Semua Bab THE WIFE YOU LEFT: Bab 221 - Bab 230

AVERY’S POV:My eyes locked onto her.“Esmeraya,” I said, steady and cold. “How nice of you to join us. I never imagined you’d grow the audacity to pull something like this off.”Her lips curved into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.“Always so composed,” she said, like it was a curse. “Let’s see if that composure holds when I present you with Baron’s body. Did you like the gift I sent ahead? I thought the head alone would be enough to get your attention.”Baron.My stomach lurched. The bile burned the back of my throat, but I didn’t show how this affected me. I couldn’t. Not now.This bitch killed him.“I had an interesting conversation with one of your doctors,” I said, ignoring the fire clawing its way up my chest. “Apparently... you’re not the real Esmeraya. Not Valerio’s daughter. You’re just a nameless, powerless little fraud who saw a window and slipped through it. You stole a face—one that could buy you respect, money, and a seat at the table. Strip that mask away, and what’

AVERY’S POV:Thaddeus and I didn’t speak much during the ride. He knew better than to fill the silence when my thoughts were unraveling in all directions—when I was bleeding from places no stitches could reach.My blood-streaked dress clung to my skin, black on black, sticky and cold. If anyone had seen the stains under the headlights, they would’ve screamed. But black was mercy. It concealed what my heart screamed.By the time we pulled up to the psychiatric hospital, the place had fallen into that eerie nighttime hush. Most of the staff were either gone for the day or worn down to their bones, shuffling from corridor to corridor with slow, tired feet. The patients, too, were subdued—some muttering softly to themselves, others sleeping with haunted faces pressed to narrow pillows.I stepped out of the car, ignoring the cold. My heels clicked on the pavement, the loudest sound to be heard.It took all of two seconds before the front guard stiffened, squinting at me. “Ma’am—excuse me,

AXEL’S POV:I didn’t think life could ever feel this whole again. Life finally made sense again. It was just… peace. Familiar. Safe.“Sweetness, what’s wrong? You haven’t touched your food yet,” my mother said, her voice the soft lullaby I remembered from boyhood. She reached across the table and smoothed back a strand of my hair with motherly affection. Just the way she used to when I was a boy—like I was still her little miracle.“You’ve been doing that a lot lately,” she said with a warm smile, her hand cupping my cheek briefly before she settled back in her seat.“Don’t you like it, son?” my father added, slicing a portion of his salmon and placing it on my plate with his usual charm. “Your mother used the same marinade I taught her back in '93. Best damn recipe we ever made.”I smiled. Really smiled. Because it felt like I was home again. Like the past—every bit of blood, betrayal, and pain—was just a nightmare I’d woken up from.This… this was the dream worth living in.“Don’t t

AXEL’S POV:"Daddy…"A voice—faint, like a whisper caught in the wind—tugged at me.It belonged to Sea.I blinked. My chest rose with difficulty, breath shallow, muscles groaning with each motion. I didn’t know where I was, but her voice was real. It had to be."Sea!" I rasped, pushing myself up.Pain clawed through my body, but I ignored it. My legs carried me forward, uneven, unstable, but driven. The walls around me warped and stretched, colors bleeding into each other like a dream slipping into a nightmare.Then I saw it.A door.Slightly open, golden light spilling from the edges—warm, unnatural. I reached for it, my fingers trembling as they met the cold brass handle.I pushed it open fully—and the brightness exploded.A flash, like the sun itself had burst in front of me.I flinched, covering my face with my arms."Sea!" I called out again, but the moment my foot crossed the threshold, it felt like falling.I hit the ground hard, my palm slapping stone.The light dimmed, and su

AVERY’S POV:I should’ve felt fear watching her—Akira, elevated slightly off the ground, her hands glowing as she drained the breath from my husband’s lungs.But what I felt instead was… something bitterer.Pity.For a moment, I saw the woman she once was—the outcast, the sister left behind, the lover betrayed, the mother robbed. That kind of agony could ruin anyone.But the pity didn’t last.Because it was quickly swallowed whole by everything she had made me. A murderer. A monster. A woman with blood on her hands and darkness clinging to her soul like it was perfume. Akira had stripped me down to the point I didn’t even recognize myself anymore.I’d mourn later. Right now, Axel was dying.I struggled against the invisible force pinning me down. My nails scraped stone. I screamed his name "Axel!" but I couldn’t move.Then I heard footsteps making me look forward. Ryan.He stood slowly from the shadows like something waking from a nightmare.My stomach dropped. “Oh, could this get an