Chapter 5 #4
Jasper reached forward slowly, grabbing a glass of water from the table. He took a slow sip before answering, his expression turning more serious.
“I’ve been trying,” he said honestly, lowering the glass. “For months.”
He shook his head once.
“There’s nothing. No records. No clear trace. It looks like a normal accident on paper.”
Amara’s brows tightened slightly.
“And you don’t remember anything from that night? Not even a fragment?”
Amara’s jaw tightened slightly. She shook her head once, slow and certain.
“Nothing,” she admitted quietly. “I’ve tried to recall it, but it’s just… gone. Like a blank wall in my memory.”
A faint, uneasy silence settled over the room.
Jasper frowned, leaning back again but more serious now.
“That’s strange,” he murmured. “A crash like that… memory loss is possible, sure, but usually there’s at least something. A sound. A flash. Anything.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, thinking.
“You broke multiple bones in that accident. So maybe trauma blocked it out… or maybe something else is going on.”
He looked at her more directly now.
“But yeah… it would’ve helped if you remembered even a little.”
Amara let out a quiet breath and shook her head again.
“I don’t,” she said simply.
She raised a hand and ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it back from her face.
“I need you to look into it more aggressively. Use every resource you have.”
Her hand lowered to her lap, fingers curling slightly.
“If that wasn’t a simple accident… I need to know.”
A brief pause.
“I’m not with Elias anymore. If someone targeted me once… I’m not going to wait for it to happen again.”
Her gaze sharpened even further, voice lowering with certainty.
“If that accident wasn’t an accident… I need to know who did it.”
Juliet nodded slowly in agreement, her expression tightening as she leaned back into the couch. Her fingers drummed once against the armrest before she spoke again.
“Yeah…” she said carefully, eyes flicking toward Amara. “There’s a chance they come back to finish what they couldn’t two years ago.”
A heavy silence settled in the room for a moment.
Then, suddenly, a sharp ringtone broke through it.
Amara’s phone lit up on the table. She paused mid-breath, her eyes dropping toward the screen.
Elias’s name flashed across the screen.
For a second, she didn’t move. Her thumb hovered over it, hesitation barely visible—just a small pause in her breathing.
Then she exhaled once, controlled, and picked it up.
She brought the phone to her ear, leaning back slightly into the couch as she spoke evenly.
“Yes, Mr. Creed?”
There was a brief silence on the other end.
Then Elias’s voice came through—cold, sharp, immediately displeased.
“Don’t call me that.”
Amara’s eyes narrowed slightly, but she didn’t respond. She simply leaned back further into the couch, her eyes half-lowered as she waited.
A faint rustle came through the line—like he was moving.
“Why haven’t you come home yet?” he demanded. “It’s late. Where are you?”
Amara’s brows creased. She slowly pulled the phone away from her ear and switched it to speaker. Then she tossed it casually onto the table.
She tilted her head slightly, then answered casually,
“Mr. Creed, have you forgotten something? We’ve already decided to divorce. You and I are no longer husband and wife. Where I am is no longer any of your business.”
Elias’s voice cut through immediately.
“We haven’t gone through the legal process. I haven’t signed anything yet. We are still married.”
His tone hardened further.
“Stop talking nonsense and come home right now.”
Juliet and Amara exchanged a quick look.
Juliet leaned closer immediately, lowering her voice into a whisper, her eyes widening slightly.
“He didn’t change his mind about the divorce… did he?”
Her expression tightened with concern.
Amara’s gaze stayed on the phone, but her jaw tightened subtly. She reached forward again and picked it up, bringing it closer to her lips.
A faint, dangerous curve touched her mouth.
“Mr. Creed,” she said softly, a hint of teasing in her voice. “Are you already regretting the divorce?”
A faint smile tugged at her lips.
“What is it? Did it just hit you that you’re about to be dumped by your very perfect wife?”
On the other end, there was a sudden sound—like a chair scraping harshly against the floor.
“You think I would ever regret anything in my life?”
His tone sharpened further, as if forcing control back into himself.
“I don’t regret anything. Stop imagining things.”
There was a pause—his breathing slightly heavier now, footsteps faintly audible as if he was moving while speaking. Then suddenly, he stopped.
“You want the divorce, don’t you?” he said, voice tightening. “Then come home. We’ll finish everything properly.”
Amara leaned back into the couch, crossing one leg over the other with slow composure. Her fingers lightly tapped the phone as she spoke into the speaker.
“I can finish everything at the courthouse, Elias.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
“I don’t need to come to your house for that.”
Her eyes flicked briefly toward Juliet and Jasper, who were both watching her intently now.
“I don’t really see why I should.”
There was a sharp pause on the other end.
Then Elias’s voice cut through again, harsher.
“What are you so busy with that you can’t even come back home?”
Amara exhaled softly, leaning deeper into the couch as if she was settling in for entertainment. A faint smile touched her lips.
“I’m enjoying my freedom now.”
Her fingers lightly tapped against her knee as she continued.
“Now that I’m not tied to a man anymore… I can go out, explore, meet people—taste new things.”
The last words were said with a slight pause, carefully chosen to provoke.
She knew exactly what she was doing.
On the other end, silence snapped tight.
Then Elias’s voice exploded through the phone, sharper than before.
“Come back home right now!”
His tone dropped lower, darker.
“Or I will find you and drag you back myself.”
A cold warning followed immediately after, almost controlled rage disguised as calm.
“And I promise you won’t like the way I do it.”
Amara’s eyes widened slightly in anger at the threat. Her grip on the phone tightened.
“You—” she began, voice rising—
But the line suddenly went dead.
Amara stared at the phone for a split second. Then she slammed it down onto the table. The sound cracked through the living room like a whip.