Chapter 10 - The Husband Who Came Begging
Adrian called me seventeen times that night.
I answered none of them.
On the eighteenth attempt, Mason answered.
“Mr. Vale, all communication goes through counsel.”
Adrian apparently shouted loud enough that I heard his voice from across the room.
Mason ended the call.
Twenty minutes later, Adrian arrived outside the townhouse where Dad had taken me after the hospital.
Security stopped him at the gate.
He stayed there for nearly an hour.
Finally, I agreed to speak with him through the intercom camera.
His face appeared on the screen.
He looked terrible.
For the first time in years, he had not styled his hair.
His tie was missing.
Dark circles surrounded his eyes.
“Mara.”
I said nothing.
“Please.”
I nearly turned off the screen.
Then he said, “Vanessa lied to me.”
There it was.
The sentence I knew would come.
Not I betrayed you.
Not I hurt you.
Not I chose cruelty.
Vanessa lied to me.
I pressed the button.
“She didn't hold your hand.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“She didn't make twenty decisions for you.”
“I know.”
“She didn't make you throw divorce papers at me.”
“Mara, please.”
His voice broke.
“I was angry.”
“You were comfortable.”
He looked confused.
I continued.
“You were comfortable believing the worst about me because it made what you wanted to do easier.”
“That isn't true.”
“You wanted Vanessa.”
“You wanted a child.”
“You wanted my assets.”
“You wanted your company.”
“And you wanted me to disappear without forcing you to admit what kind of man that made you.”
Adrian gripped the gate.
“I never wanted you hurt.”
I stared at the screen.
“Then what did you think you were doing?”
He had no answer.
Several seconds passed.
Then his voice dropped.
“I can fix this.”
“No.”
“I’ll fire Vanessa.”
I almost laughed.
“She doesn't work for you.”
“I’ll remove her from my life.”
“That won't change mine.”
“I’ll sign whatever you want.”
“That’s what you wanted from me.”
He flinched.
“Mara.”
For one moment, I remembered our wedding.
Adrian standing beneath white roses.
His hands shaking slightly as he read his vows.
I believed every word.
Maybe he had too.
People sometimes imagine monsters arrive fully formed.
They do not.
Sometimes they arrive as people you love who keep making one selfish choice after another until the person you loved has disappeared.
“I loved you.”
I said it because I needed to hear it myself.
Adrian’s eyes filled with hope.
Then I finished.
“But I do not love the man standing at that gate.”
His face collapsed.
“I can become better.”
“Maybe.”
I looked at him.
“But you will not practice becoming better on me.”
I turned off the screen.
The next morning, the board placed Adrian on administrative leave pending investigation.
For the first time since he became CEO, he lost access to Vale Tower.
He also lost authority over corporate accounts.
Vanessa disappeared.
Her apartment was empty.
Her primary phone went directly to voicemail.
Caleb could not reach her.
Then Mason received an alert.
Someone had attempted to transfer $1.8 million from Vesper Advisory to an account in the Cayman Islands.
The bank stopped it.
The transfer request had been initiated thirty-six minutes earlier.
My father looked at the transaction location.
“She hasn’t left the country.”
“How do you know?”
“The login came from a private terminal.”
“Where?”
He turned the screen toward me.
Vale Industries’ private aviation hangar.
May you like
Vanessa was trying to run.
And she was not running alone.
