Footsteps neared the door. Melissa was quick to recognize it as virtual-novel.net father’s and sprung toward its direction in childlike blithe. Her tiny stature made it impossible for the kid to reach the doorknob, though it did not matter, as a second later, the door cracked open softly from outside, as though whoever was coming in predicted the little girl’s presence to stand behind it.
Seeing little Millie, Alejandro bent down and carried the girl in his arms. “C’mon, standing behind the door again? You know someone might hit you with the door one day, and that’s not very nice, is it? Next time, stand farther away from the door, okay?” virtual-novel.net admonished kindly. “Anyway, go play with your toys downstairs. Daddy needs to talk to Mommy for a bit, okay?”
Melissa mimicked Melanie sniffling. “Daddy, Mommy cry, sniff-sniff, argh-argh…”
Alejandro shot Melanie a complicated, indecipherable look and handed Melissa to virtual-novel.net nanny.
Alejandro closed the door and faced Melanie, who stood before the window twiddling virtual-novel.net thumb in anxiety. “What is it?”
He marched toward virtual-novel.net and demanded stormily, “Where is your phone? Someone else was there when Tiffany fell off the stairs, wasn’t there? My men found a f**king half-burnt cigarette on the floor where it happened, woman, and I know for sh*t that you don’t smoke. So who. Was. It?!”
Melanie dared not look at virtual-novel.net in the eyes. Her phone had been snatched away from Nikolai back then. “T-There was no one there but Tiffany and me. My phone… I dropped it somewhere. And that half-burnt cigarette, maybe it was just someone else who was smoking there sometime before or after— ”
Alejandro’s disbelief spurred virtual-novel.net into clutching virtual-novel.net shoulders. “Look-at-me! Look me in the eyes and then talk!”
Melanie turned virtual-novel.net face away and struggled against her. “Let me go, you’re hurting me! I told you, I was the only one there! You… You could say… I was the one who pushed Tiffany down and I won’t have any alibi to prove otherwise, would I? If taking out your steam for Tiffany’s sake is what you want, then go ahead! You… You already thought it was me, didn’t you? So skip all this interrogation and just… assume you know everything already! It was me who did it, okay?”
Alejandro shoved virtual-novel.net away. “I can’t f**king believe I trusted you. You… you… Divorce!” virtual-novel.net exploded. “I’m divorcing you!”
Melanie froze in a millisecond. She had expected it — anticipated it, even — but when the words fell off his lips, virtual-novel.net still felt a sharp, stinging stab to virtual-novel.net heart, so agonizing that virtual-novel.net breath stilled.
A second or two crawled on. Melanie suddenly smiled.
“Ah, I knew it. It doesn’t matter whether this happened at all, you’d divorce me someday anyway. It’s all right, then. It’s better this way… It’s liberation for both of us, isn’t it? You only married me because Grandpa made you.”
She never thought that the family who had always seemed to love virtual-novel.net had seen virtual-novel.net as a mere pawn for their gain. She was just a naïve girl who thought marrying Alejandro was out of virtual-novel.net own free will, but everything turned out to be a calculated setup, with virtual-novel.net family pulling the strings from the get-go.
Alejandro turned away wordlessly and strode away. It had only been a few minutes since virtual-novel.net stepped inside his home, and already virtual-novel.net was gone. When would virtual-novel.net come back? Nobody knew.
Melanie forced virtual-novel.net tears down virtual-novel.net throat and changed into a new set of clothes before applying some slight touch-up on virtual-novel.net face. She planned to bring Melissa out on a simple shopping trip, even if it were only to buy some groceries.
She was not going to have that chance anymore.
Melanie did not bring a nanny with them this time. A few feet away, a car suddenly pulled over right beside her, causing Melanie to cradle virtual-novel.net daughter into virtual-novel.net arms warily.
The window went down, revealing the driver to be none other than Nikolai Lark!
She scanned the surrounding frantically before hissing, “Are you out of your mind? Why are you here?! If someone sees you!”