doctor probably blabbed already. But I didn’t come out of love. I came for your fingerprints.”

My breath faltered. “You bastard. What did you do with them?”

He grinned, lazy and lethal. “Exactly what you’re thinking. I took everything. Your mansion, your accounts, every investment your father left you. All mine now.”

The room spun.

“Oh, and I’m the new CEO of Adlock Tech Global,” he added, like it was an afterthought.

Immediately, time halted. I stiffened. His last words replayed in my head. Adlock Tech? Valen... H–he–he is now the CEO?

Adlock Tech wasn’t just a company. It was my father’s empire, the crown jewel of his life. The business he built from nothing, the legacy he entrusted to me before he got sick and died. My throat closed.

“No. No, no, no...” The words barely left me.

“Yes, Adrielle. I did it. Alone.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“But I already did.” His laugh was low, mean.

“I swear, Valen, I’ll kill you.” I said with clenched teeth, shivering as cold hammered me.

“Looking like that?” His eyes flicked over me with disgust. “Please. You look like you just crawled out of a grave.”

The woman giggled, pressing closer to him. “Perfect description for a pathetic little princess who thinks the world revolves around her.”

My chest tightened, like invisible hands were squeezing it.

Vanessa glanced at the clock and gasped theatrically. “Dear, lord! It’s almost nine, baby.”

“News time,” Valen said, his smirk deepening.

They turned to me in unison. “Since you’re here,” he said lightly, “you might as well watch. You’ll enjoy it.”

Vanessa picked up the remote, twirling it between her fingers. “Get ready to watch the history of your life rewritten, sweetheart. Starring you, in the role of a lifetime.”

The TV flared on. My eyes locked on the screen, unblinking, as if looking away might make the air vanish from my lungs.

A polished voice filled the room. “... Following the tragic death of billionaire Roland Holt, his only child, Adrielle Holt, is said to have suffered a severe mental breakdown. She is currently recovering in a rehabilitation center, where her devoted husband, Valen Donald, remains by her side...”

My head whipped toward him, then back to the screen. “Rehab? Mental collapse?” My voice broke, high and desperate.

The newscaster’s voice kept going, steady and merciless. “In a remarkable gesture of love and trust, Mrs. Adrielle Holt transferred full control of her father’s holdings, including Adlock Tech Global, to her husband. Sources say the young heiress encouraged him to remarry, ensuring the Holt legacy would endure.”

The words punched holes in my chest. “I never said that. I never told you to remarry. I–”

“What you say doesn’t matter anymore,” Valen said, his tone a quiet knife.

Tears blurred my vision. “Valen, please–” I reached for him.

“Don’t touch me!” He slapped my hand away, the sting shooting up my arm.

“I made you,” I choked out. “I gave you a life. I sacrificed for you. I loved you.”

“Loved me?” His laugh was sharp. “When I asked to be manager at Adlock Tech, you hid behind your daddy. You never planned to give it to me.”

“That’s not true. Dad still controlled the board at that time. He–”

“Oh, save it. Kendrick got the job. But don’t worry. He’s gone now. Fired.”

My stomach dropped. “He was one of the best. Why–”

“Because I can,” he said coldly. “This empire is mine now, and I’ll burn it if I want to.”

My body felt hollow, my soul raw.

“Valen you weren’t like this,” I whispered, voice trembling under the weight of everything breaking inside me.

Vanessa mimicked me in a whiny falsetto, grinning. “Oh, Valen, you weren’t like this,” she mocked. Then, without looking at me, she said, “Baby, it’s time to take the trash out. She’s rotting up the place.”

Valen’s smirk spread. “You heard my wife. Go.”

I refused to go. How could I? If anyone was to leave this house, it should be them. I will not leave this house no matter what he said.

“Hello,” Vanessa called, snapping her fingers in my face. “You heard us loud and clear, didn’t you? Disappear.”

Anger simmered inside me. At this point, I wanted to scratch her eyeballs out for wrecking my home, for taking my husband away from me.

But I just remained there. Unmoving.

Vanessa scoffed, facing Valen. “Hubby, can you imagine! She’s proving stubborn. In our own house!”

Immediately she complained, Valen moved. He grabbed my shoulder and shoved me hard, out of our bedroom. My wet feet slapped the floor, Vanessa’s snicker trailing me like smoke.

“This is my house!” I screamed, thrashing against his grip.

But the more I thrashed, the more it felt like I wasn’t even moving a muscle. Angrily, I sank my teeth into his arm, biting hard.

“Let go of me! Fucking let me go!”

A curse flew out of his lips and he slammed my head against the wall. Stars exploded in my vision. The world tipped, my knees gave, and pain shot white-hot through my skull.

Before I could catch my breath, he fisted my wet hair and dragged me down the hall, my screams bouncing off the walls. Down the stairs, each jolt rattling my bones.

“Take the trash out!” Vanessa’s voice sang behind us.

Outside, rain lashed down in sheets. He didn’t stop until we reached the open gate, where he kicked me forward. My body hit the ground, gravel cutting into my palms.

I staggered up, rushing back toward him, but he slammed the gate shut.

The clang of the gate was deafening, final, like a coffin lid sealing. I clung to the bars, knuckles white, rainwater and tears streaming down my face in one indistinguishable blur.

“Let me in! Valen!” My fists pounded the metal, skin scraping raw, but my voice was swallowed by the storm.

He stood on the other side, framed in the glow of the foyer lights, his features shadowed, unreadable. Then, one last, flat glare, like I was less than a stranger.

“I don’t ever want to see you anywhere close to me again.”

Then he turned and walked away. The warmth of the house, the golden light, the life I had built, all of it closed behind him with a soundless finality that made my ears ring.

I stayed there, pressed to the cold steel, my breath hitching in wet, uneven bursts.

“No... no, you can’t–” The words dissolved into the rain.

I stepped back, just enough to see the whole mansion loom before me, blurred through the sheets of water, its windows glowing like eyes that refused to acknowledge me. My knees shook. Something deep in my chest caved in on itself, a slow implosion that stole the air from my lungs.

“Come back here!” My voice cracked so hard it hurt my throat. “Valen! Come back!”

The rain didn’t care. The world didn’t care.

I felt the scream building, clawing up from the pit of me, the kind that tears something permanent on its way out. When it broke free, it wasn’t just a name. It was my grief, my fury, my humiliation, my loss, every piece of myself he had ripped away and left to drown.

“VAAALEEEN!”

The sound ricocheted into the storm, raw and jagged, vanishing into the night. And when it was gone, I was left with nothing but the pounding rain and the hollow, aching echo in my chest.