After My Future Husband’s Video, I Took $100 Million and Vanished Chapter 05

After My Future Husband’s Video, I Took $100 Million and Vanished Chapter 05

I forced my eyes open.

The first thing I saw was Ethan Caldwell’s strikingly handsome face, as cold and composed as ever.

“Ethan… take me with you.”

The last of my resolve shattered. Like someone drowning clutching at the only piece of driftwood left, I grabbed the front of his shirt with trembling fingers and refused to let go.

My phone vibrated again.

It was Julian.

Not the Julian from this timeline.

The Julian from five years in the parallel future.

His voice was hoarse, strained to the point of breaking, as though every word cost him a piece of his

soul.

“Chloe… you’ve severed the bond tying our fates together. From now on… I hope you find the

happiness I never gave you.”

The call cut off before he could say another word.

Ethan glanced at my phone, then lowered his gaze to me. His warm breath brushed against my

ice-cold face.

“Chloe, I have no idea what kind of game you and Julian are playing.”

His expression remained indifferent.

“But I have zero interest in becoming part of it.”

He looked down at me from above.

“So I’ll give you one chance.”

“You choose.”

“Do I take you with me…’

“…or do I dump you right back beside that worthless piece of trash?”

If he’d asked me yesterday…

I might have hesitated.

But now?

The agony tearing through my body reminded me exactly what staying beside Julian would cost.

Today was only the beginning.

If I stayed…

The suffering waiting for me would be a hundred, a thousand times worse.

I opened my mouth to answer.

Before I could speak, another notification chimed.

This time, it was a text from the Julian in my current timeline.

[Chloe, Vivian got a little shaken up, so I’m taking her to the hospital. I won’t be home for dinner tonight. Please don’t be mad. I’ll bring you tacos from your favorite place when I get back.]

I stared at the disgustingly fake message.

Then I let out a humorless laugh.

Without a word, I powered off my phone.

Click.

I tossed it straight into a puddle of diluted blood beside me.

Then I looked up into Ethan’s deep gray eyes.

“Ethan…”

“This time…”

“I choose you.”

Meanwhile…

Julian had just settled Vivian into her hospital room.

When he got home, there was still another woman’s lipstick smeared at the corner of his mouth.

In one hand he carried the late-night tacos he’d bought to smooth things over.

“Chloe, I got your favorite…”

Silence.

No answer.

Outside, the wind suddenly screamed against the windows.

His eyes landed on the coffee table.

A single sheet of paper.

The black print pierced straight through him like a railroad spike.

[Pregnancy Termination Record]

[Gestational Age: 5 Weeks]

[Procedure Performed Voluntarily]

“No…”

Julian’s Adam’s apple bobbed violently.

Fear clamped around his throat until barely a whisper escaped.

“That’s impossible…”

His shaking fingers dialed Chloe’s number.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Four.

Five.

Every call ended exactly the same.

“The subscriber you are trying to reach is not available. Please leave a message after the tone.”

Bang!

He slammed open the bedroom door.

The closet…

Was empty.

Every trace of Chloe had vanished.

Her clothes.

Her belongings.

Her presence.

It was as though she’d surgically removed herself from every corner of the house.

Footsteps thundered down the hallway.

Vivian came running barefoot, her hair disheveled.

Her phone shook violently in her hand, the screen flooded with endless notifications.

She grabbed Julian by the arm.

“What are you doing here? I told you to stay at your own place!”

Julian violently threw her hand off.

His bloodshot eyes looked almost feral.

“I’m about to lose my damn mind! You think I can just stay home?’

Vivian shrieked hysterically.

She shoved her phone inches from his face.

“What the hell is wrong with Chloe?! She posted everything online!”

“The entire internet is sharing it!”

“She exposed my personal information! My ID number! My hometown! Even the records showing your family financially supported me back then!”

“Everyone’s calling me an ungrateful gold digger who stole the husband of the people who helped

me!”

“My Instagram inbox is full of death threats! Someone even splashed red paint all over my front

door!”

“You have to call her! Make her delete the post! Tell her to issue a statement saying it was all a misunderstanding!”

Julian stared at her.

Then he laughed.

It was a broken, hopeless sound.

“A misunderstanding?”

He nearly roared.

“Was any of it a lie?”

He snatched up the diamond necklace he’d planned to use to placate Chloe.

Then smashed it onto the floor at Vivian’s feet.

