Chapter 7
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My heart dropped. Like a stone. Straight to the pit of something I didn’t even know I still
had.
Gone?
I chuckled darkly and leaned back in my seat, swirling the amber scotch in my glass like it was the punchline of some cosmic joke.
“Nice prank, Rosa,” I said into the phone, still grinning like the devil himself. “She’s trying to mess with me, huh?”
There was a pause on the other end.
“No, sir,” Rosa replied nervously. “I mean it. Miss Amelia… she’s gone. She boarded a plane. She hasn’t been here for a week.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sure. Gone. Right. And the sun sets in the east now too? Just do what I said, Rosa. No food. No maids. No sympathy. She’ll crack. And when she does, I want her on her knees telling Caroline she’s sorry. Not a minute before.”
“Yes, sir,” she said softly, and I hung up.
Phone hit the table with a satisfying clunk, and I leaned forward, amused. Caroline walked into the suite wearing a silk wrap and that smug little smile she always wore after manipulating someone into hell.
She slid onto the arm of my chair like she belonged there. “Is Amelia finally ready to apologize to me?” she asked, tilting her head sweetly. “Because I’m such a generous soul, you know. I’m willing to forgive her. If she begs.”
I smirked and rested my hand on her thigh. “She’s being stubborn again. But don’t worry–I told the maid not to feed her. Let her sit in that pretty little prison of hers until she’s ready to kiss the ring.”
Caroline giggled, pleased. “Thank you for always choosing me, Favio. Even when she was throwing herself down stairs.”
I chuckled and kissed the corner of her mouth. “You’re the only one who plays the game right, baby.”
She purred and leaned in, but I was already thinking ahead. Amelia wouldn’t last. She never did. She could slam doors, cry blood, threaten fire and revenge–she always came back.
Always.
A week passed.
Caroline and I returned to the penthouse after our little island getaway, and I was in a good mood. Relaxed. Tan. Ready to put Amelia back in line and give her that other penthouse she could sulk in like some drama queen.
I picked up my phone and dialed her. When she didn’t answer, I called again. Nothing.
Finally ennnnnd “Amalin I know you’re still thorn
པཔམཔལ པས་པ]– .!“U
I’m not in the
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Finally, I snapped, “Amelia. I know you’re still there. Quit playing games. I’m not in the mood. My driver’s waiting downstairs. Get your ass to the other penthouse already, or I’ll drag you there myself.”
I ended the call and turned–only to see Rosa and two other maids standing stiff in the hallway.
Rosa wrung her hands nervously. “Sir… Miss Amelia is really gone. She left last week. She hasn’t been here.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Gone where?”
“We don’t know, sir. She… took all her things. Every last one.”
I didn’t believe it.
I shoved past them, stormed into her bedroom, ripped open the closet doors–empty.
Drawers? Empty.
Suitcase? Gone.
The scent of her perfume still lingered, like a ghost clinging to silk. My jaw clenched. Fists balled at my sides.
“How dare you leave…” I muttered, teeth grinding together. “Without my consent.”
I called my mother. Mrs. Cunningham didn’t just raise me–she engineered me. If there was one person who could make a problem disappear without blinking, it was her.
She answered on the first ring, crisp as ever. “Hello, darling. Finally back from vacation?”
“I am,” I muttered, leaning back against my office desk, phone pressed to my ear. “And you’ll never guess what I found out the minute I walked in–Amelia’s gone. Packed up. Disappeared. Left like a damn thief.”
Mother sounded entirely unbothered. “Well, yes. Of course she’s gone. Isn’t that what you wanted? Now you can marry Caroline without complications.”
I froze, my brow twitching. “I never signed the divorce papers, Mother.”
A pause.
Then her voice came smooth, sharp. “Yes, you did.”
I frowned, “No. I didn’t.”
“Oh, darling,” she said with a patronizing laugh, like she was talking to a confused child. “You remember that document I had you sign last month? You didn’t read it–of course you didn’t. It was your divorce from Amelia. All done. And Amelia’s signature? I tricked her into signing that too.”
I straightened. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I told her it was a contract from Winslock Holdings. She believed me. She signed all five. pages without even blinking. The final page was your divorce. It’s legal. It’s done.”
My jaw clenched. “You forged a contract?” I snapped.
“I protected our legacy,” she said firmly. “Caroline’s from the Winslock bloodline too.
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Caroline is made’s con, the row the store in male conny & now–bem out, bankrupt, and deed. We done can that were
ringtee Imers
I stared at the floor for a long OMAX, 60 to my “smers ask you for money?ested slowly, my volks tow
“She tried to,” Myer said with a soot “Sas di gave her a billion, so desse never look back. Though the coté strede me we some Welsh
Y
“Of course not” she said with a Vevo, “wes will be. Whet she wavaly sys decoys and that divores form. I made sus of a lotustise of her ow
1 let out a breath and hung up without soother word, I didn’t ass to say thank you She
I sat there in stence, stening of the empy gees on my desk I should stop what the mos gone Emesis was out of my Ms. My mother did what she always ad bonded the mess didn’t want to look at
I should’ve been odebrating But for soms demo reeson, all I could see in my head wee Amadad’s face then she sp blood of me
The women was poison. Voious Unruly Violent
She was also ins
And now she was out there along? No. Amelia couldn’t hands that Not the Cack Net thunderstore Not silence. She was scared of being alone, Couldn’t even sleep withost the damn hallway
She’d come bet
She sways did
on
Maybe not tomorrow Maybe not the next day
But give it five days. Tops. She’d be at my door again. Crying. Screaming Apologizing Beyping me to let her in
I smirked. She could run halfway across the world, but media was stol mins
She just had realized it yet
