Chapter 5%
Third Person’s POV
Fuming, Norris stormed back into the event hall, his face dark as thunder. Without a word, he grabbed Gabrielle by the wrist and dragged her straight home.”
The moment they got inside, he threw her onto the bed and climbed on top of her with aggression, not desire. It was like he was trying to prove something, like he was telling himself that Clarissa was not the only one who could move on.
Startled at first, Gabrielle quickly caught on to his intentions. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and murmured sweetly, “Norris…”
The sound of her voice snapped Norris back to reality. He froze, then slowly sat up and looked toward the door as if expecting someone to walk through it. But the house was silent, and the door stayed shut.N
His energy drained in an instant.
Raking a hand through his hair, he pulled away from Gabrielle. She sat up, her clothes halfway off, confused and breathless. Thinking he might be too drunk to finish, she chuckled lightly and reached for his chest.
“Let me help you,” she whispered, her fingers trailing lower.N
But there was no reaction from him at all.
Lost in thought, Norris didn’t notice until pain jolted him back to the present. He glanced down, saw her hand, and instantly jumped to his feet.
“Gabrielle! I’m married!”
He pulled his pants back up, his expression clouded for the first time in front of her.”
Having been rejected twice in a row, Gabrielle’s frustration boiled over. She dropped the pretense of sweetness and spat, “But you don’t even love her! Besides, didn’t you two already get divorced?”
His eyes narrowed. “Who told you that?“N
Flustered, she looked away but quickly recovered, giving him a sultry smile and winding her arms around his waist. “I was just guessing, Norris… But you felt it too, didn’t you? Why keep pushing me away?“W
His face darkened, and he shoved her off him without hesitation. “Gabrielle! I told you, I cared about you. But that was back when you were still here. Everything I did for you was just because of your dad. Don’t test my limits.”
Her expression froze, then hardened. Without another word, she stormed out.
For a second, Norris almost went after her. But when he glanced at the time, then around the empty bedroom, he hesitated and stayed put.
He spent the whole night tossing and turning, never hearing the front door open again.”
He should have been texting Gabrielle to check if she was safe. Instead, all he could think about was why Clarissa hadn’t come back yet.
The divorce had been his idea from the start. It was part of his plan. But now that it was happening, he felt something he hadn’t expected:
reluctance.
Still, he blamed it on withdrawal, just a side effect of separation. Eventually, he drifted off to sleep, only to be startled awake by a dream.M
In it, he saw Clarissa with another man getting married and holding a child that clearly wasn’t his.
He woke up in a cold sweat, not with relief but with rage. Looking around the quiet, empty room, the unease in his chest grew.N
Something didn’t feel right.
But he shook it off, checked the time, and got ready for the day.”
By 10 a.m., he was sitting in his car outside the county clerk’s office, waiting for Clarissa to show up for the divorce appointment. One number after another was called, and morning turned to afternoon, then dusk.
Still, no sign of her.”
And strangely, that didn’t irritate him. In fact, a small ray of light broke through the storm cloud that had hovered over him all day.
As the office closed and he tossed away the last number ticket, Norris actually smiled and smugly thought, ‘I knew she wouldn’t go through with it.
She barked so loudly last night. He thought she finally grew a spine.
Driving home with one hand on the wheel, he hummed to himself and pulled out his phone to call her. He figured he’d forgive her, just this once. As long as she promised not to see that other man again, he’d let it slide.
The idea that he had planned to divorce her felt distant now. All he wanted was to hear her voice.
But when he dialed, he found out he had been blocked.
For a moment, he blinked in confusion. Then he smirked and thought, ‘She must be embarrassed an doesn’t know how to face me yet.” He didn’t bother trying again. He believed she’d come home eventually, like she always did.
Until he pulled up to the house and saw the driver, who was supposed to be off today, standing at the front gate with a worried look on his face.
As soon as Norris stepped out of the car, his driver, Frank Motley, rushed toward him, carrying a pile of familiar–looking items in his arms.§ Before Norris could say a word, Frank tremblingly reported, “Mr. Daniel… something happened to Miss Clarissa!”
3/3 18.2%
8:55 PM
Chapter 6
Third Person’s POV
The man was getting on in years, but the moment those words left his mouth, tears streamed down his face.
But Norris’s expression turned cold and impatient. “If you don’t know how to talk properly, maybe you shouldn’t be working for me.” Normally, Frank would’ve shut his mouth and backed off. He was always quick to read the room. But today, he didn’t move. Instead, wiping his tears, he opened the bag and pulled out the items he’d brought.
“I found these at your front door when I left to take my son to school. They’re all brand–new stuff that Miss Clarissa bought a while ago but never used. Then I saw this,” he said, handing over a folded piece of paper. “It’s her itinerary. She was flying to the Netherlands.”
Norris frowned, clearly irritated. He couldn’t believe the old man was crying over a trip.
“So what if she went to the Netherlands? She’s not dead. What’s there to cry about?”
Frank realized Norris had misunderstood but was too choked up to explain clearly. When he saw Norris turning to leave, he forced himself to get the words out.N
“That plane… it crashed. The one she was supposed to be on.“N
Norris froze, his hand still resting on the door handle.N
“What… did you just say?” he asked slowly, turning around with wide eyes.
Grabbing Frank by the collar, he growled, “Say that again, and I swear I’ll make sure you never work another day in this city!“}]
Frank, struggling to breathe, pulled a crumpled paper from his pocket and held it up. “I’m not making this up. Look-”
Before he could finish, Norris snatched the paper out of his hand. The moment his eyes landed on the familiar handwriting, his pupils constricted and his knees buckled.
The paper slipped from his grasp and floated to the ground.
“No. No, this can’t be real. Maybe she wasn’t on that flight!” His voice rose in panic. “You really don’t want this job anymore, do you?!” Frank had been a driver for years, and Clarissa had taken care of him well during those times. He knew how kind she was and how deeply she loved Norris. Even if it cost him everything, he couldn’t stay quiet.
“I hoped that, too. But I looked up last night’s flights, and there was only one to the Netherlands. I thought maybe she didn’t go through with it, so I waited at the door this morning, but she never came back. Her phone’s off, too…”
At that, Norris’s face turned ghostly pale. He remembered the calls he’d tried to make that never went through.
He shook his head, his eyes bloodshot. “No. I don’t believe it. That’s impossible! She promised to meet me at the county clerk’s office this morning. Why would she just take off like that?!“M
Frank looked at him, stunned. He’d thought Norris didn’t care about Miss Clarissa anymore, especially after Gabrielle came back into the login Failure: Your account is already logged on elsewhere picture. He hadn’t even pretended to care.N
But now? Watching Norris fumble to unlock the car door, struggling to even open it with trembling hands, Frank realized he might have been wrong.
They sped off to the airport, and on the way, Norris scrolled through the news on his phone, desperate for answers. His mind kept replaying the sound of Clarissa crying the night before.N
He prayed she wasn’t on that plane.
But the crash was all over the headlines. It was a trending topic across every platform, and he was only now seeing it.”
As his eyes landed on the official statement confirming that no passengers had survived, a searing pain gripped his chest. His hand trembled as he scrolled, and hot tears dripped down onto the phone screen.N
Then, he suddenly remembered Clarissa had once shared her location with him.§
Fumbling to open the app, he searched for her, only to find the location was gone, as if she’d never existed.
At the airport, he barely made it through the doors when he came to a dead stop.
The loudspeaker was reading out the list of passengers who perished in the crash. And the last name on that list was Clarissa Daniel.
