He Kept Postponing Our Marriage for Her Crises… So I Ended It Myself Chapter 16
Julian didn’t sleep for three days.
He burned through every connection he had searching for Audrey.
Every lead, every location, searched and cleared. Audrey and the snake had both vanished, like neither of them had ever existed.
Meanwhile, the Baycrest media was having a field day. Each headline was worse than the last.
[Sterling heir goes too far: python found in basement of family estate]
[Socialite wife locked in basement with live python: domestic abuse or attempted murder?]
Julian didn’t care anymore.
He hadn’t changed his clothes in three days. He just sat in the living room.
Every plate Ms. Jenkins set in front of him went untouched.
On the fourth day, the Crawfords showed up.
Vivian Crawford, their adoptive mother, showed up in person.
She wore a black skirt suit, and that unreadable smile was already in place.
“Julian.” She stood in the middle of the living room, eyes sweeping the room. “Audrey decorated this place, didn’t she?”
Julian didn’t move from the sofa.
Vivian sat across from him, pulled a cigarette from her purse, and lit it.
She exhaled a thin stream of smoke.
“Any luck finding her?”
“No.”
“You won’t.” Vivian flicked the ash. “If she doesn’t want to be found, you’ll never find her. Take my
word for it.”
Julian’s head came up. Something sparked in his eyes, desperate and raw. “You think she hid? You think she’s alive?”
“Thank God… oh, thank God…”
Vivian’s smile thinned, something almost tender in its cruelty. “Hard to say.”
“With that snake, and that much blood loss… if she even survived it at all…”
Her gaze sharpened on Julian.
“Do you know why I adopted her? Not because I pitied her. Because she was brilliant.”
“Chloe spent four years with me and still couldn’t read a basic ledger. Audrey was there three months and was already reconciling my books. So who do you think was more valuable to me?”
Something shifted in Julian’s expression.
“You thought I favored Chloe?” Vivian shook her head. “Chloe’s a pretty prop. I kept her because she’s dumb enough, compliant enough, and shameless enough to be useful. But Audrey, Audrey is different. She’s so sharp it scares me. And that’s exactly why I could never let her go.”
She crushed out the cigarette and leaned forward.
“Do you have any idea how many times she saved you?”
“The first time Sterling’s finances cratered, she quietly rerouted profits from one of my subsidiaries to plug the gap.”
“When the Brooks family tried to gut your supply chain, she spent three months building a counterproposal, sent it out under my name, and shut them down.”
“And that little problem with the kickbacks on your joint venture, the one that could’ve buried you? Who do you think made it disappear? Your wife. On her knees in my office, begging me to pull
strings.”
Julian’s hands were shaking.
“All of that, and how much did you know?” Vivian’s voice went cold. “None of it. You didn’t know a thing. All you knew was that Chloe cried and Chloe played the victim. And you bought it.”
“But you said…” Julian’s voice was wrecked, barely audible. “You said Audrey drugged Chloe and pushed her into Nathaniel’s father’s bed.”
Vivian laughed.
“Did those words ever actually leave my mouth? Or was it Chloe’s? Or did you just hear whispers
and fill in the blanks yourself?”
Julian opened his mouth. Nothing came out.
“I just let you believe what you wanted to believe.”
Vivian stood. “You took my silence as confirmation. You interpreted it as the Crawford family’s official stance. That’s on you.”
She started for the door, then turned back.
“Whether Chloe’s faking or not, I don’t care. She’s a pawn. She’s your problem now. And when the Brooks family comes looking for blood, you’d better have a plan.”
Julian rose to his feet. “Why? Why would you let me believe…”
“I never lied to you. You’re the one who chose not to believe your own wife.”
The words landed like a blade.
Vivian shook her head. “Do you know why I finally let Audrey go?”!
“Not because she wasn’t good enough. Because she was too good. So good that I knew, eventually, she’d come for me, to protect you.”
“I only wanted to use Chloe to drive a wedge between you, pull Audrey back into my orbit. I didn’t expect that her own husband would lock her in a basement with a snake.”
She opened the door and looked back at him one last time.
“You know, Julian, you’re even worse than I am.”
The door closed.
Julian stood there, hollowed out.
Slowly, almost numbly, he slid down the wall until he hit the floor.
He remembered Audrey’s face when she’d said, “Sign the divorce papers. I’ll turn myself in today.”
She’d held on for so long.
The moment she decided to let it all go, what must that have cost her?
