Chapter 6

Valerie POV

The divorce was set to be finalized in three days.

I had already booked one-way tickets to Costa Rica. I was going to take my coach and Felix with me, leaving this toxic city forever.

Before leaving, Julian's grandfather, Arthur Vance, who had always loved me, called. He asked me to come to the family estate to say goodbye. Arthur was the only Vance who had ever been kind to me, so I couldn't say no.

But I didn't expect Sienna to secretly follow me there.

While I was in the kitchen brewing tea for Arthur, a sudden shriek echoed from the grand staircase.

"Ahhh!"

I ran out, only to see Arthur tumbling down the stairs, his head bleeding as he fell unconscious on the marble floor. Sienna was sitting on the steps above, crying hysterically and shaking like a leaf.

Julian rushed into the foyer. Seeing his grandfather bleeding on the floor, he screamed, "Grandpa!"

Sienna immediately threw herself into his arms, pointing at me while sobbing. "Julian! Valerie was angry because Grandpa praised me. She used her Muay Thai roundhouse kick to shove him down the stairs! I tried to stop her, but I couldn't..."

"I didn't do it!" I gasped, shocked. "She pushed him! I didn't even touch him!"

"Shut up!" Julian's eyes were bloodshot. He slammed his fist against the wall next to me, his knuckles split and bleeding. "Valerie, you can hate me all you want, but Grandpa was always good to you! How could you do this to an old man? You are a monster!"

He grabbed my collar like I was a dead dog and dragged me down to the basement of the estate.

My father's ashes were temporarily stored there in a wooden urn.

"A toxic woman like you deserves to be punished!"

Julian grabbed a heavy metal hammer from a toolbox in the corner and marched toward my father's urn.

My pupils dilated. I threw myself at his feet, wrapping my arms around his legs. "Julian! No! Hit me, sue me, do whatever you want to me, but please don't touch my dad's urn! I beg you!"

"Get off me!"

Julian kicked me away, raised the hammer high, and brought it down hard!

Smash!

Wood splinters flew everywhere. The urn shattered, and the grey ashes spilled across the concrete floor.

"Dad!"

I let out a blood-curdling scream. The sheer shock and grief caused a wave of nausea, and I spat out a mouthful of blood before collapsing onto the shattered remains of my father's urn, passing out completely.

Because of a blind spot in the security cameras by the staircase, the police couldn't find definitive proof that I had pushed Arthur. They had to release me after forty-eight hours.

Arthur was now in a coma, kept alive only by machines.

Julian was waiting outside the police station. Seeing my pale, exhausted state, a flicker of complicated emotion crossed his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by cold hostility.

He threw three plane tickets in my face.

The destination was a dangerous, war-torn country in the Middle East.

"Take your vegetable coach and your little friend Felix and get out of the country," Julian said coldly, looking at me like I was already dead. "Don't come back until you've learned how to be human."

I didn't argue. I didn't cry.

I silently knelt down, picked up the tickets one by one, and wiped the dirt off them.

"Okay," I whispered, my voice as light as a breeze.

Seeing how compliant I was, Julian turned and walked away.

At the airport.

Without a second thought, I tossed Julian's three tickets into the trash can. I pulled out the tickets to Costa Rica that I had bought days ago.

I handed the signed divorce papers to Felix and touched his head. "Let's go. Let's go home."

As the plane took off and soared into the sky, I looked at the thick clouds outside the window and closed my eyes.

Julian, in this life, I have paid back everything I owed you.

Goodbye forever.