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Chapter 111 Defending Herself
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When Zacharias realized the house was gone and his wife had disappeared, there was no sense of relief. Rage and grief clawed at him, as though none of it had been his doing.
“No. It was me.”
Anneliese’s voice was cold and steady as it slipped into his ears. His face, already flushed with alcohol, drained of color.
Even though the security footage had hinted it was her, hearing her confess tore through him like a blade. He could not accept it.
And her tone–calm, detached, stripped of all emotion.
It felt as if every trace of love and regret had been erased.
That left him feeling like one of the shattered pieces she had tossed aside in the Sunrise Residence. Broken. Cast off. Forgotten.
Zacharias refused to believe the woman who once loved him with such fire could vanish from his life so suddenly.
His raw voice cracked as he shouted.
“Anneliese, are you out of your mind? I told you what happened with Coral was an accident, and it’s over! Why would you do something so reckless?
“Do you even realize how bad it is to rip up our wedding photos? And those things -we carried them all the way from overseas. How could you smash them like they meant nothing?”
His eyes burned.
The Sunrise Residence wasn’t just a house. It was their home.
From the design to every detail inside, Anneliese had poured her entire heart into
- it.
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Chapter III Defending Herself
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He still remembered her spinning with excitement as she waved the sketches she had drawn herself, smiling brightly as she said, “Zacharias, we finally have a home.”
He could still see her in the kitchen, carefully serving the meals she had cooked, her smile glowing as she said, “You’re home. Wash your hands, dinner’s ready.”
Those memories were vivid, alive in his mind.
How could she have destroyed it with her own hands?
His chest tightened, pain ripping through him as if his heart had broken along with the things she smashed.
His eyes were bloodshot, veins straining.
“Say something! Come back to Sunrise Residence right now. Explain yourself,
confess your mistakes, and I’ll treat it like one. I’ll pretend it never happened, you
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The silence stretched, feeding his panic. His voice cracked with sharp command.
Then came a low laugh, soft and hollow.
“Zacharias, I don’t owe you any explanation. And I don’t need your forgiveness. I’ll never go back to Sunrise Residence.”
“Anneliese!”
He clenched the phone, his chest twisting with rage and dread.
“Why are you so furious, Zacharias? Do you honestly think you have the right?
“You slept with Coral, and your heart belongs to Selina. You’re filthier than the worst squalor the world can come up with.
“You knew Selina was the one I despised most, and you still loved her.
“I suppose it’s your freedom to choose who you fall in love with. But you also knew she hired someone to kill me, and you still lied to protect her while stabbing me in
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Chapter 111 Defending Herself
the back in the process.
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“You lied for four years. What gave you the idea that when I finally uncovered the truth, I would still want you in my life?”
Her voice never wavered. It was so calm it sounded almost like she was talking about a stranger’s life.
But every word cut into Zacharias like an arrow striking deep.
He pressed his hand against his chest, struggling to breathe. His voice broke with desperation.
“Anne, it’s not what you think ”
She cut him off. “Stop calling me from new numbers. Unless you want me to change mine tomorrow. The next time I answer, it better be about the divorce.”
She hung up without pause.
“Baby!”
Zacharias jerked the phone away and saw the call had ended. Fury erupted, and he hurled it across the room.
It was the second phone he had shattered that night. The latest model lay in pieces on the floor.
He grabbed a bottle of whiskey and swallowed hard.
The burn scorched his throat and spread in his stomach like fire racing through his veins.
He drank too quickly, then he choked until he coughed hard.
“Mr. Shaw, you can’t keep drinking. Your stomach’s already weak, you’ll make yourself sick.”
Jackie rushed in to stop him, but Zacharias shoved him away.
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10:56 Sat, Sep 6
Chapter 111 Defending Herself
“Get out!”
“Mr. Shaw, Mrs. Shaw never let you drink this much either.”
At her name, Zacharias froze, the bottle suspended in his hand.
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Of course. In the early years, when he had pushed himself day and night, drinking to win over investors, he had wrecked his stomach.
For the past two years, it had been Anneliese who cared for him, reminding him again and again not to drink too much.
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