“You Were Just A Convenient Scapegoat.”
The walls of the interrogation room blur around me. The fluorescent lights overhead are too bright, the air too thin.
I can’t feel my hands or my feet, nor can I feel the slow, rhythmic pounding of my heart that doesn’t feel like my own anymore because I was lost and dreaming.
It can’t be real.
My eyes didn’t leave Ronan, the divorce papers sitting in front of me say otherwise.
I force my head up, my breathing ragged and uneven.
And there he is.
Ronan Vale Lancaster.
My husband.
The man I loved more than anything, the man I trusted, chose, and gave everything up for.
He stands across the table, pristine as ever. His navy blue suit was crisp, not a wrinkle in sight, his hands resting casu- ally in his pockets, and his gaze calm, unreadable.
He didn’t ask if I was okay, nor did he touch me. Ronan doesn’t even look at the cuffs cutting into my wrists.
“Sign the papers, Zyrah. It’s over.”
His voice was calm and unmoved, like this is nothing like I’m nothing.
I stare at him, my vision tunneling, my lungs squeezing shut; the shock I felt allowed the tears to flow down unend- ingly.
I open my mouth to speak but nothing comes out.
“Ronan,” I whisper, my throat raw and aching. “I, I don’t understand.”
I try to move forward, but the cuffs dig into my skin. A sharp pain snaps up my arms, but I barely feel it, because the pain in my chest is so much worse.
“You know I didn’t do this,” I pleaded, shaking my head violently. “You know me. You know I would never… ”
“It doesn’t matter, Zyrah.” He cut me pretty quickly; his voice was sharp and final like a door slamming shut.
I flinch, my whole body trembling.
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15:30
“It doesn’t…” My voice breaks. “Ronan, this is my life. They’re accusing me of something I didn’t do! And you’re standing there acting like… ”
A tear slips down my check, but he doesn’t react, blink, or shift.
“Please.” I swallow the sun rising in my throat, pride be damned. “Please, tell me this is a mistake. Tell me you didn’
t…
“1
“Sign the papers, Zyrah,” he cuts me off again, irritation in his voice as he pushes the pen toward me.
My fingers curl into fists.
My heart slams into my ribs, begging me to wake up.
To realize this is all a nightmare.
That any second now, he’ll laugh and say it was a joke, that any second now, he’ll touch me, hold me, and tell me he would never do this, but he didn’t.
And suddenly, it hits me hard like a blade to the chest, like a fall from the tallest building in the world.
I suck in a sharp breath, my body locking up.
“Oh my God,” I whisper, more tears rolling down my face.
“You did this.”
The words barely make it past my lips.
Ronan tilts his head slightly, his blue eyes flashing, and then, he smirks.
Not big, not obvious.
Just a tiny quirk of his lips.
“You set me up,” I whisper, the realization sinking its claws deep into my soul. “You framed me.”
He leans forward, palms pressing against the table.
His scent, the same one that used to bring me comfort and safety, wraps around me like poison.
His voice drops, cold and sharp.
“Of course, I know.” He finally spoke out, no remorse in his voice.
A shudder racks my body.
“That’s why you were perfect.” He scoffed.
My ears rang as my pulse slammed against my ribs; his words twisted inside me, cruel and suffocating.
That’s why you were perfect.
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15:30
“You Were Just A Convenient Scapegoat.”
288 Vouchers
Perfect for what?
For betrayal, destruction or for being nothing more than a pawn in whatever sick game this is?
I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe.
The blood drains from my face, my hands turn ice cold.
“No,” I whisper, shaking my head, harder now. “No, you’re lying.”
He exhales sharply like he’s tired of this conversation.
“You always were naïve, Zyrah.”
A laugh, soft, mocking slips from his lips.
“I mean who better to take the fall than my loving, devoted wife?” His eyes narrowed as he spoke.
At once, something inside me broke and shattered, and I knew that both Ronan and the detective were in this together.
I lunge forward, the cuffs biting into my wrists.
“YOU BASTARD!” My voice cracks, raw with rage, betrayal, devastation.
Ronan doesn’t even flinch.
He watched me unravel, watch me fall apart in front of him like it meant nothing.
“I loved you!” I scream. “I gave you all, I made sure that our home was perfect!”
