He had foolishly believed he’d covered up his affair perfectly, but Shermaine had known everything all along.
She had silently endured unimaginable pain and resentment, pretending everything was fine, all the while planning her departure step by step.
In that moment, Ezra found himself wondering. Was Shermaine intending to make him feel every ounce of pain she had endured, little by little, as retribution?
Images flashed in his mind of him drinking the spiked wine and being coaxed into signing the divorce papers by Shermaine.
But he noticed, in those memories, her eyes weren’t filled with hate. No, they reflected relief and peace.
She hadn’t even wanted to hate him!
The entire night passed with Ezra wide awake.
He contacted everyone in his contacts who knew Shermaine. No one had heard from her.
Even Shermaine’s students discovered that they had been removed and blocked from her contacts.
+15 BONUS
Though Ezra still had some ways to reach her, it was clear they were useless.
All calls and messages were swallowed by silence.
A living, breathing person had simply vanished from the world, without a trace or a word.
But Ezra kept searching tirelessly.
He stubbornly believed that if he could just find Shermaine, explain everything, and sincerely apologize, she would come back to
him.
He couldn’t accept that Shermaine had truly let go of their years together.
A week passed, and Ezra didn’t leave the house. He ignored everything about the company and devoted himself to finding
Shermaine.
He had his tech team on standby 24/7, desperately trying to track her phone signal.
He barely slept, only two or three hours a day, and exhaustion took its toll on him. His eyes were bloodshot, and his mind was foggy.
One day, he succumbed to the exhaustion and fell asleep on the couch. In the middle of the night, he woke up, shivering from the cold. He whispered softly, “Shermaine, I’m so cold.”
He repeated the words over and over, but there was no response.
Opening his eyes in confusion, he found himself alone in the darkness.
Through the window, he saw warm light spilling from a neighbor’s home.
Ezra sat up f
from the couch, his face weary as he took in the scene. His eyes began to well up with tears.
In that instant, loneliness and pain flooded over him, threatening to drown him.
