Half a month passed before Eliza finally returned to our home.

She shoved the door open with violent force, the sharp click of her heels echoing through the hall.

"Gordon, get out here!"

One door after another she flung open, but still, she couldn't find a trace of me.

Her already dark expression grew even stormier. While ordering her subordinates to track me down, she muttered under her breath, "Gordon, if you want to run, you'd better run far. Because when I catch you, I'll break your legs myself."

But the man whose legs she threatened to break stood right before her eyes.

Before long, one of her subordinates sent a location.

Her expression twisted into something terrible. Puzzled, I glanced at the screen, only to see it was Jude Lawson's home.

"Ms. Sutton," a subordinate reported, "Mr. Ford's last call was to Jude Lawson. She claims she never saw him, but we suspect she kidnapped him."

Eliza gave a cold laugh. "Kidnapped? Hah. More likely he went willingly. I'll be right there."

She stormed toward Jude's home, her face like thunder, and kicked at the tightly shut door.

Once. Twice. At the third strike, the door swung open.

Jude stood there, her expression calm, though a bruise bloomed darkly beneath her eyes.

"What is it?"

Eliza sneered. "You've hidden my husband. You tell me, do I have a reason to be here?"

Jude's face remained impassive, as though she had already given up on the world.

"I haven't hidden him. He's dead. The crematorium already notified you to collect his ashes."

"So he even got you to play along? Hah. Looks like Gordon is dead set on hiding from me this time."

She refused to believe I was truly gone, convinced it was another one of my tricks.

Tilting her head, she called into the house, her voice sharp with fury.

"Gordon! What kind of man are you, hiding behind a woman? I'll count to three. If you don't come out, don't blame me for what happens next."

Three. Two. One.

With a sudden shove, she knocked Jude to the floor and barked an order for her men to search the house.

Jude cried out in pain, her calm expression cracking into fury.

"Eliza! Gordon is dead! You personally collected his ashes. Have you forgotten? He's gone. He's been gone for days!"

She grabbed Eliza by the collar and slammed her against the wall.

Eliza's eyes narrowed, her lips curling in mockery.

"Even now, you want to hide him? Jude, you really are devoted. But too bad for you, he loved me. When I tire of him someday, if you still want him, maybe I'll let you have him.

"But not now. He still has to kneel before my mother's grave and beg forgiveness. He hasn't got the time to keep you company."

Jude's face and neck flushed red. She yanked harder at Eliza's collar, gritting through her teeth.

"Eliza, you're a monster."

Her hand whipped across Eliza's face with a crack, snapping her head to the side.

In an instant, the two women were locked in a vicious brawl.

The old say the dead feel nothing. But my chest swelled with such pressure I thought it might explode.

Jude, though athletic, was no match for Eliza's years of taekwondo training. Within minutes, Eliza had her pinned to the floor, fresh bruises blooming across her face.

I spun in frantic circles, powerless.

"Look at you, Jude," Eliza sneered. "Pathetic. Nearly beaten to death for Gordon, while he hides, letting you take the blows. Is that coward worth your love?"

Jude's lips twisted into a bitter, mocking smile. Her eyes glittered with scorn.

"Eliza, the one who's truly pathetic… is you. A woman who mistakes her mother's killer for a lover, a woman who harms the very person she claims to love. You're an idiot."

"What did you say?"

Eliza's hand lifted, sharp and cold, ready to strike again—

But just then, a panicked voice rang out.

"Ms. Sutton! We found the surveillance of Mr. Ford's car accident, and… his autopsy report."