5
Ethan’s hands shook as he helped me sit up, his voice trembling.
“Vanessa…what happened?”
Before I could answer, Loretta held up her phone, playing the doctored video. “Ethan, your wife cheated on you. She’s pregnant with another man’s child–here’s the proof!”
Ethan pulled me close, his face turned to Loretta, his voice unnervingly calm. “Did you do this?”
Loretta, mistaking his calm for approval, jumped to defend herself. “Of course, I did this for you! You work so hard, and she repays you by making a fool of you! I couldn’t let her get away with that.”
But only I could see the storm beneath Ethan’s calm, the fury waiting to erupt.
Loretta continued, oblivious. “Your sister, Diana, was the one who found the video, warning me first. You should thank her for it. Maybe now we can be a family again. You could give Paul his job back at StoneTech. Why let this woman break up our family?”
Ethan’s gaze shifted to me, his eyes darkening. Kneeling beside me, he noticed the blood seeping through my clothes, and he touched it gently, his voice thick with fury.
“This…is your child’s blood, Ethan,” I whispered, my voice weak but full of
anger.
Loretta’s friends began protesting, desperate to convince Ethan.
Loretta’s friends began protesting, desperate to convince Ethan.
Q A
“Ethan, don’t let her fool you! She’s been carrying someone else’s child!”
“Exactly. Your mother told us you’d had a vasectomy, so there’s no way it could be yours.”
One after another, they chimed in, fueling the flames. “Look at her in that video! How can you let someone like that ruin your family?”
Ethan’s eyes, now burning with rage, scanned the room. “So…all of you were involved?”
But they didn’t catch the danger in his voice. “It was only right. This is what we had to do.”
“Your mom has been our friend for years. Helping her deal with a woman like this…well, it was only natural.”
One of them even added, “I was the one who found that pregnancy test, Ethan. If I hadn’t, this tramp would have kept that bastard child.”
“Yeah, I even held her down to make sure she couldn’t get away.”
Loretta chimed in proudly, “That’s right, Ethan. Everyone here helped you. They deserve something for their loyalty.”
Each of them looked expectantly at Ethan, as if awaiting a reward. After all, he was a wealthy and respected man in the city, and they expected nothing less than a grand gesture,
With the last of my strength, I whispered to him, “They’re the ones who killed your child.”
♡ A
Ethan pulled me into his arms, his voice an icy whisper, “I know, Vanessa. I know.”
Hearing his words, I finally let myself slip into unconsciousness, knowing that justice would be served.
When I woke again, it was the next night. I stared at the blank white ceiling, my hand resting on my stomach, feeling the empty ache where life once was.
My voice cracked as I said, “The baby…”
Ethan looked at me, his face etched with sorrow, and wrapped his arms around me. “Vanessa, we’ll have other children. I promise.”
I pushed him away, shaking my head. “No, Ethan. We’ll never have children again.”
He immediately nodded, trying to comfort me. “Alright. If that’s what you want, we won’t have kids.”
Looking him in the eye, I said calmly, “Ethan, let me go.”
He looked stunned. “What…what do you mean?”
- 4.
“Divorce. I don’t love you, Ethan, and we can’t make this work.”
I’d been ready to stay for the baby’s sake, but now that he was gone, this was fate’s way of telling me I couldn’t stay.
Ethan held me close, refusing to let go. “No, Vanessa, you’re my wife. I swore I’d never let you go.”
Q A
“But you also swore I’d never be hurt in this marriage,” I replied, my tone flat. “And the worst pain I’ve ever felt…came from you.”
Ethan froze. “This was an accident. I swear, I’ll never let it happen again.”
“No one can make promises like that.
I met his gaze, unflinching. “Years ago, I saved you from drowning. You repaid me by stalking me, running down my boyfriend, and threatening my family.”
“After we married, you became so obsessed with control that I couldn’t
even talk to other men. You put a tracker in my body. Because of you, I have no friends, no family. I’m completely alone, Ethan. And I am exhausted.”
