"Nothing," Eva whispered, her voice soft as her eyes welled with tears. She stared out into the night skyline of Veritas.

A second later, fireworks burst across the sky, looking brilliant and blinding.

Then, she remembered what Cleo had said earlier that day. "He's setting off fireworks in Marrowind tonight to celebrate our little miracle."

The sky sparkled, dazzling and surreal, but it wasn't for her.

Leo followed her gaze, misreading the look in her eyes. He smiled indulgently, thinking she was dazzled.

"You like fireworks? I'll plan a whole fireworks show just for you. It'll be even bigger than this. On your birthday, I'll light up the sky from Halden Bay all the way to Elmridge Park. Just for you, okay?"

He pulled her into his arms, holding her like something rare and priceless. His voice was low and coaxing.

Eva let out a soft laugh. "Leo, I don't like what's already been used."

His body stiffened instantly.

Silence stretched between them before he tightened his hold on her, his voice low and hoarse. "Then I'll find another way to surprise you. I'll make sure you never envy anyone again."

But Eva didn't answer. She just kept her eyes on the sky as the last spark fizzled into darkness.

That was what their love had become—briefly dazzling, then completely gone.

…

In the days that followed, Leo changed. He left early every morning with a motorcade, didn't return until late at night, and canceled all routine meetings.

He gave only one instruction to his subordinates. "Keep everything low-profile. No one disturbs Eva."

Even the maid had picked up on the shift. Their whispers behind closed doors were filled with speculation and mischief.

"Mrs. Sereno, Don Leo must be planning something big for you. He just ordered a one-of-a-kind Karamir sapphire ring. We also heard he's been talking to some custom artisans in Merilan."

"Sounds like someone's about to become the happiest woman in the world," another giggled.

Eva said nothing.

A few nights later, Leo finally came to her in person. He was dressed in all black, his expression unusually light.

He gently took her hand. "Eva, come with me tonight. I want to show you something. I promise you'll love it."

She opened her mouth to turn him down, but her phone buzzed.

It was a message from Cleo.

"Eva, take a guess. Right now, who do you think matters more to Leo—me or you?"

She glanced up instinctively, catching a glimpse of Leo's expression just as he opened a new message.

It was a photo of Cleo in sheer black stockings, with her legs posed deliberately. The message beneath it was even more suggestive. "Clock's ticking."

Leo swallowed hard.

In just three seconds, he snapped the phone shut and murmured, "Eva, a deal's gone sideways. I need to take care of it. Let's do it another day, okay?"

Eva looked at him with calm, unreadable eyes.

Then, she smiled. There was no argument, and she made no effort to keep him.

A few hours later, Cleo sent her another message.

This time, it was photos—ripped condom wrappers tossed into a trash can. One after another, messy and deliberate, like trophies lined up for display.

"Eva, you lost again. I'm still carrying Leo's child, and he couldn't keep his hands off me. Tell me, how much more proof do you need that he loves me?"

Eva stared at her phone, and for the first time in a long while, she felt grateful—grateful that she was leaving.

No matter how vile or humiliating it all was, none of it could hurt her anymore.

Leo didn't come home for days. Eva didn't ask, and she didn't go looking for him.

The only thing that kept arriving relentlessly was Cleo's messages.

She sent photos of racks filled with limited-edition designer dresses. There was a bowl of neatly sliced fruit, with a sticky note attached that read, "Leo cut it himself—he was afraid I might slip and hurt my hand."

She even included snapshots of Wynoran-style dishes, all carefully prepared by Leo himself, as if to prove a point.

"Eva, you know what he told me? He said that I'm the one who really understands him. He kissed me ten times while cooking. Can you even cook? Do you even remember what Leo likes?"

Eva scrolled through each image in silence.

She didn't reply.

She was busy erasing her presence from the villa—her clothes, her books, her makeup, even the little fleece throw she always curled up with on the couch.

She had made up her mind.

She was leaving Leo.

Eva sat quietly in the underground vault, flipping through the love letters Leo had once written to her by hand.

They were penned in military-grade invisible ink on black-market anti-forgery paper. In the end, she fed every single one of them into the shredder.

The morning she planned to leave, Leo stood by the bed, his expression grim as he stared at the notification on her phone.

"Your account just received a deactivation confirmation," he said, his voice low and hoarse. "Eva, what did you delete?"

Eva calmly took back the phone and pressed her fingerprint on the screen. The screen flashed a single message. "Identity deactivation successful."

