104 Everything Will Be Okay
knew Mr. Harmon Senior would want to keep Leonard around to hatch a plan, maybe even to give him a ece of his mind.
crolling through Twitter, I saw the video’s trending status had plummeted.
armon Group’s legal team had issued a statement, claiming they’d contacted the police, who confirmed e video was an Al–generated face swap. They didn’t bother mentioning that I’d been drugged or that Jill id the others had come to my rescue.
I called, offering to help clear things up, but I turned her down.
ie Harmon family seemed well aware of Lily’s involvement, and this was their way of shielding her.
valked into my room, opened the drawer, and pulled out the divorce agreement. I had printed dozens of iples, so I took out two, signed my name, pressed my seal onto the paper, and left them on the couch in e living room.
lanned to wait for Leonard to come home and sign, but he didn’t show up that night.
te
e next morning. I booked a small van through an app to help with the move.
lidn’t have much to pack–just a few personal items. No jewelry, just my clothes, shoes, and essentials.
ST scanned the room, my gaze landed on the red leash in the corner. It hit me hard, a reminder of iddy, who was living happily with someone else now. My throat tightened, and I tossed the leash raight into the trash.
lidn’t need Buddy to remember me; it was better for him to thrive with his new owner. Leonard didn’t
ed the memory of a dog that once adored me, nor did he need to recall that I had ever occupied this
ace
lialed Emma’s number again. “Emma, did you manage to tidy up the apartment?”
y had taken my daughter there, and after the police had come, I hadn’t returned. Emma had been. oking after everything since then,
had a cleaning service come in, and I replaced the old lack with a keypad. It was broken,” Emma said, r voice steady but laced with concern. “Eva, where are you now? Are you moving back?”
eah.” I didn’t sugarboat anything, giving her a brief rundown of the situation. She didn’t hesitate, saying e’d take time off to come help me.
is time, I welcomed her offer.
hought I was ready, but as I prepared to leave, a deep sense of loss gripped me.
ien Emma arrived, the van was already waiting outside. The driver, a bright–eyed young guy, cheerfully Iped me with my suitcases
fore stepping out for good, I glanced at my left ring finger, roy wedding ring gleaming in the light. With al ep breath, I removed it and placed it on the divorce agreement.
the door, my fingers brushed against the necklace around my neck. My throat tightened, and with mbling hands, I took it off, setting it down beside the ring.
ere was no point in holding onto the last fragments of my life with Leonard.
ima watched me with concern, then wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “Eva, everything will be
ay.
“Yeah, everything will be okay.” I echoed softly. As long as I was leaving Leonard behind, I knew I could. finally start to heal.
The apartment was small, just a single room, so there wasn’t much to clean. The cleaning lady had done a thorough job, even dusting the corners.
“Lily really managed to find this place; she’s something else. If only she put this effort into her work,” Emma remarked, her hands busy organizing my things.
“But be
her efforts are clearly misdirected. Now she’s got what she wanted, right? A perfect match for a loser. I hope they lock themselves away forever and never harm anyone else.”
I laughed softly at Emma’s words. Just then, my phone lit up with Leonard’s name flashing on the screen. I hung up again.
He’d sent me dozens of messages, and with a sigh, I opened one. There was a 59–second voice message waiting for me, but I didn’t bother to listen, I typed out my reply.
“Leonard, we can only get a divorce; there’s no other way. Think carefully before messaging me again, or will file for divorce.”
With that, I turned off my phone, dismissing any concem about whether he would spiral into chaos.
Honestly, I couldn’t understand Leonard. There was nothing left for him in our marriage. If this was just about revenge for the past, I’d suffer too; these three years had been far from easy for me.
I used to think he might still love me, but after everything, I realized he didn’t love me as much as I had hoped. Maybe I was just an ideal he’d grown tired of once he had me.
Regardless of his reasons, I knew I didn’t need to keep dragging this out any longer.
Emma was buzzing with excitement as she mapped out the small space.
This place needs a partition for better zoning,” she said, her eyes gleaming with ideas.
“I’ll get you a nice wardrobe; your beautiful clothes deserve a proper home,” she added, already envisioning where it would go.
“And we definitely need a comfy couch. This old thing is a relic. I’ll order one right away,” she declared, glancing at the threadbare couch with a grimace.
As she lifted the mattress, a cloud of dust erupted, making us both cough.
“Ugh, what is this?” I muttered, wiping my eyes.
That was when I noticed something odd beneath the bed. The slats were arranged like fish bones, and something was obstructing the center. I crawled under, curiosity piqued, and found a notebook taped down with clear adhesive.
“Help me with this,” I said, tugging at it. Emma knelt beside me, brushing off the dust as I finally pulled it free.
“What is this? Please don’t tell me it’s a ledger from the cleaning lady,” she quipped, but I barely heard her.
When I saw the familiar handwriting on the cover, my heart sank. I opened the notebook, and we both froze.
It was my mother’s journal–more accurately, it was an investigative journal.
