Chapter 3 Three
Idalia
The police station cell smelled of bleach and unwashed bodies, but the scent of betrayal clinging to my skin was worse.
Seven days. I had sat on a cold metal bench for a week, waiting for someone, anyone to come. A lawyer, a frantic husband realizing he’d made a mistake, even Martha.
But no one came.
When they finally released me due to "lack of formal charges," I walked out into the blinding afternoon sun with nothing but the clothes on my back, the same cheap dress I had worn to the hospital, now wrinkled and stained with sweat.
I took a taxi back to the Devereux estate, using the emergency cash I kept tucked in my bra. My hands shook as I reached for the iron gates.
I pushed through the front door, my legs heavy as lead. I needed to find Thane, I needed to scream the truth until he heard me.
I made for the stairs, but a figure stepped into my path.
"Mrs... Miss Vance," a cool voice corrected.
It was Elias, Thane’s personal assistant. He stood rigid, his face devoid of sympathy, blocking my path to the upper wing.
"Where is he?" I croaked, my voice hoarse from disuse. "I need to speak to my husband."
"Mr. Devereux is not available to you," Elias said smoothly. He extended a manila folder toward me. "He instructed me to give you this."
I stared at the folder. "What is it?"
"Divorce papers and a termination of your residency rights." Elias didn't blink. "You’ll notice the settlement section is empty. Mr. Devereux feels that the emotional distress you caused Miss Camilla is payment enough. You leave with what you came with. Nothing."
I stared up at him, my hands shaking. “What?”
“I'm sorry, those are his orders, not mine. Please sign off…”
My chest heaved. "He can't do this. He can't just throw me away without looking me in the eye!"
"Oh, he can," a sharp voice cut in.
Mrs. Devereux, my mother-in-law, swept into the hallway, dressed in emerald silk, holding a flute of champagne. She looked me up and down with a sneer of pure revulsion.
"You should be grateful you aren't in prison, girl," she spat. "Thane is a generous man. He’s allowing you to walk away. If it were up to me, you’d still be in that cage with lots of charges pressed to your neck."
"Where is he?" I demanded, ignoring her. I turned back to Elias. "I won't sign a damn thing until I see him."
Elias sighed, adjusting his glasses. "He is out. He has a dinner reservation."
"Where?"
Elias hesitated, glancing at Mrs. Devereux. But I didn't need him to answer as a sudden, sharp memory pierced through my exhaustion.
“When I can see again, Idalia,” Thane had whispered to me months ago, “I’m going to take you to Le Lumiere. We’ll sit by the fountain, and I’m going to order every dessert on the menu for you.”
It was the most exclusive restaurant in the city. The place he had promised me.
"He's at Le Lumiere," I whispered, the realization hitting me like a physical blow. "He took her to my place."
"He took the woman he loves," Mrs. Devereux scoffed, checking her diamond watch. "Now, sign the papers and get out. I have a gala to attend."
She jangled a set of car keys in her hand, the keys to the family SUV.
Something inside me snapped. The terrified, pleading Idalia died instantly and I lunged towards the vile woman who had never loved me, even for a second.
I snatched the keys from Mrs. Devereux’s hand with a force that made her gasp.
"You—!" she shrieked, clutching her pearls. "Give those back! Have you gone mad?"
"Mad?" I asked, my voice was low and dangerous. It was the first time I had ever spoken back to her. Pardon me Kim, I'm just getting started."
She was so shocked she actually fell silent.
I turned and ran out the door and jumped into the SUV, slammed the door, and floored the accelerator, leaving skid marks on the pristine driveway.
I parked haphazardly in front of Le Lumiere. The valet looked at my disheveled appearance and the dented bumper of the SUV with alarm, but I stormed past him before he could speak.
The restaurant was a sea of candlelight and soft jazz. And there, in the center of the room, by the fountain...
Thane sat across from Camilla.
He looked devastatingly handsome in a black tuxedo, his eyes, those eyes I had prayed for him to regain, fixed adoringly on my sister. Camilla was laughing, her hand resting over his. She was wearing the diamond necklace Thane’s grandmother had left for his wife.
I marched to their table. The clinking of silverware around us stopped. The room went silent.
"Do you believe her?"
My voice rang out, raw and broken.
Thane’s head snapped up. The smile vanished from his face, replaced by a mask of ice. Camilla gasped, shrinking back into her chair as if terrified.
"Thane," she whimpered. "She found us."
I let out a scoff.
"How did you get in here?" Thane asked coldly, looking at me with a calm, degrading indifference that hurt more than any scream. "Look at yourself, Idalia. You’re a mess. Have you no dignity left?"
"Dignity?" I laughed, a hysterical sound. "You promised me this table, Thane! You promised me this night! Do you really believe I’m the villain? Do you really think the woman who held you while you cried in pain was her?"
I pointed a shaking finger at Camilla. "Ask her, Thane! Ask her what song you hummed when the migraines were bad! Ask her about the scar on your hip! She doesn't know! She left you when you got into an accident and I was forced to marry her in her place!"
