Chapter Five

Iris's POV

Adrian's right-hand man set a small lockbox on the coffee table and opened the lid.

In the middle of the black velvet sat a sapphire, so dark it looked like the ocean at night. When the light caught it, there seemed to be a fire burning inside.

Adrian leaned over and studied it for a long time. For once, he actually looked pleased.

His right-hand man was all smiles.

"It's a lot cleaner than the last one, and the color's better too. The mine only turned up one like this all year. Donna's going to love it."

Adrian held the stone in his palm. He was in a much better mood now.

"She's been sulking the past few days. This should smooth things over."

He could already picture my face when I saw it. I'd probably freeze, then get teary, then mumble an awkward thank-you.

Just thinking about it, he relaxed a little.

"Go to the hotel and bring Donna home."

The smile on his right-hand man's face froze.

"Boss... Donna took her passport and papers out of the vault on Monday. Didn't you sign off on that?"

Adrian looked up, his eyes going colder by the second.

"When did I ever sign off on that?"

Beads of sweat broke out on the man's forehead. He started tripping over his words.

"Monday evening, I brought Donna's request to the study to check with you. Miss Bianca was the only one there. She said she'd go in and ask you for me, and when she came out, she said you'd okayed it."

Monday evening.

Adrian remembered. He'd been in the inner room changing his shirt before taking Bianca to dinner, and she'd kept calling for him to hurry up.

So those few minutes were all it took.

He didn't say anything else. He called the hotel.

The front desk was polite about it. The guest had checked out first thing yesterday morning.

Adrian stood there gripping his phone, and slowly his mind went back to Wednesday.

I'd walked into the study with that folder, set it down, and turned to leave. He'd thought I'd finally cracked and was using the guest list as an excuse to back down.

Instead, I hadn't even looked back.

That day, he'd actually wanted to tell me he hadn't forgotten about the sapphire. He'd had people looking for a new one two weeks earlier.

But I'd been so stubborn it made him furious, so he'd kept it to himself.

How could he have known that would be the last time I'd ever stand in front of him?

Adrian grabbed his keys, stormed out of the study, and drove straight back to the main house.

When he pushed the bedroom door open, the room was neat. So neat it made him uneasy.

Half the walk-in closet was empty. The coats I wore most were gone, and so was the jewelry box on the vanity.

He walked over to the bed and pulled open the nightstand drawer.

Right on top was a set of divorce papers. I'd already signed on my line.

Next to them was the family black card he'd given me, with the Donna's signet ring resting on top of it.

I hadn't taken any of it with me.

Suddenly, what he'd said to me that night echoed in his head.

"Where would you even go?"

He'd always assumed I was just sulking and that I'd come back on my own in a few days.

But I'd already planned my way out.

His fingers had gone stiff. He took out his phone to call me, scrolled through his entire call history, and couldn't find my name.

It had been ages since he'd bothered to call me himself.

The last time he'd reached out was Monday's text, telling me he was having dinner with Bianca and wouldn't be home that night.

He hit call. All he got was the same recorded message, over and over. The number he was trying to reach was unavailable.

He finally put the phone down and sat on the edge of the bed for a long time.

The woman who'd always stood behind him and never fought him on anything was gone, just like that.

She hadn't even said goodbye.

After a while, he called his right-hand man. His voice was rough.

"Pull my wife's travel records. Find out where she went."

It was the first time he'd ever called me his wife in front of his men.

And of all times, it was after I'd left him divorce papers.

His right-hand man got back to him fast.

"Donna flew to Paris yesterday. And..."

There was a pause on the line, like he was figuring out how to say it.

"She's already started working at a jewelry company over there. They announced her as their new design director."