“Cherity, please. For the sake of the eight years we were married, believe me—just this once,” I began.
“I didn’t do anything to Barrett,” I said. “I don’t know where he is. I’ve already agreed to the divorce. Ask the lawyer if you don’t believe me!”
I was frantic to prove my innocence, but Cherity just stared at me, her eyes like ice.
She let out a sharp laugh.
“You think lying like this will buy you time? If you’d been so willing to divorce me in our past lives, your brother wouldn’t have died right in front of you!”
The next thing I knew, she pressed the lit end of her cigarette into my collarbone.
A wave of searing pain hit me, and I couldn’t stop the groan that tore from my throat.
But her gaze just stayed merciless.
“It hurts, doesn’t it?” she sneered. “Barrett’s gone. The pain I feel? It’s a thousand times worse than this.”
She glanced at the burn she’d left on my skin. Something flickered in her eyes before she finally tossed the cigarette away.
Garland’s POV
Her voice turned hoarse as she questioned me again. “You know how much Barrett means to me. Tell me—where is he?”
I was utterly hopeless, shaking my head frantically. “I told you, I really don’t know! Instead of wasting time interrogating me, why don’t you send someone to go look for him?!”
Cherity was silent for a long while, then she said coldly, “Bring Ashwyn here.”
My breath hitched. A wave of hopelessness crushed over me.
Ashwyn had been a teacher at an international school. He was still in class when Cherity’s men came and dragged him away.
Now, standing in front of me with a confused look on his face, he asked, “Bro, what’s going on? Why are you kneeling?”
I shut my eyes for a moment, then rushed over and grabbed onto Cherity’s pants, begging her, completely lowering myself.
“I’ll do whatever you want! You can even take my life. Just please… let my brother go!”
But her expression remained as cold as stone.
In a panic, I grabbed the fruit knife from the table, pressing the tip hard against my neck—just a bit more pressure, and it would slice through the artery.
“I swear on my life,” I cried out, “if I ever did anything to Barrett, may I bleed out and die right here!”
I asked, “Cherity, didn’t you say that no matter what happened, you’d believe me?”
My voice started to break, trembling with sobs.