He Left Me to Freeze, So I Burned His World Down Chapter 19

He Left Me to Freeze, So I Burned His World Down Chapter 19

Fiancée.

The word shot through Graham’s reason like a bullet. For a moment, his mind went blank. Then, an overwhelming, humiliated rage consumed him.

“I told you to shut up!” Graham shoved Bennett aside. “I’m talking to my wife. It’s not your place to interrupt.”

His assistant, who had been following him, turned pale and hurried forward to whisper a warning. “Mr. Lockwood, that’s Bennett Shaw… We shouldn’t—”

“So what if he’s Bennett Shaw? I don’t care!” Graham had lost all control. He ignored the warning and stared at Ava with bloodshot eyes.

His voice held an unquestionable command, as if nothing between them had changed.

“Ava, stop this nonsense and come home with me.”

He reached for her again, but Bennett blocked him once more. Graham’s gaze was wild with a stubborn madness. “There’s something wrong with those divorce papers. We can renegotiate. Tomorrow, we’ll go to City Hall and sort out the paperwork—”

“Aren’t you afraid your precious Piper will be upset?”

Ava finally spoke. Her voice was so calm it was chilling. She lifted her eyes, her gaze passing over him to the empty space behind.

“She’s not with you today? Still at the police station, cooperating with the investigation?”

A faint, cold smile touched her lips, as if she’d remembered something amusing.

“That’s right. When you do something wrong, you have to pay the price. You were clever enough to get yourself released, but she won’t be so lucky.”

“There’s surveillance footage and witness testimony,” Ava said, each word as precise as a scalpel. “She put Nora in a wheelchair for life. Even if she spends the rest of her own life in prison, it won’t be enough.”

“You blame me.” Graham’s tone shifted instantly from command to desperate defense.

He looked at Ava, the madness in his eyes receding, replaced by a wounded, aggrieved expression.

“I didn’t know she would do that. If I had known, I never would have let her.”

He stepped forward, desperate to prove his innocence.

“Ava, you are my wife. I never meant to hurt you. What happened with Nora was an accident. I only wanted to teach her a lesson. I never thought she would fall so badly.”

“You never thought?”

Ava laughed.

It was a soft sound, but it pierced through every one of Graham’s defenses like an icicle.

She looked him straight in the eye and asked, word by word, “You think a simple ‘I never thought’ erases everything?”

“If you hadn’t brought Piper into our lives, Nora would never have felt the need to defend me.”

“If you hadn’t let her stay, she would never have had the chance to throw her weight around in my stables.”

“If it weren’t for your damnable need to control everyone, for your belief that anyone who crosses you needs to be ‘taught a lesson,’ Nora would still be standing here, whole, instead of lying in intensive care.”

Ava’s gaze turned utterly cold.

“All of this, Graham, started with you.”

“And for that, I will never, ever forgive you.”