“The house is gone!”

“She sold it!”

“The baby is gone!”

“She terminated the pregnancy!”

“And now she’s disappeared!”

His voice cracked into a raw scream.

“So tell me!”

“How the hell am I supposed to find her?”

“How am I supposed to make her clear your name?”

The image of Chloe’s empty eyes the night before…

Her eerie calm that morning…

Now returned like thousands of razor-sharp blades, carving him apart piece by piece.

“How…”

His voice trembled.

“How did she know about me and Vivian?”

“How did she know what happened in the garage…?”

His legs finally gave out.

He collapsed onto the cold hardwood floor as though someone had ripped the spine from his body.

Then his phone began vibrating frantically.

An incoming video call.

Unknown number.

His trembling finger hit Accept immediately.

Like a drowning man grabbing his last chance at survival.

“Chloe!”

“Where are you?”

“Please… just let me explain…”

The words died in his throat.

The man on the screen…

Had his face.

His voice.

His eyes.

Everything was identical.

Except…

He looked like death itself.

His cheeks were sunken.

Dark circles hollowed his eyes.

Unshaven stubble covered his jaw.

Every inch of him radiated exhaustion and despair.

Julian felt the blood drain from his face.

His teeth chattered uncontrollably.

“Who…”

“Who are you?”

The man sat deep in the shadows of a worn leather couch.

A half-smoked cigar rested between his fingers.

He looked at Julian the way someone might look at a rotting corpse.

“I’am you.”

He tapped ash into a tray.

“Five years from now.”

Future Julian’s face remained expressionless.

“So…”

“She left you already.”

“And she left without giving you a single chance.”

Julian practically slammed himself against the screen.

His voice came out cracked and desperate.

“You told her, didn’t you?”

“Was it you?”

“Why would you do that?”

“I’m you!”

“Why?”

Future Julian slowly exhaled a cloud of thick cigar smoke.

A short laugh escaped him.

It sounded hollow enough to chill the room.

“To save her.”

“You have no idea what kind of man you really are.”

“After Chloe left, you became obsessed with proving yourself to your mother.”

“You squeezed every last favor out of the connections she left behind.”

“You let Vivian humiliate Chloe again and again.”

His fingers suddenly spasmed around the cigar.

For a brief second, he closed his eyes.

Then he gave a bitter laugh.

“Next month…”

“Chloe suffers a threatened miscarriage.”

“You know where you are?”

“You’re with Vivian.”

“That bitch sends you a fake picture of her slit wrist.”

“And you hang up on Chloe’s call for help without a second thought.”

“When you finally make it to the hospital…”

“It was too late.”

“She’d hemorrhaged.”

“Our daughter…”

He swallowed hard.

“…was already gone.”

“And Chloe…”

“She would never be able to have another child.”

Julian felt every drop of blood in his body freeze solid.

He slowly turned toward Vivian.

His eyes burned with murderous rage.

“You…”

“You killed my child?”

“I didn’t!”

“I didn’t!”

Vivian shook her head so violently she looked insane.

Tears and mucus streaked across her face.

“Julian, don’t believe him!”

“He’s crazy!”

“This video is fake!”

“Chloe hired someone to make it!”

Future Julian never even glanced in her direction.

His voice rang through the room like a funeral bell.

“That day…”

“You were celebrating Vivian’s birthday.”

“You were standing beside her while she cut the cake.”

“By the time you finally remembered Chloe and rushed back to the hospital…”

“She had already given up on you.”

A streak of blood suddenly slipped from Future Julian’s eye.

He crushed the burning cigar into his bare palm.

The sickening hiss of flesh scorching echoed through the speakers.

Veins bulged across the back of his hand.

Every word sounded soaked in blood.

“For the last five years…”

“Every time I closed my eyes…”

“I saw her lying on that operating table…”

“Her legs covered in blood.”

“And every time I opened them…”

“All I saw was that ocean…”

“The ocean that never gave her back.”

“I’m alive…”

“But I don’t deserve to be.”

“So I tried everything.”

“Even if it meant selling my soul to the devil…”

“I had to make sure she learned the truth.”

“I wanted her to stop loving you.”

“I wanted her to escape you.”

He stared straight into the eyes of his younger self across the impossible distance between timelines.

A cloudy tear rolled slowly down his face.

“Julian…”

“Men like us…”

“…don’t deserve to see her ever again.”