Ethan held my shoulders, his voice low and pleading. “Vanessa, I love you. No one will ever love you as much as I do.”
“But your love is suffocating.”
He said nothing, only tightened his hold on me.
“When I’m healed, I’m moving out. If you refuse to divorce, I’ll take it to
court.”
Panic flashed in his eyes. “No. I’ll never agree to divorce. I won’t let you leave me.”
I held his gaze. “My decision is final, Ethan. Agree to it, or I’ll leave anyway.”
He gripped my hands, using my family as leverage. “Don’t forget, Vanessa
20:46 Tue, Nov 5
A
He gripped my hands, using my family as leverage. “Don’t forget, Vanessa -I can still reach your parents. If you leave me, I’ll make sure they pay for it.”
I stared at him, cold and unwavering. “Do you want me dead, Ethan? Because if you keep threatening my family, I’ll make sure that’s what you
get.”
I’d spent too long letting Ethan manipulate me. Now I knew his greatest
weakness: me.
“Vanessa, after all these years, did you ever love me?” he whispered, desperate.
Without hesitation, I replied, “No.”
His face fell, his eyes searching mine as though he might find some trace of affection. But he found nothing.
He looked like a deflated balloon, his hands loosening their grip on me. “Fine,” he muttered, his voice hollow. “I’ll do as you wish.”
He agreed to divorce me once I was discharged from the hospital.
But a week later, when he came to pick me up, I noticed he wasn’t driving me back to the house or to the courthouse.
“Where are we going?” I asked, glancing over at him.
He kept his eyes on the road, his gaze lingering on my face for a beat too long. “Don’t you want to see their fate with your own eyes?” he said, a glint of something dark and dangerous in his tone.
Since I woke up in the hospital, I hadn’t asked Ethan about what he planned to do with Loretta and the others. I knew he wouldn’t let them get away with it, but his invitation was too tempting to resist. I wanted to see the justice he would deliver firsthand.
We drove for nearly two hours, finally stopping in front of an abandoned factory on the outskirts of town.
Through the rusted gates, I could already hear distant cries and groans echoing from inside.
Ethan opened the gate, and we walked in. The scene was sickeningly clear.
Loretta and her group of accomplices were shackled to iron posts, their clothes tattered, their faces smeared with grime. The ground around them was littered with filth, and the air reeked of sweat and something acrid. Every few minutes, a guard would come by, spraying them with pepper spray, their screams ringing through the empty building.
When she saw me, Loretta’s dulled, bloodshot eyes lit up with a glimmer of hope.
“Ethan! My son!” she cried, her voice hoarse and cracked. “I know I did wrong. Please, let us go!”
4
Next to her, a woman who looked just as ragged and disheveled cried out, “We’re family, Ethan. Blood is thicker than water–you can’t treat us like this.”
It took me a moment to recognize the voice. It was Diana, Ethan’s sister, the same one who’d sent Loretta the doctored video to destroy my life. Ethan hadn’t let a single person involved go free.
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Ethan didn’t even glance at them. Instead, he looked down at me, hist expression softening as he spoke. “Do you want to take justice into your own. hands, Vanessa?”
I stared at him, confused, until he waved over one of the guards, who handed me a specially made cane, firm and weighted in my grip.
“They’re yours to deal with however you see fit,” he said.
I walked over to Loretta, watching the flicker of fear in her eyes. She forced
a strained, pleading smile. “Vanessa, honey, I know you’re a good person.
You wouldn’t-”
I swung the cane hard against her leg, cutting her off with a scream.
“Kindness isn’t something you deserve,” I spat.
Loretta’s face contorted with pain, and she dropped to her knees. “I didn’t mean to I thought you’d cheated. That’s what Diana told me! I was just angry, that’s all. I didn’t know…”
My hands tightened on the cane as I recalled her vicious words, her relentless kicks that killed my child. “You didn’t know?” I sneered, striking her again. “I told you the truth. I begged you to listen. And still, you murdered my baby.”
