Chapter 3

I didn't expect Gianna to hand it to me.

She was too impatient.

She thought the baby she was carrying, the detective's report mentioned that too, would force me to step aside.

So she sent that photo. A provocation, a declaration of war.

She calculated that I'd break down and lose my mind when I saw it.

She just didn't count on the fact that I no longer cared.

Or rather, I'd passed that stage long ago.

Now I just wanted to watch a spectacular fireworks show. Daniel and Gianna would be the brightest fireworks in it.

The plane began its descent.

The announcement came over the speakers that we were about to land in Fairview.

I opened my eyes.

Outside the window was the vast blue sea, the sunlight blinding.

I put on my sunglasses, and my mood was lighter than it had been in a long time.

I got off the plane and picked up my luggage.

As I walked out of the airport, a wave of humid ocean air hit me.

I hailed a car and headed straight for the oceanfront hotel I'd booked.

The suite had a massive window looking out onto an endless stretch of sand and sea.

I changed into my swimsuit and draped a wrap over my shoulders.

I went downstairs, my feet sinking into the soft sand.

I locked the old phone with all the secrets in the room's safe. I was giving myself a real vacation, three days away from everything.

I rented a lounge chair and ordered a mojito.

The sound of waves, the cry of seagulls, and the happy chatter of tourists all came together in a perfect symphony.

I lay back on the chair and felt every pore in my body relax. This was life. This was the kind of life that belonged to me.

As for the storm back in the city? Let it rage. I wasn't the one getting wet.

I could imagine the scene in that five-hundred-person group.

The first few seconds would be dead silence.

Then someone would open the photo and gasp.

Then the flood of messages. Speculation, gossip, shock, schadenfreude. Memes flying everywhere.

Daniel's reputation would topple like dominoes, piece by piece.

He'd become the laughingstock of the entire company.

And Gianna, the "successful" CEO's wife, would become the target of every female colleague's contempt.

Their phones would be ringing off the hook, their accounts flooded with "concerned" messages.

And me, the one who lit the fuse? I was a thousand miles away, soaking up the sun and the breeze. Nothing felt better than that.

I took a sip of my mojito. The cold liquid slid down my throat. It was refreshing.

On the first day, I swam in the ocean and tried windsurfing.

When I got tired, I just lay on the sand and soaked up the sun.

That night, I had a huge seafood feast, fresh lobster, plump oysters, and I enjoyed every bite by myself.

On the second day, I signed up for a scuba diving class.

I went down with an oxygen tank strapped to my back, watching the colorful coral and schools of fish swim past me.

The world went quiet except for the sound of my own breathing.

In that moment, I felt a kind of freedom I'd never experienced before. Underwater, I had no identity, no past, no worries. I was just a fish.

On the third day, I didn't go anywhere.

I spent the whole day in the hotel's infinity pool.

I ordered a floating breakfast and ate delicate pastries while gazing at the sea melting into the sky.

In the afternoon, I had a full spa treatment.

That evening, I sat on a lounge chair on my balcony and watched the sunset sink slowly below the horizon, painting the sky and the sea in brilliant shades of gold. It was beautiful.

I pulled out the phone I'd kept turned off.

I knew the vacation was over. It was time to go back and see the results of what I'd set in motion.

I took a deep breath and held down the power button.

The phone vibrated, the screen lit up, and then the digital storm hit.

The phone went crazy. The screen flashed and jumped frantically as the icons for WhatsApp, text messages, and missed calls spun like a slot machine.

The numbers climbed from double digits to triple digits to 999-plus.

The whole process lasted nearly a minute. Then the screen went black, frozen solid.

I wasn't surprised. I set the phone on the table and let it recover on its own.

After about five minutes, the screen lit up again, but it was still so slow that it moved in fits and starts.

I opened the call log. Missed calls: 999-plus.