Her fingers closed around the cup; they were ice-cold. She looked at him, decision settling like iron in her chest. “Jonathan, I’m leaving tomorrow. I won’t stay here.”
He blinked, then nodded with steady support. “Where do you want to go? I’ll arrange it.”
“I don’t know yet. Just… let it end here.” Her jaw was set. “Everything here ends.”
“Okay.” He bowed his head slightly. “I’ll see you off at the airport tomorrow night. Before you go—dinner. One last farewell.”
She offered a faint, tired smile. “The Western restaurant. The one we used to go to.” It was where she and Adrian had first been young and hopeful. She wanted the place where their beginning had been to mark the end.
That evening the restaurant smelled of butter and old oak. She hadn’t expected to run into them — but there they were: Adrian and Vanessa, laughing, shoulder-to-shoulder as if the world belonged to them. Adrian’s face shifted the moment he saw Clara in the doorway—surprise cracking into something raw and animal: rage.
He shoved Vanessa away like an afterthought and stalked over, seizing Clara’s wrist with a grip that burned. “Where have you been? Who’s that man you were meeting? Don’t lie—who’s your adulterer?” His breath came hard. “I, Adrian, rule this city. I’ll find him and ruin him.”
Vanessa darted forward in a frenzy. Her nails hooked into Clara’s hair, claws raking a red line across her cheek. “Bitch! You dare show your face here and seduce my man?”
Clara—still weak from the fever—staggered backward. The shove sent her down; her forehead smashed the corner of the table. Pain flared hot and sharp. A shocked hush rippled through the room.
Adrian leaned over her like a conqueror. “Listen,” he hissed, voice low and threatening, “until those divorce papers are signed, you’re still my wife. Try to cheat and I’ll bury you—both you and whoever sleeps with you.”
At the sight of Clara on the floor, something in Jonathan broke open. The calm man became a blade. Without a word, he stepped forward and delivered a clean, brutal kick to Adrian’s stomach. Adrian doubled over with a strangled grunt, stumbling back.
“Adrian, you’re courting death,” Jonathan said, voice low and cold. He bent, gathered Clara in one careful motion, and planted himself between her and the wound Adrian had become.