A Divorce He Regrets

Chapter 197:

His voice crackled through the phone. “Negative. All clear on both ends.” A sigh of relief left me, but it didn’t last long. Nathan… Where the hell was he? He surely heard about Adelaide’s arrest. His disappearance couldn’t just be a coincidence—it was far too suspicious. It reeked of guilt. But how the hell had he vanished so cleanly?

I leaned back in my seat, frustration gnawing at me. The weight of it all pressed in, suffocating. Not wanting to face my mother’s glare or my sister’s worry, I made a snap decision. I wasn’t going home tonight. I dialed Raina’s number.

“Hey,” I said when she picked up, keeping my tone light. “Anything you want? I’m grabbing something on the way over.”

“Pizza,” she replied, her voice soft but clear. “A whole bunch of pizza.”

I smiled to myself, a rare, genuine smile that felt too big for the situation. “Pizza it is,” I said, hanging up.

When I got to her apartment, I had an armful of pizza boxes, the scent of melted cheese and pepperoni wafting out as soon as I opened the door. Raina was sitting on the couch, scrolling through her phone.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said when she saw how much I brought. “You think I’m going to eat all of that?”

“Watch me,” I teased, setting the boxes down on the coffee table. “I thought you said you were craving pizza.”

She laughed, shaking her head, but I could see the warmth in her eyes, the way her lips curled up. It was enough to make my chest tighten. We sat there, stuffing our faces, the quiet rhythm of eating filling the space between us.

Just as I took a bite, my phone buzzed. I glanced at the screen. It was my agent again.

I gave Raina a look, excusing myself with a quick tilt of my head. “One second.”

I answered the call, my heart already picking up speed. “What is it?”

𝘾𝙝𝙚𝙘𝙠 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙩 𝙜ⱥ𝗅𝗇𝗈ν𝖊𝗅𝘀﹒ⅽ𝗼𝗺

“Bad news,” the agent said. “Eliza’s escaped from prison.”

My blood ran cold. “How? When?”

ELIZA

There was one place in particular that Dominic would go to after work. It wasn’t flashy, but it had just the right balance of privacy and exclusiveness for him to meet clients, hold casual discussions, or simply unwind before heading home. More often than not, he would pick up something on his way out for his pathetic little wife, playing the role of doting husband.

I smiled to myself, my fingers drumming lightly against the steering wheel as I watched from across the street. The familiarity of his routine made him predictable. Easy to track. If Alex didn’t want me, then fine. I’d make Dominic want me. He was the bigger prize anyway—more money, more influence. And unlike Alex, he wasn’t tangled up in some stupid emotional mess with Raina.

I leaned back in my seat, the reflections of the streetlights flickering across my face mask. It still smarted, that memory of Alex finding out the truth about Liam—about me poisoning that little, stubborn brat who simply would not die. I hadn’t expected Vanessa to betray me, not in the way she did. Stupid, dense girl. She had one job.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter, the leather creaking softly under my grip. Vanessa wasn’t my biggest problem anymore. I had other things to focus on, like getting to Dominic before he disappeared into his bubble of domestic bliss.

My mind wandered for a moment to the prison from which I had escaped. It was a cesspool of desperation and stupidity, the kind of place that could crush someone if they weren’t strong enough. Thankfully, I was.

The best part of the prison was that the women weren’t exactly bright. Most of them were too busy plotting against each other to pay attention to what I was doing. Then there was her. That stud who thought I was hers the moment she saw me.noveldrama

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