All Chapters of Package Delivered Safe, Wife Left Behind: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

“Evening, Donna. The Don got back about half an hour ago.”The gate guard nodded as he swiped the access card. I nodded back, silent.The front door swung open before I could turn the handle. Donovan stood in the doorway.“You’re back,” he said, surprise in his voice.“Yep.”“What time did you land?”“Three-forty.”His brow lifted. “I thought you were coming tomorrow.”I held his gaze, slow and steady. “I sent you the flight details.”“Did you?” He frowned slightly. “Things have been crazy. Must’ve missed it.”“Crazy with what?”“Sera’s Vegas book got hit with a fine. She was upset. I stayed to smooth things over.”He took my carry-on and set it against the wall, then turned back toward the living room. “I would’ve picked you up if I’d known.”“You were busy picking up Seraphina.”“That’s different.” He took a sip of bourbon, his tone easy. “Sera’s young. Doesn’t know how to handle pressure from rival crews. You’re experienced, Vi. You always make it home.”Ironic. Seraphina alone wa

Chapter 2

“I need to see a doctor today.”It was 8 a.m. Donovan stood by the front door, headed for the family’s downtown office.“A doctor? What’s wrong?”“My neck. It’s still killing me.”“I’ll drive you,” he said easily. “Just need to make a quick stop at the Brooklyn warehouse first. A confidential drop for Sera. Twenty minutes, tops. Won’t miss your appointment.”“Can you take me first?”“That drop can’t sit. Too many eyes around right now. All the drivers are on secured details.” His voice sharpened, a hard edge creeping into his tone.“It’s twenty minutes, Vi. In and out.”Two hours passed. He didn’t come back.I called. It rang six times before he picked up. The background was crisp, unmistakable: a Fifth Avenue boutique.“Sera wanted to pick out gifts for a client,” he said.“You said you’d drive me.”“Reschedule it. It’s just neck pain. I can’t leave her here. You know how it is.”I sat alone in the quiet of the house. The silence felt heavier than the pain.“Forget it. Enjoy your d

Chapter 3

“Evening, Donna.”Seraphina stood in the doorway, a grocery bag in her hand. Donovan walked in right behind her, moving through the foyer as if they both belonged there.“Sera’s cooking tonight,” he said, glancing at me. “Just sit back. Relax.”I stayed on the living room sofa, watching her walk into my kitchen like it was hers. She opened the pantry without hesitation.She knew every shelf, every spice, every pan. It was the muscle memory of someone who’d done this countless times.“Did you rearrange things, Donna?” she called out, half amused. “Everything’s in a different spot.”“I tidied up last week.”“Oh, okay...Wait, there it is. Donovan, can you grab the stockpot for me? It’s too high.”He was already beside her before she finished speaking. They moved around each other in the close space like a couple who’d shared a kitchen for years, while I sat like a guest in my own home.Seraphina leaned out, a gentle smile on her face. “Donovan mentioned your neck’s been hurting. Is it

Chapter 4

06:00 a.m. Saturday.I made breakfast the same way I used to when we were first married.He stumbled out of the bedroom, rubbing sleep from his eyes, and went still at the sight of the table.“You’re up early.”“Couldn’t sleep.”“Right. Sera texted last night. Wants to throw a big party for closing that construction deal. You in?”A victory party.They might as well make it a farewell.It was always the same with her.Last year, on Donovan’s birthday, I’d flown fourteen hours back from Dubai with a custom, limited-edition cigar case, the one he’d talked about for months. I walked into the house, and the place was done up. Balloons. A cake. And the same cigar case, already sitting there, from Seraphina.He’d glanced at mine and said, “Sera already got me one. Just leave yours on the bar.”It sat there for three days before I threw it out.“Whatever you want,” I said.“Cool. I’ll work it out with her.” He took a sip of coffee, then paused. “Oh, and she’s looking at a new Bentley today.

Chapter 5

Thirty missed calls. All from Donovan.WhatsApp notifications stacked up, unread, his name burning a hole in the screen.His texts swung from disbelief to rage, demands, threats, until the final, hollow message pinged as my plane landed: “You left. You’re actually gone.”I locked the phone and slipped it into my pocket. For the first time in four years, the air didn’t smell like gunpowder and bourbon and regret.My phone rang again before I made it to the car Marshall had sent. It was Luna."Vi," her voice was tight, "he’s losing his mind." "Who is it?""Donovan. He tore the house apart, then showed up at the family downtown office and your company screaming for your whereabouts. Marshall told him you’d finalized the permanent Dubai transfer, and he about put a bullet through the wall. He’s called me eight times in the last two hours."Funny, that he was this panicked now.112 transoceanic flights, every single one of them alone. A herniated disc in my neck that could leave me part

