Chapter 4
I quietly slipped inside, found the divorce papers, and planned to leave them in the study.
But just as I reached the door, Marcus's voice drifted out.
He said, "Don't feel guilty. It's just ashes. They've been here for four years. Scattering them is just giving them peace. The dead are gone. We should focus on the living."
I was about to knock. But hearing what Marcus said, I lost all desire to face him.
The living room was spotless. There wasn't a single sign that the ashes had ever been there.
I set the divorce papers on the table and left, feeling completely drained.
The night was dark, stars scattered across the sky.
Mom and Alicia must be waiting for me. There was nothing left in this world that I cared about anymore.
I left my final message on my phone and stepped into the sea slowly.
The world fell silent.
I waited peacefully, ready for Mom and Alicia to come and take me away.
On the brink of death, I heard a voice suddenly shout nearby. "A woman just jumped into the sea!"
*****
Marcus found the divorce papers Nora had left behind.
At the bottom, where the wife's signature should be, was her elegant handwriting.
Emily glanced over and gestured in sign language. "Her handwriting has changed a lot. It looks almost like mine now."
Marcus's grip on the papers tightened, his gaze turning icy.
'Even if she left the divorce papers just to spite me, she still wouldn't use her real handwriting?' he thought.
"Are you going to sign it?" Emily kept signing.
In the next moment, Marcus ripped the divorce papers to shreds and threw them away.
Marcus gritted his teeth and summoned the butler.
"Since she came back after being discharged, go find her," Marcus ordered.
The butler set off to search for her.
The butler returned, but instead of Nora, he brought the police.
The officer glanced around at the walls, covered with photos of Marcus and Nora, and his brow furrowed.
He pulled out an evidence bag.
The officer said, "Mr. Cole, I'm sorry to inform you that your wife, Nora Pearson, took her own life by jumping into the sea at ten o'clock tonight. This is her phone, the only thing she left behind on the shore."
Marcus froze, unable to process what the officer had just said.
His lips parted, an unsettling smile twisting across his face.
"She sent you guys to play a trick on me, right? That's Nora. Everyone used to call her 'Little Sunshine.' She'd never do something like this," Marcus said.
The officer gave Marcus and Emily a long, meaningful look, as if weighing their reactions.
The officer replied, "You said it yourself. She used to be."
But not anymore.
"I don't buy it. Where's her body?" Marcus demanded.
The officer said, "You know how tough it is to search the seaside. All we found was her phone."
It was the open sea, not some tiny river or stream.
Even if the cops were miracle workers, there was no way to fish a body out of the ocean.
"Just sign it," the officer said. He wanted Marcus to sign the confirmation and officially close the case.
But Marcus grabbed the evidence bag and said coldly, "Nora's clever. She could've pulled a vanishing act. If there's no body, she's not dead. She's just doing this to mess with me."
The officer had seen this kind of thing way too many times, so he didn't push it. He just waited for Marcus to calm down before asking him to sign the report.
Once the officer left, Emily moved closer to Marcus and started signing again. "Marcus, the dead are gone. We should focus on the living."
It was almost exactly what Marcus had said earlier. But now, those words just cut right through him, sharp and unbearable.
He shoved Emily away, his voice rough and hoarse. "Emily, who the hell told you she's dead?"
Marcus cursed under his breath, but still handled Nora's phone with care as he made his way back to the bedroom.
It was the bedroom that belonged to him and Nora.
But when he opened the door, Nora wasn't there waiting for him.
All that remained were signs that Emily had been there.
Emily had only spent one night in this room, so why did it already feel like Nora's presence had vanished?
Marcus locked himself in their bedroom and sent his people out to look for Nora.
Then he tried to unlock Nora's phone.
He tried her birthday, their wedding date, the day they got their marriage license...
He tried so many passwords, but none of them worked.
In desperation, Marcus just typed in a random date. And to his surprise, the phone unlocked.
He stared at the screen, a bitter smile tugging at his lips.
"Even after all these years, she never forgot the day we first met," Marcus muttered.
Nora's chat list was super simple. Besides him, there were only Alicia and her lawyer.
After scrolling through Nora's chats with her lawyer, Marcus couldn't deny it anymore. She really was serious about getting a divorce.
He kept going through her phone.
Finally, he came across her notes. There were only two memos.
One entry was all about his likes and dislikes.
She'd noted down all sorts of quirks, even the ones Marcus himself never noticed.