Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I had no idea what strings Wyatt pulled, but the storm quieted down for a few days.

He sat in his office, completely confident that I would crawl back to beg him.

Yet as the three-day deadline passed with no sign of me, his scowl deepened by the hour.

His phone screen still displayed the final text message he had sent me the previous night:

"Sonya Blake, consider this me begging you. Just take the fall for Felicity this once, and I will compensate you for everything in the past."

"Don't you love Stella more than anything? I promise to send her to the best private sanitarium abroad, with top-tier care, so she can live comfortably for the rest of her life."

How sickeningly ironic.

Ever since Felicity framed me for corporate sabotage, Wyatt had never shown me a shred of kindness.

Every interaction had been laced with sneers, insults, and cruel ultimatums.

Who would have guessed that the only time he ever humbled himself was for the sake of that very same woman?

And he did it long after I had already turned into a corpse.

"Mr. Cross," his corporate lawyer called again, sounding frantic. "The police reviewed new street camera footage. While the driver's face is blurry, the body frame doesn't match Miss Stone… We are running out of time. Someone needs to turn themselves in by tomorrow."

"…Understood."

Hanging up the call, Wyatt's face was grim as he dialed my old number once more.

The receiver returned only the cold, automated operator: "The number you have dialed is no longer in service…"

"Sonya Blake! Are you deliberately trying to push me to the edge?!"

He slammed the phone onto the desk, his chest heaving with rage.

Taking a deep breath a few seconds later, he hit the intercom.

"Call off the search team in the south district. Send them straight to Mercy General Hospital."

His secretary paused over the line. "Mercy General? Isn't that where Miss Stella Blake is admitted?"

"Yes," Wyatt cut him off coldly. "Go to her room and take a few photos to send me. If the nurses ask, tell them I am her brother-in-law checking on her condition."

After ending the call, he leaned back against his executive chair, drumming his fingers restlessly on the wood.

Watching that disconnected number glowing on the screen, I felt nothing but a vast, numb emptiness.

Half an hour later, the office door was shoved open violently.

A male assistant rushed in, out of breath and completely pale.

"Mr… Mr. Cross…"

"What is it? Did you get the photos?"

"No…" The man gasped, his voice trembling uncontrollably. "The hospital staff said… Miss Stella Blake… passed away years ago!"

"What?!" Wyatt shot up from his seat, knocking his heavy chair against the bookcase with a loud crash. "Say that again!"

"It's true…" The assistant wiped cold sweat from his forehead. "We went to the room, and the nurses told us that bed has had three different patients since. When we asked for Stella Blake, they pulled the archives. She died of rapid deterioration four years ago."

Wyatt froze, his body swaying dangerously before he caught the edge of the desk to steady himself.

"The exact date! What was the cause of death?"

"The nurse said it was around November, four years ago… Heart failure. They couldn't revive her."

"November…" Wyatt murmured the month, the color draining from his face until he looked like a ghost. "Back then… Sonya hadn't even been released from prison yet…"

He fell completely silent, his vacant eyes staring into nothingness as if his very soul had been torn from his body.

Right at that moment, the door swung open again.

Felicity stepped inside, but before she could speak, she noticed Wyatt's shattered demeanor and rushed to his side.

"Wyatt, what happened? Are you feeling unwell?"

Wyatt lifted his bloodshot eyes to look at her, his voice trembling with suppressed panic.

"Felicity… Stella is dead."

Felicity's expression froze instantly.

Though it lasted only a split second, I clearly caught the sheer terror flickering in the depths of her eyes.

Yet in the next breath, she masked it with a look of profound shock and sorrow.

"What?! Stella… How could that happen?!"

She grabbed Wyatt's shoulders, her tone frantic.

"When did this happen? How are you only finding out now?"

"I don't know. I have no idea… I didn't know anything…"

Wyatt clutched his head in agony, burying his fingers in his hair.

Seeing his distress, Felicity wrapped her arms around him, cooing with calculated sweetness.

"Okay, okay, take a deep breath. This makes no sense at all. There must be an error on the hospital's end. Don't worry, I will look into it and get you answers."

Looking at her tender, resolute eyes, Wyatt clung to her words like a drowning man grasping at a lifeline, nodding fervently.

"Right… The hospital must have mixed up the records… Stella's surgery went smoothly, so how could she suddenly…"

"I know," Felicity whispered, gently stroking his back. "I know how good you were to her. Nothing bad could have happened."

"Maybe she was transferred to another clinic, or moved to another city. I will have my people investigate and track her down."

Her voice sounded so sincere, so gentle.

If I hadn't witnessed her venomous face when she strangled the life out of my sister, I might have believed her act too.