Chapter 5

Lachlan

“A divorce?” I repeated blankly. 

I stilled in shock at the hard look in Amelia’s eyes. It was a look I had never seen before in our three years of marriage. She had always looked at me helplessly and with love and devastation that irritated me so much and made my skin crawl. 

The last thing I had ever expected was for my wife to be the one to serve me divorce papers tonight. 

Everything I had done had been to make her miserable in this marriage, but she knew the stipulations on the marriage contract arranged by my late father. She wasn’t entitled to a single dollar of my money if she ever divorced me unless she had given me an heir. 

So far, she was still the same barren woman from day one. 

Amelia hadn’t been my first, second or even hundredth choice for a wife. My plan had always been to end up with Cassie. But my father, the manipulative bastard had twisted my hands all the way to his grave and saddled me with this joke of a woman. 

“Yes,” she said slowly and stepped forward unsteadily to place the slightly wrinkled paper on the table. My eyes narrowed on it, wondering how long she had had it. 

“I can’t believe I wasted three years of marriage on you with nothing to show for it,” I growled angrily. I didn’t like the feeling of her having the final trump card. I wanted to be the one to eventually find a way out of this prison and cast her away. 

Maybe it was my ego, but I didn’t like this. Not one bit. 

“The same c-can be said for me,” she stammered. 

She was always fucking stammering. Amelia could be best described as a mouse. She was small and timid and worthless. She had married me with the intention of spending my billions, but unfortunately for her, I was smarter than she had anticipated. 

With her wan blonde hair and dull colored eyes and pale skin. She was always in Ill fitting clothes and wasn’t tall, slim and leggy like Cassie. Instead she was pudgy and embarrassing. 

“Sign it, Lachie,” Cassie purred into my ear. “It’s what we’ve always wanted. We’ll finally be free of the bitch.” 

I didn’t need to be told twice. I dragged out my fountain pen and signed it then tossed it at her. She scrambled to the floor to pick it and with one last down trodden look, she limped out looking like a beggar. 

“Finally!” Cassie whooped, raising her glass in a toast, “we’re rid of her. We can finally have some real fun and you can stop playing hard to get.” 

I chuckled, but actually, my mind was on Amelia. What gave her the guts to divorce me? Had she met someone else? “Or maybe you’re not working as hard as you think you are for me.” 

She laughed, “I don’t need to work hard for you. You’re mine. You’ve always been mine. You’ve never belonged to that disgusting thing.” 

“You can say that again.” I told Cassie with a smirk. 

After Cassie left, telling me that she’d have all her things packed and moved in by the next day, I hurried to Amelia’s room and I don’t know what I had been expecting, but the emptiness of the room shocked me. 

I immediately called for the housekeeper, the gate security man and my driver.

“Where is my wife?” I gritted out. 

“She left two hours ago,” The guard said with a confused look. 

“Yeah, I drove her to her parents’ house.” My driver added. 

I dismissed them and called her father. 

“Hello.” I said immediately, “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes to get Amelia.” 

“What are you talking about?” Her father asked, sounding sleepy and confused, “Why would Amelia be here?” 

“My driver said he dropped her off at your house two hours ago,” I growled. 

“I can assure you that nobody has been here least of all my daughter. Don’t tell me you’ve lost your own wife?” He asked with mocking amusement that grated on my nerves. 

I hung up immediately and tossed the phone away. As far as I was concerned, Amelia had no friends in the city and she never left the house so I was assured she hadn’t met anyone new that I didn’t know about. 

All she did was sit around the house and eat till she was fat and shapeless, never thinking to keep herself fit so I could take her out to events. It was a good thing that Cassie was always so kind to come as my date to events. 

She also had no money, I made sure of it, so she couldn’t have gone far. 

I rang for my private detective and he picked on the first ring. With the amount I paid him, I expected him to. 

“Sir?” 

“My wife is missing. As of two hours ago, I want you to find her. She hasn’t gone far yet, but I want you to make sure she doesn’t leave the city. I want her back here, now!” 

“Do you know the names of her friends? We can start from there.” He asked. 

How was I supposed to know her friends’ names? I wasn’t even sure she had any real friends. She was too pathetic to keep anybody. 

“I don’t pay you all that money for you to ask me questions. Do your fucking job.” I hung up seething. 

I should have been pleased that she was gone, so why the hell was I pissed off instead? 

I turned back to her empty room frowning. There was no evidence at all that a person had lived here for three years and I suddenly thought how strange it was. There was no evidence that Amelia had lived in this house at all. 

Just as I made to walk out of her room, something on the bed caught my eye. I approached the bed wryly and picked up the white plastic. 

I stared at it unseeingly for a few moments. The two pink lines stared back at me, mocking me. 

My wife had lied to my face when she said she had nothing to show for our three years of marriage. She had run off like a thief in the night and I was going to do everything in my power to find her and my child that was growing in her womb.