The box slipped out of his grip and landed on the table with a dull thud. His heart trembled, and so did his hands. He picked up the divorce certificate that had spilled out of the box.
"She knew," he whispered in a daze. "She already knew."
The world seed to tilt on its axis.
His gaze fell on the note she had left behind. He unfolded it and started reading...
’Noah. By the ti you read this, I will be gone. I really loved you, trusted you, and dread of having a peaceful life with you. I thought I was the luckiest woman in the world. But you took my love for granted and deceived . You broke my heart.’
"No..." Noah couldn’t stop his tears from falling. "I never ant to hurt you... You have to believe ..."
He continued reading with tears in his eyes.
’You chose to lie to and made sign the divorce papers secretly without my knowledge. You didn’t have to do any of this. You could have simply told that you didn’t love . I would have walked away without hesitation.’
Noah shook his head. "That’s not true. I do love you. I never ant to let you go. Please..."
’I’ll free you from all the responsibilities you feel toward . Your family has already repaid whatever they owed my father. You don’t have to carry the burden any longer. You can be with Tessa now. I wish you a happy life.’
He sank into the chair, clutching the note against his chest. "Elena, I am sorry..."
His voice broke. Guilt consud him from within. The burden of his mistake weighed heavily on him until he couldn’t breathe.
His gaze shifted to the divorce agreent. He rembered the day he had tricked her into signing it.
Elena had been busy reviewing paperwork for a newly secured project. She had not paid much attention to the file he had handed her for her signature.
’What is this?’ she had asked.
’Property docunts,’ he had answered casually. ’I’m interested in a property. I thought I’d buy that. I want to register under both our nas. I have already signed the docunts. Now I need your signature.’
’Okay, as you wish.’
She had signed the docunts without hesitation. She had trusted him so much that she had not even checked the contents.
Noah had smiled and leaned down to kiss her head. ’I’ll always take care of you and protect you.’
At the ti, Noah had thought about how gullible she was. It was so easy to fool her. And now, he regretted it. He hated himself for it.
The person he had promised to protect was the very person he had hurt the most.
"I didn’t an to leave you. I never wanted to. The divorce was only on paper. In my heart, you were the wife I chose, the daughter-in-law of this family."
Tears of desperation filled his eyes. "Even after the divorce, I kept you by my side. Doesn’t that prove I never wanted to let you go? Why did you leave ?"
Then sothing inside the box caught his attention.
A USB drive.
"What is it?"
He held it up and looked at it with a slight frown on his brow. Curiosity piqued in his heart. The next mont, he pulled his laptop closer and inserted the drive.
The first video began playing.
It was footage from the banquet that night.
Noah narrowed his eyes when he saw Tessa approaching Elena.
Then the scene unfolded.
Tessa deliberately threw herself backward. Elena had not touched her.
His expression changed when he realized Tessa had lied and frad her.
The video continued.
He watched everyone bla her, curse her, and humiliate her. Everyone ignored her deliberately. Elena had been the last person to leave the banquet hall.
His fists tightened until his knuckles turned white. Now, he understood why Elena had been upset with him.
He rembered telling her to co on her own. He knew Elena couldn’t drive.
She had been terrified of driving ever since her father’s fatal accident. Because she thought she would also die, just like her father.
Yet despite knowing all that, he had left her alone. What shocked him even more was that she hadn’t called any of the Sinclair family drivers.
Had she already given up on him at the ti?
The thought terrified him. He suspected Tessa might have said sothing to her.
Taking a deep breath, he clicked on the next video.
His heart sank all at once.
The footage showed Elena tied to a chair in a dusty, worn-out house.
He instinctively grabbed the laptop screen as if he wanted to go inside and pull her out.
Elena struggled and cried for help desperately. The tears in her eyes, her helpless cries, broke sothing inside him.
Then two n appeared on the screen, and his blood ran cold.
"What did they do to her?"
Before he could even process anything, a man started hitting her.
"No..." He wanted to stop the torture. He wanted to kill those n with his own hands, but what he could do was watch everything helplessly.
The man slapped her and punched her repeatedly without rcy. He didn’t stop until she stopped moving.
’I had not recovered fully yet when those people kidnapped and tried to kill .’
Elena’s words from the press conference rang inside his head.
Tears stread down his face. He reached out and caressed her frozen, battered face on the screen.
"Why didn’t you tell anything about this? Was I already soone you couldn’t rely on anymore?"
His expression changed the next mont. His jaw set hard as he fought to keep his temper in check.
"Whoever hurt you, I’ll make them pay."
He moved to the next video.
This ti, the kidnappers were kneeling on the ground, begging for rcy.
"Please let us go," one man said. "We were only following orders."
"Soone paid us," said the other one. "Soone wanted her dead."
"Who?" a voice demanded. "Tell the na."
The two n exchanged frightened glances.
A mont later, the first man said, "It’s Tessa Morgan. She paid us to do this."
Noah went completely still. He stared at the screen, thunderstruck. The revelation left him speechless.
For several long monts, he couldn’t think of anything properly.
The woman he loved, cherished, and protected actually hurt Elena.
"Tessa wants Elena dead," he murmured in a daze.
The shock and disbelief soon transford into violent rage. His jaw set like stone.
"I warned you to stay away from Elena. But you dared to ss with her, even hiring goons to kill her."
His hands stiffened with rage. "You will pay for this."
The phone rang again, and Evan’s na flashed across the screen.
"Hello." His tone was sharp, and his muscles were stiff.
"I checked," ca Evan’s strained voice. "I found the reporter who first published the photographs. After so questioning, she confessed."
Noah straightened in his seat. His fingers tightened around the phone. "What did you find?"
"Soone sent her the photographs," replied Evan. "And that person is..." He paused for a mont, then added grimly, "Tessa."
"What?" Noah exclaid and jumped to his feet. "You must be mistaken."
Evan let out a weary sigh. "I’ll send you the screenshots of the ssages. Check yourself."
As soon as the call ended, Noah’s phone vibrated. He opened the ssages one by one.
A muscle tickled in his jaw.
The screenshots clearly showed the photographs being sent from Tessa’s number.
The last shred of doubt vanished from his mind.
"Tessa," he muttered through his gritted teeth.
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