Chương 4
But strangely, it also helped.
I nodded even though he could not see me.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For finally telling the truth.”
I ended the call.
A few minutes later, I carried my suitcase downstairs.
Arthur took it from my hand.
He did not ask if I was sure.
He already knew.
As we walked outside, I looked back at the house one last time.
There was no dramatic feeling.
No sudden wave of freedom.
Just sadness.
Some endings were not explosions.
Some were quiet doors closing after years of being slowly pushed shut.
When my father’s car pulled away, my phone buzzed again.
This time it was a message from an unknown number.
There was one attachment.
A photograph of a document.
At the top was the Apex Group logo.
Below it was a signature.
Julian Cross.
And beneath that was a date from six months earlier.
A date when he had promised me he was working late every night because the company needed him.
I stared at the screen.
Because the document was not about the gala.
It was not about Chloe.
It was about a decision Julian had made long before last night.
And someone wanted me to know.
And someone wanted me to know.
I stared at the image until the words blurred.
The document was a board approval agreement for a private acquisition deal involving Apex Group.
Julian’s signature appeared at the bottom.
But the part that made my stomach tighten was not his name.
It was the date.
Six months earlier.
Six months before he began staying late at the office.
Six months before he started locking his phone.
Six months before Chloe stopped pretending she was only an employee.
I enlarged the photograph.
The sender had not included a message.
Only the document.
Only the proof.
Arthur noticed my expression from the front seat.
“What is it?”
I turned the phone toward him.
He read silently.
The calm expression he had carried since arriving at the house disappeared.
“Where did you get this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who sent it?”
“An unknown number.”
He looked out the window.
That small movement bothered me more than panic would have.
My father had built companies through decades of negotiations.
He knew when information mattered.
He knew when people were afraid.
“Dad.”
He looked back at me.
“What?”
“You know something.”
His jaw tightened.
“I know that document should not be in your hands.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
The driver glanced at us through the mirror, then quickly looked away.
Arthur lowered his voice.
“Not here.”
I hated that answer.
Not because it was unreasonable.
Because it sounded exactly like the world I had spent years trying to avoid.
Secrets.
Meetings.
People speaking in careful sentences because the truth had consequences.
“I’m tired of not knowing things,” I said.
His face softened.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
The words came out sharper than I intended.
He accepted them anyway.
“You’re right.”
That surprised me.
“I spent three years thinking I was protecting you by staying away.”
He looked down at his hands.
“I was wrong.”
The car became quiet again.
I watched the streets pass by.
People walked into coffee shops.
A woman pushed a stroller across a crosswalk.
A man in a suit argued on the phone beside a bus stop.
Everyone looked like they belonged to their own ordinary lives.
I wondered how many people were carrying secrets they had no idea how to put down.
When we arrived at my father’s estate outside the city, I expected to feel something.
Relief.
Nostalgia.
A sense of returning.
Instead, I felt like a guest.
The house was beautiful.
Too beautiful.
The kind of place where every room looked untouched because someone else handled the mess before anyone saw it.
A staff member greeted Arthur at the door.
I immediately felt uncomfortable.
“Please don’t make a big thing out of this,” I said.
He turned.
“Out of what?”
“Me coming back.”
His expression changed.
“Clarissa.”
“I don’t want people looking at me like something happened.”
Something had happened.
But I was not ready to become a story.
Arthur nodded slowly.
“I’ll tell everyone to treat you like my daughter.”
“That’s what worries me.”
A small smile appeared.
“There you are.”
“What?”
“The woman who argued with me at sixteen because I hired a driver without asking.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
It was brief.
Almost accidental.
But it was the first real laugh I had had in months.
The sound surprised both of us.
Inside, my old room had been preserved.
That bothered me more than if it had been changed.
The same bookshelf.
The same faded painting I bought at a college art fair.
The same small desk where I used to study late at night.
I walked over and touched the edge of the desk.
There were scratches on the surface.
Old ones.
From when I had stayed awake writing business plans I never showed anyone.
Before I became someone’s wife.
Before I became invisible.
Arthur stood at the doorway.
“I never moved anything.”
“You kept my room?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked confused by the question.
“Because you might come back.”
I looked away.
“I was angry.”
“I know.”
“I thought you cared more about your company than me.”
He was quiet.
“That was not completely wrong.”
I looked at him.
He did not defend himself.
“My company became an excuse,” he said.
“I told myself providing for you was the same as being there for you.”
I sat on the edge of the bed.
“I needed my father.”
“I know.”
The honesty hurt.
But it was different from Julian’s honesty.
Julian used truth like a weapon.
My father used it like a wound he was finally willing to examine.
My phone vibrated.
Another message.
This time from the unknown number.
The sender had written one sentence.
Do not trust anyone at Apex.
Arthur saw my face.
“What now?”
May you like
I showed him.
He stared at the message.
