Chapter 2 - The Cruelest GoodbyeJack knew Hannah would never accept a vague explanation.
If he told her about the plan, she would refuse to leave him. She would insist they fight the threat together.
Daniel warned that their enemies might be watching their home or listening to their phones.
“The separation has to look real,” he said. “She has to believe it.”
Jack hated him for saying it.
But Jack hated himself more for agreeing.
Three days later, he asked Hannah to meet him in the living room.
She entered carrying two cups of coffee and immediately noticed the envelope on the table.
“What is that?”
“Divorce papers.”
Hannah laughed softly, believing it was some terrible joke.
Jack did not smile.
The color slowly left her face.
“Why?”
He had rehearsed the answer until every word felt like broken glass.
“Because I don’t want this life anymore.”
“What life?”
“This marriage.”
Hannah placed the coffee cups on the table. One tipped over, spilling across the wood, but neither of them moved to clean it.
“You were talking about taking time away from work last week.”
“I changed my mind.”
“You don’t end a marriage because you changed your mind.”
Jack forced himself to look directly at her.
“I married you because you were different from my family. I thought that would be enough. It isn’t.”
Hannah stared at him as if she no longer recognized the man standing in front of her.
“Is there someone else?”
“No.”
“Did I do something?”
“No.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
Jack almost broke.
He wanted to take her into his arms and tell her about the photographs, the threats and the plan to make her disappear from the Mercer family’s world.
Then he saw Daniel’s final warning in his mind.
If she knows, her reactions won’t be believable. Anyone watching will know the divorce is false.
So Jack said the one thing he knew would drive Hannah away.
“I stopped loving you.”
The silence that followed stayed with him for months.
Hannah looked down at her wedding ring.
When she spoke again, her voice was barely audible.
“How long?”
“Long enough.”
She removed the ring.
Jack watched her place it on top of the divorce papers.
Her fingers shook only once.
“I hope,” she said, “that one day you understand exactly what you threw away.”
She walked upstairs.
Jack remained beside the table, staring at the ring until he heard the bedroom door close.
Then he sat down and covered his face with both hands.
The divorce was completed quickly.
Jack gave Hannah the townhouse, most of their shared savings and complete control over the small publishing company she had started before their marriage.
She refused nearly everything else.
Daniel arranged for a private security firm to watch Hannah from a distance. He personally handed Jack weekly reports confirming that she was safe.
Those reports were lies.
The guards assigned to Hannah did not work for an independent firm. They worked for a shell company controlled by Daniel.
Jack did not discover that until much later.
At the time, he believed the reports because he needed to believe them.
Hannah returned to work and told no one how badly the divorce had affected her.
She smiled through meetings. She answered emails. She slept for only a few hours each night and stopped entering the coffee shop where she and Jack had spent their first date.
Three weeks after Jack left, she fainted during a staff presentation.
Her assistant rushed her to a clinic.
The doctor returned with a gentle smile.
“You’re pregnant.”
Hannah stared at the ultrasound monitor.
A tiny heartbeat filled the room.
For the first time since the divorce, she cried.
Not because she was unhappy.
Because the sound was beautiful.
And because the person she wanted beside her had told her he no longer loved her.
That evening, Hannah typed a message to Jack.
I need to tell you something important. Please call me.
She hesitated before pressing send.
The reply arrived ten minutes later.
There is nothing left to discuss. Do not contact me again.
Hannah read the words until the screen blurred.
What she did not know was that Jack had never received her message.
Daniel had.
He had secretly cloned Jack’s old phone during the security investigation. Every message from Hannah was redirected before reaching Jack.
Daniel deleted her words.
Then he sent his own reply.
May you like
Hannah placed the phone on the table and rested both hands over her stomach.
“All right,” she whispered to her unborn child. “It’s you and me.”
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