He Left Me to Freeze, So I Burned His World Down Chapter 04

He Left Me to Freeze, So I Burned His World Down Chapter 04

Piper’s gaze lingered on the check for a split second before her tear-filled eyes found mine. She looked mournful, desperate, as if she’d been backed to the edge of a cliff.

“You think… you think this is all I’ve done it for?” Her voice shook with the pain of being misunderstood.

Nora gave a cold laugh, but before she could speak, Piper moved.

She didn’t take the check. Instead, she picked up a glass of red wine from the table. The dark liquid sloshed in the crystal, reflecting her resolute expression.

“You just want to see me humiliated, don’t you?” she cried. With a flick of her wrist, she poured the entire glass down the front of her white dress.

The stain bloomed across her chest, an ugly, glaring wound.

“Are you satisfied now?” She tossed the glass aside. It hit the carpet with a dull thud, and she swayed as if about to collapse.

Just then, an angry voice exploded behind us.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Graham.

He strode in, caught the trembling Piper in his arms, and swept his gaze from the ruin on her dress to the pen still in Nora’s hand, before his eyes finally landed on my face. They were filled with disappointment and fury.

“Ava!” he growled. “You and your friends are ganging up on her?”

Piper seemed to find her anchor, collapsing into his arms and sobbing. “Graham, I… I only wanted to explain things to Mrs. Lockwood… I didn’t want to ruin anything…”

Her performance was flawless, every word pinning me as the vicious, jealous wife.

“Enough.” Graham cut her off, his voice impossibly gentle. He took off his suit jacket and carefully draped it around Piper, completely covering the stain.

Only then did he look back at me, his eyes like ice.

“You and your friends are disgusting.”

With his arm around Piper, he turned to leave. As they passed, Piper, nestled against his chest, lifted her eyes and shot me a fleeting, triumphant smile.

“I’m sorry, Ava.” Nora turned to me, her face full of regret. “Did I just make things worse? Graham must have misunderstood you again.”

I forced a smile. “It’s not your fault.”

But the look Graham had given me was a thorn in my heart, and it kept me restless all night.

The next day, it happened.

I received a call from Nora’s mother, her voice tight with panic.

“Ava, Nora’s missing. She was supposed to ride in the fox-hunting charity race today, but no one’s been able to reach her since this morning. She didn’t come home last night.”

In that instant, the blood in my veins turned to ice.

Graham’s eyes—that cold, disgusted, warning look—flashed in my mind.

Without a second thought, I grabbed my car keys and raced to the hospital.

In the VIP ward at Sibley Memorial, Graham was sitting by the bed. Piper lay there, pale and drawn, IV tape on the back of her hand, looking as if she had suffered a terrible shock.

Graham was patiently spooning water to her lips.

The sight cut deeper than any blade.

“Graham.” I pushed open the door, my voice raw with tension.

He didn’t turn around. His hand never stopped moving.

“Where is Nora?” I demanded.

When I discovered his betrayal, I didn’t cry. When I learned he had a child with Piper, I didn’t cry. Even when he locked me in the boathouse and I nearly died in the freezing dark, I hadn’t shed a tear.

But at this moment, tears I couldn’t control surged.

Nora was my best friend. We had grown up together. Nothing could happen to her.

“Why did you touch her?” My voice began to shake. “You know how important she is to me.”

Graham finally set down the glass and slowly turned. He looked at me not with guilt, but with cold indifference.

“She made a spectacle of Piper at the club, humiliated her in front of everyone,” he said coldly. “She threw money in her face and drove her to a breakdown. Why can’t I teach her a lesson?”

“She did it for me!” I finally broke. “So come after me! Whatever it is, you deal with me! I’m begging you, Graham. Let her go.”

I walked to Piper’s bedside and, for the first time, I bowed my head.

“Piper, please. Tell him to let Nora go.”

Piper glanced timidly at Graham. “Forget it, Graham… Let her go. I don’t think she meant it.”

Her words seemed to be the key.

Graham stood and looked down at me, his face a mask of condescending arrogance.

“I’ll give you that much.”

He took a brass key from his pocket and tossed it at my feet.

It struck the polished floor with a crisp, humiliating clatter.

“The stables for tomorrow’s charity race,” he said, his voice devoid of warmth.

“Go find her there.”