Each blow I dealt was fueled by the agony she’d put me through. “Didn’t know? Every time I begged you to stop, you kicked me harder,” I hissed. “You
wanted me to suffer. You wanted me dead.”
Loretta was sobbing, her words barely coherent. “It was…Diana. She told me you’d…cheated. She gave me the video…”
Q A
Diana, shackled beside her mother, suddenly screamed. “Mom, you’re blaming me? You said Vanessa was worthless, that she’d ruin Ethan’s life by keeping him away from his family!”
Loretta reached over and slapped Diana, rage flashing across her face.
“And who told me to make that video, hmm? You did! You’re the reason I did
this!”
Diana didn’t back down, slapping her mother back. “I only did it because
you couldn’t handle losing Ethan’s money!”
The two women descended into a full–blown fight, each blaming the other
for their actions, clawing and hitting each other, just as they had conspired
together to ruin my life.
I looked away from them and turned toward the rest of the women in the group, Loretta’s so–called friends.
They looked terrified, some trying to plead with me.
“We were just following Loretta,” one whimpered, her voice shaky. “She told us you’d been abusing her, that you deserved it.”
“Yes!” another agreed, her face desperate. “She lied to us. Please, we’re
innocent.”
“Spare me your excuses,” I said coldly, the cane still gripped firmly in my
hands. “You didn’t hesitate for a second to kick me, beat me, hold me down while Loretta killed my baby.”
They flinched as I swung the cane again, releasing my pent–up fury.
Eventually, exhausted. I handed the cane back to Ethan. He took it from me
do with them?”
♡ A
Ethan gave a faint, humorless smile, his gaze lingering on the darkened factory behind us. “Whatever you want, Vanessa. But I think the police will be very interested in hearing about the damages they caused to Stone Manor.”
The implications were clear. Between the physical assault and the destruction of property, Loretta and her friends would be facing jail time for the rest of their lives.
Ethan turned to me one last time, a look of longing in his eyes. “Vanessa… now that it’s over, could we stay together?”
I took a step back, shaking my head firmly. After years under his control, I was so close to the freedom I’d craved.
He didn’t argue. He only smiled, a little sadly, and brushed a stray strand of hair from my face. “Fine. I’ll have the driver take you back. There’s
something I need to finish here.”
I nodded, a sense of foreboding washing over me, but I didn’t say anything. I turned and climbed into the car.
As we drove away, I received a text from him.
I’m sorry, Vanessa. I told you I’d never stop loving you–not as long as I’m alive. Now you’re free.
From this day forward, you’re free.
Panicking, I yelled at the driver to turn back, and as we sped toward the factory, the dark sky was lit with a fierce, red glow.
20:47 Tue, Nov 5
I’m sorry, Vanessa. I told you I’d never stop loving you–not as long as I’m alive. Now you’re free.
From this day forward, you’re free.
Panicking, I yelled at the driver to turn back, and as we sped toward the factory, the dark sky was lit with a fierce, red glow.
Flames engulfed the factory, illuminating the night with an inferno. Realization hit me, the crushing finality of it all.
He’d been saying goodbye all along. Every glance, every word had been a farewell.
As the fire trucks arrived, I watched helplessly as flames consumed everything inside. I spotted his silhouette through the inferno, recognizing him instantly even as the fire swallowed him whole.
True to his word, Ethan had finally set me free–at a price I hadn’t anticipated.
After his death, I inherited everything His shares in StoneTech, his wealth -my net worth soared overnight, yet none of it mattered. The weight of my newfound freedom was hollow.
Ethan began to visit my dreams often In the quiet hours of the night, I would wake, my pillow wet with tears, remembering his final promise.
In some ways, I realized, freedom had come at the ultimate cost.
