Chapter 9
On the screen, Willa pushed people into the sea one by one. Finally, she jumped in herself. Her frail figure disappeared beneath the waves, swallowed by the ocean without a trace. Jordan’s face turned deathly pale. He slammed the table and shot up from his seat. “Find her! Get the word out right now. Everyone, search the sea! Bring her back alive. If she’s dead I want her body.“}]
Those staff didn’t dare say a word; they scrambled off to carry out his orders. His friend frowned, clearly confused. “I don’t get you. Wasn’t your plan to ruin Willa? To force her to miscarry? Now, she knows the truth and chooses to leave on her own. Why are you looking for her? So, what if you find her? What then? Apologize to her corpse? Tell her she’s the one you love? Say you had no choice when you hired those men to humiliate her and record it?”
His friend scoffed. “Jordan, don’t be stupid. She’s gone. No matter what you do now, she won’t see it. Before she left, she took care of those people for you. She kept your dirty little secret. That was the last kindness she could give. So why dig up things that were never meant to see the light of day?”
His friend’s words hit him like a sledgehammer. Jordan collapsed into his chair, his whole body trembling uncontrollably. He didn’t even understand why he was acting like this, but the image of Willa sinking into the sea played on repeat in his mind, haunting him.
It felt like the only thing that could calm him down was finding her. Overwhelmed, he picked up his phone and unlocked the screen. Just as he was about to text Willa, he noticed an email he’d ignored for a long time. It was from Willa. Inside were screenshots of the video he’d made. The rough hands of several men, veins popping, were tearing at her clothes.
The images stabbed his eyes and pierced his heart. At the bottom was a signed divorce agreement. Willa had signed her name, leaving the rest blank for him. He was drowning in helplessness. He zoomed in on the screenshot, staring at it for a long time.
At that moment, he finally realized. He had fallen in love with Willa. He also understood what he had lost and what he had done wrong. Still, it was too late. Willa would never come back. Their lost child, even less so.
His friend noticed the images on the screen and patted his shoulder comfortingly. “It’s over, Jordan. There’s no turning back. You should’ve known when you ruined the Schmidts five years ago. Your relationship could never be simple. You forced her parents to death and now you’ve killed her and your child. Even if Willa lived, she could never forgive you. These five years of warmth were stolen time.”}]
His friend’s words pulled him back to five years ago. The first time he saw Willa. She was kneeling at the Griffins‘ door. Her thin body was soaked in the pouring rain, but her back was straight. The defiance and resentment on her face were so clear. He could see the Schmidts‘ pride from his balcony.
Lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating her pale face. That moment burned into his memory. He had wondered if he’d gone too far if he’d hurt an innocent person. The happy photos of Jade quickly replaced the fleeting thought of pity. He didn’t hesitate and continued with his plan.
He drugged Willa and put her on a yacht, had men drag her into a private room. Step by step, he destroyed the eldest daughter of the Schmidts.
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