"My old account was hacked. I had to shut it down," she answered smoothly, a faint smile on her lips.

Leo studied her for a moment, then wrapped his arms around her. "Guess what I brought back for you?"

She answered flatly, "Strawberry cupcake from Wendover Street."

Leo paused. "How did you know?"

He remembered that night vividly. She had been angry at him. He had botched a mission and still ran through the pouring rain across Wendover just to buy her favorite cupcake.

That night, she had looked at him and said, "It's not that I'm easy to please. It's just… I still love you. But if the day comes when I stop loving you, even putting a gun to your head won't make a difference."

Leo pulled out the cupcake from the insulated bag, and she took it without a word.

"My wife is too smart. I can't hide anything from you."

Just then, he got an encrypted call and left in a hurry.

Eva followed him to the hallway but stopped at the door.

Outside, Cleo stood there in a long trench coat. Underneath it, a provocative black lace dress clung to her curves.

Leo's face instantly darkened. "Are you out of your mind? I told you not to show up when Eva's home."

Cleo threw herself into his arms, her eyes red with unshed tears. "I can't take this anymore… Even the baby misses you."

She grabbed his hand and pressed it to her belly.

Leo froze. He quickly pulled away. "Go home. I'll deal with this in a few days."

But Cleo leaned in and kissed him. He resisted, yet his hand instinctively slipped under her coat.

A second later, he pushed her back gently. "Just tonight. One time. That's it."

Cleo smirked victoriously and dragged him toward the car.

That night, when Leo returned to the villa, he spoke to Eva in his softest voice. "Something came up at the company. I need to take care of it, but once it's handled, I'm all yours. Okay?"

Eva looked at him and replied with gentle concern, "Go ahead. Be safe."

After he left, Eva stared at the untouched box of cupcakes on the table. She didn't take a single bite.

A single tear slipped down her cheek silently.

She picked up the suitcase she had packed days ago and sent one last message. "Two weeks are up. You can open your anniversary gift now."

Leo responded almost immediately. "Wait for me. Let's open it together."

Eva smiled faintly. She found the word "together" almost laughable.

She forwarded Leo every last message, photo, and video Cleo had sent over the past few days, each one dripping with spite and shameless provocation.

Then, she snapped her SIM card in half and went completely offline.

She boarded a flight bound for Felnor, under a new name, ready for a new life.

At that moment, Leo had just stepped out of Cleo's house. When he returned home, the place felt hollow.

"Eva, I'm back…" he called out.

His voice echoed through the silence.

The photographs were gone. Their wedding portrait had disappeared. The cherry trees in the backyard had been uprooted.

The maids were planting roses in their place.

"Who told you to touch that?" he roared.

One of the maids flinched. "Mrs. Sereno gave the order three days ago… and you told us her instructions always take priority…"

Leo stood frozen in place, like the ground beneath him had crumbled.

For the first time, he realized Eva wasn't acting out of anger or impulse. She had really left him.

She had ripped out the trees they had planted together, even the one that bore her name. It was as if she were burying their past, roots and all.

"Where did she go? When did she leave?" Leo's voice was low and hoarse.

He stood at the threshold like a man unraveling.

The bodyguards and maids lined up silently. No one dared meet his eyes. "Don Leo, Mrs. Sereno left early this morning with a suitcase. She didn't say a word or leave a note."

She was gone.

He ran half the criminal underworld of Veritas, yet he couldn't even trace where his wife had gone.

Eva would never go to her parents. Those cold, distant people had remarried years ago and even cut ties with her.

Leo began making calls, starting with her closest friends, then his informants, and finally the lowlife runners in the underground network.

"Is Eva with you?"

"No, and if she were, do you think I'd dare lie to you?"

He made call after call, but nothing turned up. Eva had vanished without a trace.

In a fit of rage, Leo ordered the entire Sereno syndicate's intel division to track her. However, not a single camera caught which train she boarded or which street she crossed.

"Eva, this isn't funny," Leo muttered, slumped in his office chair, his fingers digging into his scalp. His voice cracked into a growl.

For a moment, he was yanked back to his youth. He was standing frozen at a street corner, and his parents lay lifeless in a pool of blood, their blood smeared across his face.

Just then, Leo's phone rang. It was an encrypted line—an emergency alert from one of his insiders. He answered.

A frantic voice came through on the other end. "Don Leo, we just got a tip. Someone reported finding a woman's body out by the outskirts this morning. Female. Her age and build… match Mrs. Sereno's."

Leo's face turned ashen. "What the hell did you just say?"