All Chapters of The Quiet Burn: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The lawyer's brisk, businesslike voice came through the phone. "Mr. Tatham, under normal procedures, the process will take at least two weeks.""That's too slow. I'll pay you double. Get this done as quickly as possible. I need the divorce papers before the end of the month," Fredrick said.The lawyer sounded surprised but quickly recovered. "Understood. I'll handle it as soon as possible."Fredrick ended the call and walked over to the large wedding photo that hung in the living room. In the photo, Roxanne wore a pure white wedding dress, her eyes full of happiness and love. He stood behind her with his arms around her, a broad smile on his handsome face.That was when they had been most in love, a time he had once believed would last forever.Fredrick reached out and lightly brushed his fingers across the cold frame, then across the photograph of his younger self, whose heart and eyes had once held nothing but Roxanne.In high school, Roxanne had been the school's notorious tyr

Fredrick wasn't the least bit surprised. He didn't even bother to look at her again. Instead, he simply gestured to the agent. "Go ahead and take the photos."The young agent looked as though she'd just been granted a pardon. With her head down and camera in hand, she hurried into the bedroom, snapped a few photos of the key areas, and fled the suffocating apartment as if her life depended on it."Mr. Tatham, I'll find a buyer as soon as possible," she called from the doorway before racing down the stairs.Fredrick was about to leave as well when Roxanne caught up to him, with Jaxon close behind her, and grabbed his wrist. "Freddy, it's already past noon. Since we're all here anyway, why don't we have lunch together? Just the three of us."The corners of Fredrick's mouth twitched. He almost laughed aloud. 'You want your own husband to sit down and share a meal with your lover? Roxanne, you really know how to humiliate a man.'He was about to refuse, his voice already cold, when a

Roxanne did not visit again over the next several days.Fredrick remained alone in the hospital, quietly recovering.The nurses occasionally gossiped about how attentive Roxanne was to Jaxon in the VIP room, catering to his every whim.Fredrick listened without a word, his expression unreadable. His physical wounds slowly healed, but the emptiness in his chest only deepened, growing colder with each passing day.On the day of his discharge, he took a taxi home.As they passed an upscale club, he suddenly asked the driver to pull over. "Here's fine."He stepped out and looked up at the club's glittering sign.Roxanne often frequented places like that to entertain business associates, but Fredrick had never accompanied her. He had no taste for the noise or the empty pleasantries.Yet today, for reasons he couldn't explain, he walked inside.Lights flashed, and music thundered through the club. He found a quiet booth tucked away at the back and ordered a bottle of hard liquor.H

Fredrick's pupils contracted sharply. He stared at her in disbelief, his blood running cold. "Roxanne! You wouldn't dare."Her eyes flashed with malice. She stepped forward, and before Fredrick could react, she raised her hand and struck the side of his neck with the edge of her palm. "Watch me."Pain shot through him as darkness engulfed his vision. Before he could even cry out, his body went limp, and he collapsed unconscious.…When Fredrick regained consciousness, he found himself lying in the middle of a street.Cold concrete pressed against his body. People hurried past him on every side, and the surrounding noise assaulted his ears.He braced his arms against the ground and struggled to sit up, but his entire body felt drained of strength, and his head throbbed painfully.Then he noticed the photographs scattered across the pavement.White sheets of paper littered the street, and every gust of wind carried them farther. Curious passersby stopped to pick them up, pointing

Roxanne tightened her grip on the cold divorce certificate until her knuckles turned white and her fingers dug into her palm.She stared at the villa that still burned before her. She had designed the home for Fredrick herself, and every tile bore the promise of a love that would last forever.Now the flames were reducing those promises to ash, along with three years of self-deception.…Roxanne spent three days holed up in a hotel suite. Empty bottles littered the floor, and the curtains remained tightly drawn, erasing all distinction between day and night.She lay sprawled across the sofa, her collar crooked, her face sickly pale, and her eyes red-rimmed. The alcohol numbed her senses, but it could not banish the figure in sapphire blue that haunted her thoughts.She had lost all sense of time when the doorbell rang.She made no move to answer it until Jaxon's trembling voice came through the door. "Roxy, it's me."She closed her eyes, dragged herself off the sofa, and stumbl