"Security," Thane said calmly, not even looking at me anymore. He turned his attention to his wine glass. "Remove this woman. She is disturbing my fiancée."
Fiancée?
Two guards grabbed my arms from behind.
"Thane, please!" I screamed as they dragged me backward. "Don't do this! I promise this is the only time I'll persuade you. Just believe me please."
"Get her out," Thane said, cutting into his steak.
The patrons whispered and stared as I was hauled out like a criminal. The humiliation burned my skin, hotter than fire.
I stood on the curb, shivering in the night air. The tears finally stopped. I had nothing left. It pained that I couldn't tell the good news Martha and I had gushed about.
I wiped off my face, it's obvious now.
They wanted me gone? Fine.
I drove back to the estate. The house was quiet now; Mrs. Devereux must have left.
I walked past a stunned Elias in the hallway. I grabbed the divorce papers from his hand, marched to the table, and scribbled my name.
"There," I said, tossing the pen down. "I’m done."
I walked to the key rack by the door. My eyes scanned the rows until they landed on a silver fob. The Bugatti La Voiture Noire. The most expensive car in Thane’s collection. They had called me a gold digger, why not act the name now?
I grabbed the key.
"You can't take that," Elias sputtered, stepping forward. "That’s Mr. Devereux’s—"
"Consider it my alimony," I said coldly. "Payment for marrying a scum."
I walked out to the garage, the engine of the beast roaring to life under my touch. I didn't look back at the house that had been my prison. I gunned the engine and tore out of the gates, into the dark night, just the same time Thane was driving in.
I had no idea where I was going. I just drove, crying my heart out at the life I had lived, my baby growing without a father, the life I swore my children would never have to live.
My vision blurred with fresh tears. I glanced down at my stomach, one hand leaving the steering wheel to cradle the tiny life inside.
"I'm sorry," I whispered to the baby. "I'm so sorry I couldn't give you a father."
The road ahead was dark, winding along the cliffside. I wiped my eyes, trying to focus.
Suddenly, headlights flooded the rearview mirror. Bright. Too close.
A truck horn blared.
I jerked the wheel, but the truck didn't swerve. It slammed into the back of the Bugatti.
Metal screamed as my hands locked onto the steering wheel in a death grip. The world spun into a dizzying blur as the car careened off the road, somersaulting violently into the dense bush.
My head cracked against the window. Glass shattered. The last thing I felt was the car flipping, rolling, until everything went black.
I woke up to the smell of gasoline and wet concrete. My head throbbed with a blinding pain. I tried to move, but my hands were tied behind my back.
I groaned at the pain hitting me everywhere, my vision blurry as I tried to remember where I was or what happened.
"She's awake."
I blinked, my vision swimming. Two figures stood over me, silhouetted by a harsh work light. I wasn't in the car. I was in an abandoned building, a warehouse of some kind.
“Ohh, my dear daughter.”
That voice. Mother's voice. I forced my head up, wincing through the blinding pain, until my eyes locked onto Mother and Camilla.
They were smiling. Not the fake, sweet smiles they used in public. These were feral smiles.
"You have a hard head, sister," Camilla said, nudging my ribs with the toe of her expensive heel. "I told Mom the crash would kill you, but you’re like a cockroach."
My heart stopped instantly. Kill me?
"Why?" I coughed, tasting blood. "Why are you doing this? What have I ever done to you?"
Mother squatted down, grabbing my chin in a painful grip. "Because you were never supposed to survive this long, Idalia darling. We only kept you around because my husband has a soft spot for you. He thinks you're the golden child or whatever."
"Father is away on business," Camilla added, checking her nails. "By the time he gets back, you’ll just be a tragic accident. A pathetic suicide. The distraught ex-wife who drove off a cliff."
"Please," I begged, my voice cracking. "I signed the papers, I left him. I won't come back, I promise, just let me go.”
I looked at Mother. "Mother, please... I’m pregnant. There’s a baby. Please don't harm my child. Please…"
Mother laughed. It was a dry, soulless sound. "A baby?” She wiggled her index finger, “more reasons you've to go dear. You think I’d let you spawn a heir to the Devereux fortune? That child would be a threat to Camilla’s children."
She stood up and turned to the spot where two large men were waiting.
"Finish it. She could be extremely stubborn, make sure she doesn't live."
"No!" I screamed, struggling against the ropes. "No, please! I won't tell anyone! I’ll disappear I promise. Just let me go. I'll never be a threat, mother please!"
One of the men stepped forward, pulling a silenced pistol from his jacket.
"And make sure she doesn't float," Mother ordered again, turning her back on me. "I don't want a body washing up."
"Wait!" I cried, staring down the barrel of the gun.
"Camilla! Please!"
"Goodbye, Idalia," Camilla whispered, blowing me a kiss.
A shot rang out, cutting my plea short. Pain exploded in my chest, a cold, burning fire that consumed everything.
I fell backward, the concrete rushing up to meet me. The sounds of the world faded, Camilla’s heels clicking away, the men grunting as they lifted my limp body.
“Throw her in the river.” That was the last thing I heard before I succumbed to the darkness.