Chapter 6

Three days in Dubai, and my phone hadn’t stopped buzzing.I’d started at the new office that morning. The team was polite, sharp, no one knew I was the ex-Donna of the Valentino family.It was perfect.My phone buzzed at lunch, Luna’s name popping up."Vi, he went to the airport today."I set my fork down, my stomach turning. "The airport? Why?""He tracked down every driver that picked you up from JFK over the last four years. He’s been calling them one by one."It wasn’t hard for the Valentino family to track down those drivers in New York. "How many did he get through?""Half of them, maybe. A driver remembered you. Said he picked you up half a dozen times, always 4 AM, always alone. Said one time you got in the car with a gash on your hand, told him you’d caught it on a suitcase zipper."It wasn’t a suitcase zipper.It was a rival crew’s enforcer, trying to grab my carry-on, the one with the family’s offshore account ledgers inside. The zipper had sliced my palm open when I’d w

Chapter 7

"Donna, are you okay? Donovan’s a mess. I’m so worried about him."Four days in Dubai, and the message came through from Seraphina.Of course she was worried about him.The only thing she cared about was that her precious Don was falling apart, and that it was inconveniencing her.I typed back, my tone flat. “I’m fine. Thank you for asking.”She replied instantly.“Donna, is there some kind of misunderstanding between you two? He hasn’t picked me up from a single flight this week. He barely answers my calls.”Ah. There it was.The problem wasn’t that our marriage was over. It wasn’t that I’d left, that Donovan was broken. It was that he’d stopped dropping everything to cater to her.“He’s been a little busy lately,” I replied.“Donna, I know I shouldn’t say this,” she sent a long paragraph, “he cares about you so much. He’s just too soft-hearted, he can’t say no to anyone. You can’t leave him just because he’s been kind to me. We’re just colleagues. It’s not worth throwing your marr

Chapter 8

"Excuse me, is Ms. Viola Valentino on duty today?"I heard his voice through the glass front of the crew lounge, and my blood ran cold.Donovan. He’d found me.I'd told him never to come here. He'd come anyway.He looked terrible. Thinner, like he hadn’t slept in a week, stubble covering his jaw, dark circles under his eyes. He clutched a crumpled paper bag in one hand.My colleague glanced over at me, and I shook my head once."Ms. Valentino is not on duty today.""Not on duty?" His voice cracked. "Do you know when she’ll be back on duty?""I’m afraid I can’t share that. Would you like to leave something for her?"He stood there for a long time, silent. Then he pulled something out of the bag."Just… give this to her. Please."He left.My colleague brought it over a minute later. A custom memory foam massage cushion. Just plain, soft, exactly the kind I’d asked him for four years ago, when I’d told him the long flights were killing my back.He’d told me it was a weak ask. A wast

Chapter 9

"He really sat there for a week?"I got back to the Dubai crew base after a week of back-to-back international flights.My colleague stood in my office doorway, eyes wide. "Security said he sat in the lobby every day for almost a week, from opening until closing time."But today he was gone.At noon, my colleague dropped a thick envelope on my desk. The top page was a handwritten note, his handwriting tight, shaky.I put this together over the last two days. You need to see it.Beneath it was a stack of printed paper. A table, hand-drawn, titled: Viola’s Flight Log.Every single one of my 112 flights. Date, flight number, departure time, landing time, all pulled from the airline records he’d strong-armed out of the company.And in the last column, every single time, what he’d been doing while I was in the air.Fifty of them, he was picking Seraphina up from the airport. The other sixty-two, he was at her apartment, handling her problems, sleeping, anything but waiting for his wife

Chapter 10

Even after a few days of bed rest, the last flight had left me in crippling pain. That’s when I made the final decision to leave the job I’d loved for ten years."Viola! Package for you, from New York!" My colleagues said. I opened the package.The first thing on top was the divorce papers.The final page. His signature was scrawled in the bottom right corner, ink heavy.Beneath the envelope, the rest of the box was filled with things.Our wedding photo, perfectly protected. A note was tucked into the frame:You can keep this. Throw it away, burn it, whatever you want. But no matter what, this was the best day of my life.I pulled the divorce papers out, called my lawyer, and sent them over to finalize. Four years of marriage. Over.My phone rang. It was Luna."Viola," her voice was soft, worried. "Did you really finalize the divorce with Donovan?"“Yep.”"Viola, honey, are you good now?""Fine. He left me first. Four years ago, when he chose Seraphina over me, over and over again

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP