I Buried Him for Five Years, Then He Came Back with Another Woman Chapter 08

I Buried Him for Five Years, Then He Came Back with Another Woman Chapter 08

Reid raised his head as rain ran down his brow.

“The treatment center said he needed an urgent examination and couldn’t be moved.”

“I thought those were your orders.”

Adrian released him abruptly.

He turned to his assistant.

“Go to the treatment center.”

The assistant’s expression was grim.

“We just received another report.”

“The private facility caught fire half an hour ago, and its records room burned.”

“Wesley is missing.”

Adrian froze.

Reid jerked his head up.

“Missing?”

The assistant handed over his phone.

Black smoke rose from the treatment center in the video.

Reporters crowded outside.

Someone shouted,

“A Caldwell controlled treatment center is accused of illegally confining patients!”

“The director has disappeared!”

“Several families are demanding the release of security footage!”

Adrian stared at the screen.

At last, he realized something had escaped his control.

It was not simply that Maren had died.

It was that every event surrounding her death fit too perfectly.

The boat exploded.

The treatment center burned.

Wesley disappeared.

The records were destroyed.

The media received evidence.

Each event drove another nail into the Caldwell family’s darkest secrets.

Adrian gritted his teeth.

“Contain the story.”

Before his assistant could respond, another phone vibrated.

“Mr. Caldwell, someone uploaded Caldwell Maritime’s financial records.”

“They also released five years of payments made by Hale Group.”

“Every major business account is sharing them.”

Adrian snatched the phone.

The headline burned across the screen.

[#Caldwell Maritime Drained Hale Group for Five Years While the Faithful Fiancée Took the Blame#]

Below it were bank records and payment confirmations.

Maren had paid Caldwell Maritime’s predatory debts.

She had settled claims for damaged vessels.

She had guaranteed Caldwell routes with Hale docks.

There were even transfers to overseas accounts used by Caldwell employees while Adrian was supposedly

dead.

The final recipient was Adrian himself.

The comments exploded.

[So Maren tended an empty grave for five years while paying a living man’s debts?]

[Adrian faked his death and still forced his fiancée to bless his new engagement?]

[So Maren tended an empty grave for five years while paying a living man’s debts?]

[Adrian faked his death and still forced his fiancée to bless his new engagement?]

[Tessa wore her ring and dress, then moved into the house prepared for her marriage?]

[This isn’t an engagement. They built their happiness on Maren’s suffering.]

Adrian scrolled with stiff fingers.

At the bottom was an audio recording from backstage at the press conference.

His voice was unmistakable.

“There will be a press conference tomorrow.”

“Apologize to Tessa.”

“Admit that jealousy drove you to it.”

“Then leave Port Sterling.”

Maren’s voice followed.

“Will you release him?”

“Do what I say, and you can take him with you.”

The recording ended beneath a flood of outrage.

The color slowly drained from Adrian’s face.

Reid stared at the phone.

It was as if he understood the conversation for the first time.

“Maren left evidence?”

Adrian snapped his gaze toward him.

“How did she record it?”

Reid’s throat tightened.

“She taught me to carry a recording button whenever I met someone important.”

“She said people at the docks talked about loyalty, but evidence was what mattered.”

Adrian crushed the phone in his grip.

In the storm, he remembered the look Maren had given him when she took the ticket.

There had been no hatred.

No plea.

Only coldness.

She had looked as if she had already calculated every route of escape.

She had not surrendered.

She had been waiting for him to put the weapon in her hands.

Back at the Caldwell house.

Tessa sat on the edge of the bed with her phone lit.

Abuse swept across every social platform.

Her name appeared beside the words mistress, fake pregnancy, and staged accident.

With shaking fingers, she made a call.

“Where is the director?”

No one answered.

She called the housekeeper next.