She Turned Her Grief Into Wings novel Chapter 60

"Don't you dare bring up my father. When you keep your mouth shut about him, I can almost tolerate you, but the second you mention him, you make me absolutely sick."

Looking at his face, Shera felt nothing but pure, unadulterated revulsion.

She pulled up the security camera screenshot and shoved it squarely in his face. "Explain this."

"You stole my divorce papers. You deleted Rhys's call logs from my phone. You coerced Yara into lying to me. Do you even hear yourself, Caden? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Caden's gaze fell on the undeniable photographic proof. His jaw clenched tight. He didn't utter a word.

He had stolen the papers. He couldn't deny it.

"You asked me why I want a divorce?" Her eyes were rimmed with angry tears. "This is why. Because you will never, ever understand what it means to respect me."

That single sentence snapped the last thread of Caden's restraint. His eyes flared with a dangerous, volatile red. "Why do you think I took the damn papers, Shera? To torture you? To ruin your life?"

He seized her wrist, jerking her violently closer until they were chest to chest, his voice turning brutally hard. "I did it because I didn't want you to leave. But you don't give a damn about that, do you?"

"You try to make me stay by pulling garbage like this? Caden, should I applaud your brilliance or pity your stupidity?"

Every single move he made stomped relentlessly on her absolute worst boundaries.

Shera violently wrenched her wrist free and stumbled back. "Protection and humiliation are two entirely different things. We are not the same kind of people. In your world, rules are just suggestions, and ethics are flexible. But in my world, they aren't."

"My father taught me to value every single stitch, to keep my hands clean. You don't have to agree with my morals, but you do not get to make my choices for me. You think you're shielding me, but do you have any idea that every time you 'protect' me, you're just shoving me further off a cliff?"

Caden stared at her in dead silence, looking at her as if trying to decipher a stranger.

After a long, agonizing pause, he finally spoke. "So? What do you want me to do?"

Shera averted her eyes, her tone plunging to absolute zero. "Give me back the papers. Monday morning. City Hall. We finalize it."

His hand was shaking uncontrollably. The ghost of her body heat still lingered on his fingertips.

*Humiliation?*

In her eyes, his protection was nothing but an insult.

She had even said... her only regret was not leaving him sooner.

Every word she had spat at him felt like a physical blow, slapping him repeatedly across the face.

Caden slowly bent forward, clutching his chest. The agonizing suffocation in his lungs threatened to consume him whole. He clenched and unclenched his fists, desperately trying to force the terrifying numbness out of his hands.

He had only wanted to fix things between them. How had it ended up like this?