Chapter 6
The smile that had just begun to form on Jeremy’s lips vanished, his mouth tightening into a hard line. He turned to Kendra, his voice gentle, “You’re still recovering. Why don’t you stay here tonight?”
But the anger simmering in his eyes betrayed his true feelings.
He thought, “How dare Aliana not please me like she always does! It’s barely been a day since we called off the di- vorce, and she’s already disappeared?
“Looks like I’ll have to keep using Kendra to provoke her.”
“I want the room upstairs. Is that okay, Jeremy?” Kendra’s eyes sparkled with barely concealed delight.
Jeremy let out a short laugh, offering no reply, but the way he headed upstairs made his answer clear enough.
Step by step, he climbed to the second floor and pushed open the door.
“Aliana, did you hear that? Kendra’s going to stay in your room tonight.”
Only the hollow echo of his own voice answered him.
The room wasn’t just empty-every trace of Aliana’s belongings was gone, as if she’d never lived there at all.
His face went pale, his heart dropping like a stone.
“Why isn’t she here? She should’ve been home ages ago! Maybe she got held up somewhere…” he tried to reassure himself.
Forcing down his unease, he motioned for Kendra to settle in.
Her face lit up, and she eagerly agreed.
But as night fell, Aliana still hadn’t come home. She hadn’t even sent Jeremy a single message.
A sense of panic crept over him. Swallowing his pride, his expression dark and stormy, he dialed her number.
He’d already rehearsed what he’d say the moment she picked up, but the phone just rang and rang, the cold automated voice eventually cutting through the silence.
For the first time, Aliana didn’t answer his call.
Anger and dread tangled inside him as his hands shook, typing out a text.
“Not answering? We just called off the divorce, and now you want to leave again?!”
When the message was sent and only a single gray check mark appeared, Jeremy’s fingers curled into a fist.
“Did… did Alana diOCK me!
“Was it some careless display of affection that made her think she could control me?” he wondered bitterly.
His face was ashen, his mind a chaotic storm, when Kendra suddenly gasped, “Jeremy, you and Aliana… you really got divorced?”
“Divorced? Didn’t I just tell her to withdraw the petition?” he thought to himself.
Jeremy’s mind went blank as he saw Kendra clutching a set of divorce papers, her smile barely contained.
He snatched them from her hands-it was a brand-new divorce certificate, his name and Aliana’s printed inside, the words as sharp and red as a wound.
She hadn’t withdrawn the petition at all. She’d finalized the divorce.
Jeremy’s mind went numb, a dull roar filling his ears.