He raises a brow, unimpressed, and unmoved.
“And that was your biggest mistake, Zyrah” he spoke out, his voice hunting me.
Everything inside me went still; the words cut through me deeper than anything else he’d said.
I stopped shaking and crying, all I did was stare at the man I once loved, at the man I would have died for, the man who never loved me at all.
A tear slips down my cheek; I barely feel it because something else is taking its place.
Something colder, and darker.
“You’re a monster,” I whispered.
Ronan tilts his head and smirks.
“And you, my love,” he says, voice laced with amusement, “are the fool who trusted me. Take a look at me, I didn’t know what I was thinking when I got married to you, you are a classless woman who knows nothing else but to cook and clean, a lowly servant with nothing! I can’t deal with looking at your face anymore, you make me sick!” His words hit me harder than a knife lunged at my back.
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15:31
“You were Just A Conveniem Slaptyvai.
I glanced at the detective and back at Ronan.
My lips trembled, my world was falling apart.
Everything I knew, everything I believed in, was shattering into pieces I could never put back together.
I couldn’t move as all I did was stare, as the truth unraveled before me like a sick, twisted joke.
“You were just my convenient scapegoat,” Ronan said, the words slamming into me, brutal and merciless.
I feel my stomach drop, my pulse hammering violently in my chest.
“Why?” I whisper, shaking my head so hard it hurts. “Why did you do this to me?”
I lurch forward, the handcuffs cutting into my wrists, but I don’t care.
“Tell me you didn’t do this, Ronan!” My voice breaks, raw with disbelief. “Tell me this isn’t what it looks like!”
Ronan sighed like I was exhausting him like my pain was an inconvenience.
He tilts his head slightly, his lips curving just enough to make me want to scream.
“Oh, Zyrah,” he murmurs, voice smooth. “You always were slow to catch on.”
My chest caves in as my entire body goes numb.
“You planned this?” My voice is barely above a whisper, but it feels like I just screamed.
Ronan slides his hands into his pockets, watching me fall apart with unreadable eyes.
“From the very beginning,” he confirms easily.
I suck in a breath, a strangled, broken sound tearing from my throat.
“Why?” I gasp, my body trembling violently. “WHY, RONAN?”
My outburst fills the room, bouncing off the cold walls.
I watched as Ronan reached into his jacket pocket, and pulled out a check.
I froze, watching him, my pulse stopped.
I watch in stunned silence as he casually slides it across the table, the crisp white paper stares back at me, the ink still fresh.
It was a cheque of a million dollars.
Blood drains from my face.
“What…?” My voice quivers, barely making a sound.
“Your price,” he says simply.
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15:30
I felt sick to my stomach; a sharp, stabbing pain lodged itself deep in my chest.
My stomach twists, nausea rising.
This isn’t happening.
This isn’t real.
“You…” My lips part, but I can’t even finish the sentence.
I force myself to look at him, at his face. The face I used to kiss every morning, the face I memorized, loved, wor- shipped.
But I didn’t see my husband, I saw a stranger, and a monster.
“You sold me out,” I whisper, horrified.
The realization slams into me like a train.
“For a million dollars?”
A grin, cruel, sharp twist of his lips.
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4
Pe
“Don’t be dramatic, Zyrah,” he says smoothly, leaning back. “It was a business decision.”
My vision swims, as my head spins.
“You were never my forever, Zyrah.” he chuckled and the detective followed suit.
The final dagger.
The final blow that destroys me completely.
I suck in a shaky breath, my hands trembling against the metal table.
“I love you,” I whisper, my voice breaking into pieces.
Ronan sighs, as if bored as if my pain is nothing more than an inconvenience.
Then, he stood up and buttoned his jacket, movements smooth, effortless.
Like he didn’t just rip my soul apart like he didn’t just kill me with his words.
I watch helplessly as he turns, walking toward the door.
“Wait, Ronan, WAIT!” I scream, lurching forward so hard my chair screeches against the floor.
But he doesn’t stop, he reaches the door, grabs the handle, and without a single glance back, he leaves as the door slams shut.
The silence that follows is deafening.
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15:31
And I froze, shattered, my eyes not leaving the cheque in front of me.
I bursted out, crying profusely.
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