Chapter 7
After a sleepless night, at dawn, he texted Zoey.
[Are you awake? I overreacted last night. Don’t overthink it. Raven is my sister, and I couldn’t let your ex hurt her.)
[The wedding is in two days. Rest well. I’ll send someone to take care of you while you recover.)
He sent the messages so quickly he didn’t notice she never responded.
For two days, he stayed by Raven’s bedside without leaving.
Until the morning of the wedding, when the bridal car arrived outside the mansion.
Zoey was nowhere to be seen.
Aiden’s patience ran out as a bad feeling crept in.
Rushing inside, he shouted:
“Where’s Zoey? Today’s the wedding! Why aren’t these jewels unpacked yet?”
But only confused expressions from the staff answered him.
“Miss Parker? She left two days ago and hasn’t returned. I thought she was with you…”
Aiden completely lost it.
“Zoey is injured! And you just let her stay somewhere else?”
Calling his assistant over, he couldn’t contain his rage:
‘Where’s Zoey? Didn’t I tell someone to take care of her? Why wasn’t I informed she hadn’t returned?”
The assistant’s face went white with fear.
‘Sir, didn’t you say we didn’t need to send anyone anymore?”
‘When did I ever say that?”
Trembling, the assistant pulled out his phone showing their chat history.
Aiden suddenly remembered Raven playing with his phone that night.
His blood froze.
“I never sent that message!”
“Zoey’s been missing for two days and none of you knew? Why are you standing there? Find her!”
After sending his assistant away, Aiden searched the entire mansion.
But everything belonging to Zoey had vanished.
In their place were charity donation receipts.
His heart nearly jumped out of his chest as he silently begged.
Zoey, don’t go with him.
Don’t disappoint me.
I’m Dong Ploving their Games
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Chapter 7
Please…
But no one answered his plea.
As minutes ticked by, the wedding ceremony start time arrived.
Zoey remained missing.
When the hotel called for the tenth time, Aiden finally broke down.
“Cancel the wedding! Don’t contact me again!”
He couldn’t believe Zoey would leave with her ex-husband.
For three years, that man had been the person she hated most.
He searched every corner they’d once visited together.
The amusement park. Shopping malls. City streets.
At the university entrance, he finally met students who had seen Zoey days earlier.
Aiden learned she had been there.
And that she looked terrible.
A sense of dread washed over him.
He decided to file a missing person report.
With police assistance, he tracked her to the marriage registry office.
The clerk remembered his name.
‘Miss Parker? Yes, she came to schedule a marriage registration. But when she learned you were already married, she left without saying anything.”
Aiden froze as his five-year lie was brutally exposed.
Loey’s face flashed repeatedly in his mind.
Her recent strange behavior. Her tears.
n that moment, everything suddenly made sense.
He’d thought she didn’t know the truth-that he was just acting, preparing their wedding.
But she knew everything.
Tears suddenly fell from his eyes.
For the first time in his life, he panicked completely.
As he begged police to investigate quickly,
his assistant’s call came through.
“We caught the arsonist, but…”
Without waiting to hear more, Aiden drove straight there.
A stack of transaction records lay before him.
The man was indeed hired to set the fire, but not by a Frenchman-by Raven.
His sanity crumbled as he laughed bitterly.
A laugh uglier than crying.
The memory of coldly accusing Zoey was still fresh.
But now the truth revealed he’d hated the wrong person.
And trusted the wrong one.
He rushed to the hospital to confront Raven.
Running into Zoey’s attending physician, he suddenly stopped.
After questioning him, the doctor made no effort to hide his contempt.
“So you’re the father of Miss Parker’s baby?”
“I thought you were enemies. Your wife miscarries after severe injury at two months pregnant and you don’t even care? What kind of man are you?”
With that, the doctor walked away quickly.
The word “pregnant” hit him like a hammer. His breathing trembled.
Searching the entire hospital, he only found Zoey’s discharge record.
From the same night Raven was “attacked.”
All the truth became clear.
He’d been incredibly stupid.
Actually believing a woman would generously share her husband with another woman.
Raven played innocent in public while secretly hurting Zoey at every turn.
And he, with his misunderstandings, never once stood by Zoey’s side.
He had rescued Zoey from abroad.
Yet now he had personally shattered all her hopes.
His words “I regret saving you” echoed endlessly in his ears.
He raised his hand and slapped himself hard across the face several times.
Blood stained the corner of his mouth.
Raven appeared in the hallway, bouncing along cheerfully.
When she saw him, her expression instantly turned fragile.
“Aiden, you’re here?”
“Did you come to see me? I’m sorry-did I ruin your wedding with Zoey again?”
This was the wife he’d cherished for five years.
This was the supposedly injured fire victim.
Without saying a word, he escorted her into the hospital room and l-
Chapter 7
“Don’t let Raven leave this room until after she delivers the baby!”
A doctor passing by the door gave him a puzzled look.
“What delivery? She’s not even pregnant.”
Aiden suddenly laughed-a laugh bordering on insanity.
With the divorce papers signed, he sent Raven abroad, forbidding her from ever setting foot in the Sinclair home again.
Days passed, and Zoey remained missing.
He knew she blamed him.
And he no longer had any right to appear before her.
One month later, he knelt at the graves of Zoey’s parents.
He knocked his head against the ground a hundred times until blood seeped from his forehead.
“Sir, Ma’am, I’m sorry. I broke my promise.”
“Please watch over Zoey from heaven. Let her find peace and happiness for the rest of her life.”
Lucia Morh is a passionate storyteller who brings emotions to life through her words. When she’s not writing, she finds peace nurturing her garden.