Chapter 5
Giovanni raced upstairs, practically throwing open the door to Charlotte’s hospital room. He stopped dead in his tracks.
The bed was empty.
He intercepted a passing nurse. “Where’s the patient from this room? Where’s Charlotte?”
Intimidated by the wild look in his eyes, the nurse stammered, “She was discharged. A while ago.”
“Discharged?” Giovanni stared at her. “Who signed her out? Why didn’t anyone call me?”
“She signed herself out, sir.”
Giovanni stood frozen..
She’d left on her own? Without a word?
Had she already seen the news?
He yanked his phone back out and called Spencer. “Find out where Charlotte went.”
There was a heavy beat of silence on the line. When Spencer finally spoke, the panic in his voice had tipped over into sheer terror. “Mr. Castillo, things just got worse. I’m heading to your place right now… the house is on fire.”
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Twenty minutes later, Giovanni stepped out of the car. He stared, completely numb, at the scene in front of him.
The entire villa had burned to the ground. There was absolutely nothing left.
He grabbed Spencer by the collar, his eyes wide and bloodshot. “Where’s Lottie?”
Spencer pulled a document from his briefcase and handed it to him. “Mr. Castillo, the court sent this to the office.”
Giovanni froze.
He stared down at the lettering, “Divorce Decree.”
He snatched the divorce decree. His and Charlotte’s names stared right
back at him.
“This is impossible,” he muttered. “Lottie and I never finalized a divorce. This has to be a fake.”
Spencer pulled another document from his bag.
“Mr. Castillo, the court sent the judgment, too. It says Mrs. Castillo submitted evidence of your affair a while ago.”
“Impossible.” An icy wave of panic hit Giovanni’s chest. “Lottie
wouldn’t leave me. She loves me too much to just walk away. How the
hell could she…”
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Then, it hit him. Charlotte’s recent behavior-specifically, how unusually distant she’d been since her last memory erasure.
Had she been planning to leave him this whole time?
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While he had been so damn sure he was in control, had she secretly finalized everything behind his back?
“When did she file for this?”
Spencer hesitated. “The day after her car accident.”
Giovanni just stood there, paralyzed.
But Spencer wasn’t done.
“Building management pulled the security footage. It shows Mrs. Castillo started the fire herself. Sir, I’m afraid her latest memory erasure was a complete failure.”
Giovanni slumped to the ground in front of the charred ruins.
She had gotten her memories back.
She remembered the past they had tried to bury, and she had firmly made up her mind to leave him.
All this time, he had been so smug, thinking he had everything handled, assuming he could just wipe her mind again if anything ever resurfaced,
The ashes in front of him proved just how dead wrong he had been.
He looked up, his voice a hoarse whisper. “Find out where Lottie
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went. She doesn’t have any family left in the world. She has nowhere else to go.”
Giovanni made a silent vow right then and there-once he found her, he would give her a sincere apology.
Even if he had to drop to his knees and beg, swallow his pride, and chase her to the ends of the earth, he would pay whatever price it took
to win her back.
This time, he would devote himself to her completely, and they’d live out the rest of their lives together.
He convinced himself that if he truly owned up to his mistakes, Charlotte would surely forgive him.
That thought brought a sliver of comfort, and his usual confidence started to creep back.
But before he could track Lottie down, he needed to deal with Elvira.
Giovanni drove straight to Elvira’s house.
The second he stepped out of his car, he heard shouting pouring out through her half-open front door.
Elvira was screaming at a man. “What do you want from me? That day was just an accident! Will you stop harassing me?”
The man laughed, a harsh, mocking sound. “You think this pocket change is gonna make me disappear? Don’t bet on it. Let me remind you, Elvira. I’m the father of the kid you’re carrying.
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“You’re set to get a massive payout from this baby, aren’t you? I want four million dollars. Not a penny less.”
“Four million dollars?” Elvira shrieked. “Where the hell do you expect me to get that? I haven’t dealt with Charlotte yet, so I don’t have that kind of cash lying around.
“And this is your fault! I paid you to help leak my affair with
Giovanni, and you barely bought any online traffic. I don’t even know if Charlotte will actually confront him for a divorce!
“Plus, I told you to bribe the doctor-turn up the voltage during her hypnosis, give her severe brain damage. But look what happened! She’s completely fine! And you have the nerve to stand here and demand money?”
With a violent crash, Giovanni kicked the front door wide open.
Elvira whipped around, coming face-to-face with Giovanni’s dark, murderous expression.
Her legs gave out from the sheer terror of it, and she hit the floor, scrambling onto her knees. “Gio, let me explain! He forced me-I swear, I love you-”
The man immediately stepped right up and pointed a finger at her. “Bullshit, Elvira, you came to me. You even said Giovanni couldn’t satisfy you in bed, and that I was the only one who could give you real physical pleasure.”
“Shut up!”
Elvira lunged at him, swinging wildly. He didn’t hold back either, and
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the two of them quickly descended into an all-out brawl right there on
the floor.
Giovanni motioned to the bodyguards behind him. “Sell them both. Send them to the worst labor camp in the borderlands.”
The two of them dropped to their knees, begging.
“Gio, I love you,” Elvira sobbed, her voice cracking. “I really love you. And you love me too, right? You promised you’d take care of me!
“Besides, I’m pregnant. Gio, it’s yours. You can’t do this to me.”
Giovanni’s smile was cold. “Right. How could I forget about the bastard in your stomach?”
The blood drained from Elvira’s face.
“What… what are you doing?”
Giovanni crouched and twisted his hand into her hair.
“Cut the kid out of her first,” he ordered the guards. “Then put her on the transport to the borderlands.”
“No!”
Elvira’s agonizing scream tore through the apartment, but the bodyguards had her pinned. They dragged her out, leaving a distinct trail across the hardwood.
Two hours later, Giovanni walked into the underground clinic.
The room reeked of blood. Elvira was on the bed-pale, fragile, and
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barely breathing.
He looked down at her, a smirk playing on his lips.
“This is exactly how you’re supposed to look.”
Elvira stared up at him in absolute terror, finally grasping what kind of monster he really was.
She forced the words through her teeth. “Let me go. Please… I know I messed up. I’ll never do it again…”
Giovanni hauled her off the mattress, glaring at the men in the room.
“Why are you all just standing around? Get her out of here. Tell the buyers over there to make her suffer. Every single day.”
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