“From today on, remember Mr. Lynch’s face. From now on, every business under Vargas Corporation must give him priority service.”
Enzo tossed the suit aside with an arrogant flick. “No need. I don’t lack that. Leave it to those pitiful people who aren’t loved.”
Veronica didn’t seem to mind. “As long as you’re happy.”
I stood there, watching the way her eyes lingered on Enzo without once straying away, and the last trace of warmth in my heart turned completely cold.
When I returned to the villa I had lived in for three years, the access system failed to recognize me. Just as I reached for my phone to call the housekeeper, the door opened from inside.
Enzo stood there, wearing my slippers and wrapped in Veronica’s bathrobe. He frowned as if looking at something filthy.
“I thought you were a decent man who knew his place. Clinging to Veronica, does that make sense to you? Wearing white to copy me, does that make sense to you?”
I stood outside as the night wind cut through my clothes. Yeah, it really made no sense. What was I still holding on to?
I lowered my head and took off the diamond ring Veronica had personally designed, then placed my black card, car keys, and our marriage certificate neatly in a row, everything that symbolized “Mr. Perkins.”
After that, I turned around and never looked back.
Taking out a brand-new phone, I dialed a number. “Hello, it’s me. From now on, there’s no more Mr. Perkins in this world.”
Veronica never reached out again, probably thinking I was still throwing a childish tantrum, but it didn’t matter. I was too busy to care.
The tabloids, however, remained tireless. In every photo, she and Enzo appeared together, and on her once-cold face lingered a tenderness I had never seen before.
When asked about her and Enzo, Veronica neither confirmed nor denied. I swiped past the news, powered off my phone, and turned back to the pile of documents before me.
All the assets I had once used to climb toward Veronica I sold off, converted into cash, and donated every cent to a grassroots anti-trafficking group.
The person in charge was so excited they could barely speak, thanking me again and again, but I only stared blankly at the photos of the rescued children.
Veronica and I had once escaped from the traffickers, but we got lost in the mountains.
Little Veronica gave me the last bit of wild fruit she had picked while filling her own stomach with mud, yet even so, we were caught and dragged back.
The rusty iron rod struck our bodies, and I screamed in terror while Veronica shielded me beneath her, muffling her groans as she endured all the blows. The stench of blood filled the air, and she was on the brink of death.
When the traffickers got drunk, I seized the chance, crawled through a dog hole, and called the police.
Later, Veronica was taken away by her family, who had arrived, and I didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye. Her promise before losing consciousness, that she would marry me, became my only obsession for years.
I used all my strength, step by step, to reach her side and become her husband, but it was nothing more than a one-man show, because Veronica had long forgotten.
When I returned to the short-term rental I was staying at, Enzo was sitting inside leisurely. He even lifted his eyes and smiled.
“You’re back?”
The next second, police sirens wailed outside, and the door was slammed open by a powerful force as a group of men in black rushed in, pressing me to the ground without a word.
“Don’t move!”
Then Veronica rushed in, throwing herself into Enzo’s arms with her voice trembling in fear.
“Veronica, it’s okay now. It was my oversight that led you to be kidnapped.”
