She Turned Her Grief Into Wings novel Chapter 29

"That marriage is nothing but a shackle to her."

Rhys's voice drifted through the receiver, carrying a lazy, arrogant edge of provocation.

"But... she'll be free from those shackles soon enough."

Caden's face turned to stone. Ignoring the blatant attempt to rile him up, he shot back, "Whether it's a shackle or not, I wouldn't know. But I highly doubt she's going to accept you magically transitioning from playing her devoted brother to playing her lover."

Even through the phone, the explosive tension between them was palpable.

After a long, suffocating silence, just as Caden was about to hang up, Rhys finally spoke again, his voice practically dripping with absolute certainty: "Are you really that sure we never had a history, Caden?"

*Beep...*

The line went dead, leaving the hallway unnervingly quiet.

He pushed the door open and stepped back inside. The room was still dim, and the woman on the bed was still sleeping peacefully.

Caden's eyes slowly swept across the master bedroom, almost as if he were trying to unearth any hidden memories of her and Rhys lurking in the shadows.

His gaze ultimately locked onto the desk, where an elegant, gold-foiled invitation sat.

[Heritage in Couture: An Eastern Aesthetics Design Competition]

She was entering this competition?

And sitting directly beneath the invitation was the divorce agreement he had instructed Aiken to drop off.

Caden's eyes darkened. She had changed.

It was glaringly obvious. She was no longer the Shera whose entire universe revolved solely around him.

She had her own social circle now, her own career, and the fiery ambition he had completely ignored had been violently reignited.

A realization struck him: he didn't want a divorce.

As for the exact reason? Maybe it was because a divorce would cause unnecessary PR nightmares for the Hayes Group and for himself.

Or maybe it was because he was the one who was used to calling the shots, cutting off connections whenever he pleased, and now that she was the one demanding it, he despised feeling backed into a corner.

But it certainly wasn't out of love.

This sudden frustration was merely the byproduct of being unaccustomed to the change.

He wasn't used to a life without her. He wasn't used to her no longer waiting up for him, and he definitely wasn't used to the dead, empty look in her eyes whenever she looked at him now.

It was like a cat he had raised for years suddenly deciding to purr for someone else.

An indescribable, suffocating irritation swelled in his chest.

She massaged her forehead and sat up, fractured pieces of last night flooding back to her.

The club... Yara... that nineteen-year-old kid...

And... Caden?

Did she... actually see Caden?

Or was that just a drunken hallucination?

While she was desperately trying to piece the night together, the phone on her nightstand rang.

"Shera, you awake?" It was Yara.

Shera grabbed the glass of water by her bed and took a massive gulp, her voice still raspy. "Yeah. Did you bring me home last night?"

There was a split-second pause on the other end before Yara laughed. "Of course I did. Who else would it be?"

Shera let out a sigh of relief. "Okay. Good."

They chatted for another minute before hanging up.

She threw her legs over the edge of the bed and headed to the bathroom. Splashing freezing water onto her face finally cleared away the residual fog.