Beneath the Secret, Behind the Tears - Chapter 7

Kiera spun around to face Debi, her face a mask of rage. “Who the hell are you? Get out of my house!”

Debi ignored her completely, her cold gaze fixed on Ivan and my parents.

She walked calmly into the center of the room, the remaining party guests shrinking away from her. She held up a thick Manila envelope.

“This is a legally binding document,” she announced to the silent room.

“Signed by Aliana this afternoon. In it, she formally and irrevocably renounces the Donovan name and any and all claims to the Donovan family estate, fortune, and properties, present and future.”

Richard let out a strangled sound. Eleanor began to sob quietly. This wasn’t part of the plan.

They had wanted me managed, controlled but not gone. Not like this. They never thought I would walk away from the money, from the name they thought defined me.

“She gave it all up,” Debi said, her voice laced with a fury she wasn’t trying to hide.

“Because she would rather have nothing than have anything that was touched by any of you. Do you have any idea what you’ve done? You found a daughter who survived years of hell in the foster system, a resilient, brilliant, loving woman, and you systematically broke her heart for five straight years. You didn’t just lie to her. You gaslit her, you isolated her, and you conspired with her tormentor. All for what? To appease your pathetic guilt over this manipulative creature?”

Debi’s gaze shifted to Kiera, who flinched as if struck.

Then, Debi turned to Ivan. She pulled a second document from her briefcase. “And for you, Ivan,” she said, her voice dropping to a dangerously low level. “This is for you.”

She slapped the papers into his hand. “A petition for divorce. Citing adultery and extreme cruelty. My client has requested that the process be expedited. She wants nothing from you. No alimony, no assets. She just wants to be free of you.”

Debi leaned in closer. “And don’t worry, we have evidence. Lots of it.” She gestured to the gift box.

“A five-year affair. A secret child. A conspiracy to defraud. It’s all there. The press would have a field day with the story of the golden couple, the CEO of Hughes Biomedical and his philanthropist fiancée, and the sordid secret you all kept.”

Ivan started at the divorce papers, his face pale. “I love her,” he whispered, the words sounding hallow and absurd even to his own ears. “I can fix this.”

Debi let out a short, sharp laugh. “Love? You don’t know the first thing about love. You drugged her, Ivan. You and her parents planned to sedate her tonight so she wouldn’t be an inconvenience at your son’s birthday party. That’s not love. That’s monstrous.”

The remaining guests gasped, their whispers turning into a roar of scandal. This was more than a family drama; it was something dark and twisted.

Ivan’s composure finally shattered. He stumbled backward, shaking his head in denial, but the truth was undeniable, playing in a loop from the small speaker on the table.

Debi’s work was done.she gave them all once last look of utter contempt. “Don’t try to find her,” she said, her voice a final, chilling warning.

“She has erased every trace of her existence. As of tonight, Aliana Donovan is dead. You killed her. I hope you can live with her ghost.”

She turned and walked out, leaving a crater of silence and devastation in her wake.

The party was over. The guest fled, eager to escape the toxic fallout. Soon, only the four of them were left, standing in the ruins of their lives.

Ivan finally broke. He ran front the house, got into the car, and sped away, desperately calling my phone, a number that was already disconnected.

He called Debi, who hung up on him. He called the airport, the police, every private investigator he knew.

Nothing. It was as if I had evaporated into thin air.

He spent the rest of the night driving aimlessly through the city, clutching the divorce papers in his hand. He went back to our apartment.

It was cold and empty. My closet was bare. My books were gone.

Everything that was me had been scrubbed from the space. All that was left was a single photo on the nightstand- a picture of us from our engagement day.

He had been smiling at the camera. I had been smiling at him, my eyes full of a love he had taken and thrown away.

He sank to the floor, the photograph clutched in his hand, and for the first time, he wept.

He wept for the woman he had lost, not because he loved her, but because he had finally, truly been caught.