Chapter 6

The damage is bigger than any of us could’ve guessed.

Evan cleaned out all my bank accounts. Every cent that belonged to my parents is now in his hands. He sold the shares of the company about a week ago and someone bought me out of the company, which means I have nothing. The company that my parents built from the ground up now belongs to someone else.

It was all done legally because he signed for me, and so I have no way of getting it all back.

“Because his actions have led to financial harm, we can legally challenge him and get him to give you back a portion of the money, but for that, we have to locate him. Do you have any idea of where he might be?”

That’s the question everyone keeps asking me. I don’t know where he is or where I might find him. The world is huge. He could be anywhere right now.

Anywhere.

The only thing the asshole didn’t sell was my family home. It’s still with me. Anthony says that I should sell it before he does, and overall, it’s the best decision because I need the money and can’t risk him selling it from wherever the hell he is.

Parting with my family’s home hurts me. It hurts so damn much. I grew up here and always imagined that my children would grow up here, too. A month after the wedding, the house is sold. I make a hefty amount from it, which will be enough for the time-being, but that’s about it.

I have nothing else. Just a car that was gifted to me on my eighteenth birthday.

I move into a small apartment that belongs to Anthony. He lets me live in it without charging me rent at all. He says I need to save the money until we find Evan.

It’s nice of him, and I’m very grateful that he didn’t stop supporting me when this happened like everyone else.

As soon as I lost everything and people heard about it, they cut me off from their lives. They turned their backs to me. Now, I’m poor and have nothing they could benefit from.

I didn’t know the world was so materialistic and cruel until now.

I’m sitting at the small round table in the kitchen of my new apartment. There’s a mug of ginger and lemon tea between my hands. It’s crazy how even this reminds me of Evan. The first day we met, we sat across from each other and drank coffee.

Now, here I am, alone, being punished for my naivety and stupidity.

I can’t say that I wasn’t warned. I’d received fair warnings from the people around me. I won’t even mention Anthony. He was the one who was always on my case. He seemed to hate Evan from the start. If I’d paid attention to him, I wouldn’t be in this situation.

I was so trusting to early in the relationship. I guess I can only blame this on the fact that I was really fragile after my parents died, and so I jumped into the arms of the first person who showed me an ounce of real affection.

At least I thought it was real.

He hasn’t contacted me or reached out. I’m ashamed to admit that even after everything I’d learnt, I still hoped that he would step forward and come clean. I imagined all sorts of things. Maybe he had been kidnapped and forced to do this. Hell, I even found myself thinking of alien abductions.

Ridiculous, yes.

And pitiful.

Evan is never going to show up and the worst part is that I have his name with me. I have to carry it forever because there’s no way I can divorce him. It’s like a curse I can’t get rid of and the longer I think about it, the worse it gets.

He really came into my life to ruin me and I’d opened the door wide for him. Hell, I even apologized for it.

A knock on my door interrupts my train of thought. I’m pretty sure it’s Anthony because he’s the only one who ever visits me. I get up from my seat and walk toward the front door. It only takes me a couple of strides to get there.

Anthony offers me a small smile and walks into the apartment carrying multiple bags of groceries. The sight of them makes my heart sink. I close the door.

“Brought you some things,” he says as he places them on the kitchen counter.

“Thanks,” I say, folding my arms. “You really don’t have to, Anthony.”

“I want to,” he insists. His vibrant eyes are on me. “Your parents asked me to take care of you, remember? That’s what I’m going to do until the day I lie. Let me do my job, okay?”

I say nothing else and simply start unpacking the groceries. Lately, I’m constantly on the verge of tears. Anything throws me right over the edge.

I am grateful to Anthony, but I don’t want to be a charity case.

I pack everything in its rightful place and then offer him tea, which he declines. We then sit across from each other and he watches me run my index finger around the rim of the cup.

After a handful of minutes have passed, he asks me, “Do you have a long-term plan? Or is it too soon to talk about such a thing?”

