“Find her!” Dave’s voice thundered through the office. Papers scattered from the desk as he slammed his hand down. “She’s not some random person off the street—she’s Elisa Morales! Everyone knows her face, her name, her story! How can no one find her?”
His assistant stood frozen, trembling. “Sir, we’ve checked all the local hotels, hospitals, even airports. No record of her anywhere. It’s like she vanished.”
“Vanished?” Dave repeated, his voice cracking. “She’s famous. People don’t just disappear when they’re famous!”
Another man from security cleared his throat. “Sir… we think she paid someone off. Or… someone’s helping her hide.”
Dave’s chest tightened. The world around him started to blur—the sound of phones ringing, people whispering outside, all fading into static.
He turned toward the big screen on the wall, still replaying the clip that had destroyed everything.
“I didn’t leak anything about Franco. I love that boy. I would never use him to hurt anyone. But yes, I lied about who I was. I regret it every day. I’m stepping down, and I’m done.”
Her voice. Her face. The tears that fell so quietly while she spoke the truth.
Now it was everywhere—every channel, every headline. Elisa Morales Confesses. Dave Morales’ Brother Revealed to be his illegitimate son.
The company stock had dropped overnight. Sponsors were backing out. His rivals were circling like vultures, using his family’s humiliation to strengthen their campaigns.
He felt the air leave his lungs. His world—the one he built so carefully—was collapsing.
The office door burst open. Sandra stormed in, eyes flashing. “What have you done?!” she hissed. “Do you have any idea how much shame you’ve brought to this family? I was right. You should have never let her hold the mic again, and so now she twist it, and where is she now?”
“Mother, not now.”
“Not now?” she snapped. “The board is demanding answers! The investors are panicking! And you—you just stood by while that woman went on live television and destroyed everything we’ve built!”
His father, David, followed behind, calm but cold. “You should’ve controlled this from the beginning. You let her get too close… believing you can control her. Now look where it’s led us.”
Dave clenched his fists. “Enough.”
“Excuse me?” Sandra glared.
“I said enough!” he roared, the sound echoing against the walls. “I’m trying to fix this, but you’re not helping by throwing blame around!”
Sandra’s face hardened. “Then fix it fast. Because if you don’t, there won’t be anything left to fix.”
He stormed past them, chest burning. “I’ll handle it my way.”
He ordered the butler to prepare the car. “To the countryside,” he said. “To Elisa’s grandmother’s place. That’s the only place she’d go.”
The drive was long and tense. Rainclouds gathered as the car sped down the empty road, the air thick with the scent of an approaching storm.
Halfway through the drive, his phone rang. Liana.
He hesitated before answering. “What?”
“Dave—please,” Liana’s voice trembled. “It’s my sister. She… she tried to kill herself. They found her unconscious. She’s at the hospital. She just wants to be with you and Franco. Now that you actually broke up with Elisa, maybe you can be together—”
He gripped the wheel tighter, eyes fixed on the road. “And why are you telling me this?”
“Because she needs you!”
He gave a bitter laugh. “Need me? Did she forget that she was the one who left me? She didn’t even want our child back then, so I had to raise him as my brother. Now? I don’t care anymore, Liana. I shouldn’t have cared at all.”
That was his mistake.
When Liana first came back, he’d wondered—foolishly—if the past could be rewritten. If maybe she still loved him, and they could start again. She had been his first love, after all, the woman he once thought he couldn’t live without.
But it didn’t take long to see the truth. Whatever they’d had was gone, hollow, replaced by convenience and pretense. He didn’t love her—not anymore.
So he stopped trying and honestly want to focus on Elisa. Yet now, as everything around him fell apart, he realized how every choice since then—every lie, every silence—had led him to this exact ruin.
“Dave—”
He ended the call.
Silence filled the car again, but his mind wasn’t quiet.
Images of Elisa flooded back—her soft laughter in the mornings, the way she would tilt her head when she was thinking, how she always defended Franco when he got into trouble. He remembered how she’d once told him, “I can handle the lies, Dave. Just don’t ever make me lie to myself.”
He thought she’d never leave. She loved her work, her reputation, her spotlight. He thought she’d choose those over anything else. Had he miscalculated her that badly?
The plane ride to the province was quiet. He sat by the window, staring at the fading clouds, remembering the way she used to fall asleep on his shoulder during flights. His chest ached with something between regret and disbelief.
By the time he reached the small town, the rain had started to fall. The road was muddy, the air heavy with the smell of wet earth.
He stopped in front of the old wooden house—the one Elisa had mentioned once when she spoke about her grandmother.
He stepped out, drenched within seconds, and called out, Granny! Granny, it’s me—Dave! Is Elisa here?”
No answer. He called again, louder. Still nothing.
He tried knocking on the door, again and again, until his hands hurt. Finally, an old woman from across the road appeared, holding an umbrella.
“She’s not here anymore,” the woman said softly. “Left two nights ago with her granddaughter. Didn’t say where they were going.”
Dave froze. “What do you mean she left?”
“She just… packed and left. Said will start a new life with her granddaughter.”
He turned his gaze toward the empty house. Rain trickled down his face, cold and relentless. He stood there for a long moment, the storm swallowing every sound but the beating of his heart.
His phone buzzed in his pocket again. A message from his lawyer. He opened it, hands trembling.
The court has granted Elisa’s petition for divorce. The judgment is final. You are no longer a couple.
