Chapter 14
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Shawn sat behind his desk, staring blankly at the papers scattered across his table. His phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. He had several calls from panicked investors, furious board members, and nosy reporters looking for a statement.
His assistant burst through the door, looking very pale. “Mr. Carter-” he panted, “The Blackwell Group just pulled their investment. And… and Grayson Tech too. Sir, that makes –“He swallowed hard. “That makes eight major investors gone since yesterday.”
Shawn dragged a hand through his hair, yanking on the roots. He couldn’t keep track anymore. There were so many names, and numbers. Things he had lost just yesterday. “Cancel the press calls,” he said roughly. “All of them. I don’t care what excuse you give.”
The assistant hesitated. “But the media-”
“Do it!” Shawn snapped.
The young man flinched, nodded quickly and backed out, closing the door behind him quietly.
Silence filled the room.
Shawn leaned forward, and buried his face in his hands. His head was pounding from everything he had lost in less than forty–eight hours.
The envelope that started everything was on the desk before him. The divorce papers. The anonymous investor, Rory, who turned out to be Aurora.
Then finally, the last document.
He picked it up again, his fingers shook.
Donor: Jasmine Carter. Recipient: Tiffany Brooks.
His daughter’s name, and his mistress’s name, with Aurora’s signature at the bottom. He swallowed hard, the memory of that night flashed back in his mind. He could remember the way she had signed the papers he had given hér, blindly trusting him. She hadn’t
hesitated.
The same way she had made him sign the divorce papers ignorantly. Was this karma? Shawn pressed his hands to his head, releasing a frustrated groan.
His phone rang. He ignored it. But it kept ringing over and over.
He snatched it up without checking the screen. “What?”
A cool female voice replied to him from the phone. “Mr. Carter? I have some information that you might be interested in, concerning your wife.”
Shawn jerked upright. “Really? What happened?”
He had been searching endlessly for clues on where Aurora had vanished to. It was almost
like she had disappeared from the face of the earth.
Chapter 14
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“I got some information from Charlton’s Hospital. Your wife, Aurora Carter, was admitted there a few days ago. She had suffered a miscarriage caused by blunt force trauma. She left in quite a hurry, because normally, she should have stayed in the hospital for several days. But she had insisted on leaving.”
Blunt force trauma.
The words slammed into him like a punch. His grip tightened on the phone until his knuckles turned white. He knew exactly what that meant.
He could remember what happened that day. After Tiffany had screamed that Aurora had harmed her. He had just snapped in anger, and he had beaten her in blind rage.
He remembered Aurora bent over, with one arm on her stomach protectively. He hadn’t asked.
He had seen the blood, but he had ignored it, focusing on Tiffany instead.
His vision blurred. “I-” His voice cracked. “She was pregnant?”
“Yes, she was,” the woman replied. “But she lost it.”
Shawn’s throat closed. He whispered a shaky “thank you” and ended the call.
The phone slipped from his hand and fell to the desk. He stared at it, unable to breathe.
Since that day, Aurora had been quiet, a shadow of herself, and he hadn’t cared to even look closer. Till now.
“I did this.” He murmured to himself.
The thought sent a shiver down his spine. He had killed their baby. First he killed their daughter, now this.
“Will Aurora ever forgive me?” He asked himself.
Shawn was lost in thought, when the door opened without a knock.
“Shawn.”
Shawn looked up to see Marcus, an old friend from business school, stepped inside.
He shook his head as his sharp eyes landed on Shawn.
“You look like hell,” Marcus said flatly, shutting the door behind him.