I meet his gaze. “I guess I never thought about it.”

“I hate to see you like this, Leo,” he says as he reaches across the table and places his hand above mine. “You’re stronger than this. I hate to know that that bastard has defeated you. I hate it more than you know.”

I shrug. I hate it, too, but my wounds are still too fresh. But recently, I’ve been feeling this anger toward him. It’s bottomless and cold. It’s the kind of anger that would give me the necessary courage to drive a stake into his heart and watch him die.

It’s the kind of anger that scares me.

“Do you have any intentions of finding him still?” he asks, sitting back in the white plastic kitchen chair. “Or do you want to move on? If you’ll take my advice, I advise that you forget about him. You can rebuild with what you have. You’re your father’s daughter. You’re beautiful and charismatic.”

I trace the little squares on the table cloth and think about what he’s said. Do I want to move on from this? A part of me feels like I never will. I then realize that I have no intentions whatsoever of leaving this buried.

At some point, I will look for Evan and I will find him.

I’ll make him pay for everything he put me through. For lying to me just to get his hands on my parents’ fortune.

I see him now vividly in my mind’s eye. I see him in his car, slowing it to a stop near the crash. He gets out of his car and nears that of my parents, and he’s checking to see if there are survivors. Then, his eye catches the bag of money and he opens the door and pulls it out. He opens it, checks it, and sees all the money inside.

He becomes torn. He can decide if he’ll take the bag of money and make a run for it or if he can gain more from it.

Evan finds my father’s wallet lying on the road. It must have slipped out of his pocket during the crash. It was in the money bag, after all, and I never questioned why until now.

He opens the wallet and sees my picture right there. He kind of gathers that I’m an only child but he decides to try his luck. He does his little investigation. He finds out I’m all alone after my parents die. I have all these assets and money, and I’m at my most fragile.

He decides to pay me a visit with the money. He sees how easy it is to win my heart and then asks me to marry him. We spend weeks together, kissing and getting to know each other. I’m head over heels in love with him and he’s there, biding his time and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Maybe he was prepared to dedicate more time on me but I made it so easy.

I was such a fool.

Thinking of it now, it went by so quickly. I had been so naive to trust a stranger. I don’t know what I was thinking. He made me feel good. Made me feel seen and validated my feelings, and I allowed myself to be manipulated.

I ruined my own life by putting it in his hands. His waiting, clawed hands.

Now, he’s somewhere out there in the world, enjoying the money my parents worked hard for, and I’m here, in a small apartment that will never be mine. Is it fair for him to go unscathed?

Not a chance in the fucking world.

“Leo,” Anthony says suddenly. I look up and meet his gaze. He’s watching me with a kind of scared look in his eyes. He then confirms this by saying, “You’re scaring me. What’s wrong?”

“I’ll never stop looking for him,” I reveal. “Not until the day I die.”

He leans forward. “I know you’re angry, but—”

“No,” I say, interrupting him. “You don’t know how I feel. You don’t have the slightest clue.”

As I say the word, I feel a roll of nausea. I get up and rush to the bathroom. I sink to my knees and throw up. I heave until there’s nothing left. Then, I sit beside the toilet, breathing more evenly as my stomach settles down.

There’s a knock on the door. Anthony. “Are you okay? Leo?”

“Yeah,” I answer as I start to get up. I wash my hands and stare at my reflection in the mirror. My skin looks pale and the dark circles around my eyes are prominent. I haven’t slept well in so long.

As I open the door of the bathroom, something occurs to me. It hits me all of a sudden with a force that could bring me to my knees.

My period. I haven’t had it in…goddess, how long?

Anthony is standing just there and he watches me. He asks me, worried, “What’s wrong, Leonora? Goddess, what is it?”

No, this can’t be.

“I…” I say before closing my eyes. He watches me with a bated breath. I finally get the words out. “I think I might be pregnant.”