Delete My Billionaire Husband

Chapter 10

"Where's Annabelle? When did she leave?"

Sebastian Kingsley's voice was raw, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed back the searing pain in his throat.

The servants exchanged uneasy glances, none daring to meet his bloodshot eyes.

"Madam left before dawn... dragging her suitcase. We couldn't stop her—"

Suitcase?

His fists clenched, nails biting into his palms.

Where could she go? The Whitmore family had long since fallen apart, and those fair-weather friends of hers wouldn't dare take her in.

One call after another.

"Mr. Kingsley? Why would Annabelle be with me...?"

"Don't joke. You two were inseparable."

With every ended call, the crimson in his eyes deepened.

The entire city suddenly felt hollow.

Just like that rainy night seven years ago, when he'd stood drenched outside the Whitmore estate, watching through brightly lit windows as Annabelle made a wish over her birthday cake—back when he hadn't even been worthy of ringing the doorbell.

"Pull up the security footage! Every exit!"

He bolted upstairs like a madman.

The ribbon-tied gift box in his study drawer became his last lifeline.

"She must have left a clue... she must have..."

Even as his trembling fingers tore through the wrapping paper, he still hoped—for plane tickets to their honeymoon destination, or a note saying, "Come find me."

Until the words "Divorce Papers" seared into his vision.

"This isn't real..."

The pages rustled in his grip. He could trace her signature blindfolded—Annabelle always added a tiny upward flick to the last stroke of her name.

Outside the study, servants flinched at the animalistic growl within.

"Who switched it?! Who touched this box?!"

On the seventeenth replay of the footage, he finally saw it—the figure in a nightgown.

3 AM. Annabelle walked in barefoot. Moonlight sliced through the floor-to-ceiling windows, turning her signing hand into pale jade.

The cruelest punishment was witnessing, firsthand, how resolutely she'd left.

Sebastian laughed low, the sound dissolving into a cough that brought tears.

That final turn of hers mirrored their first meeting at the ball seven years ago—just like then, she'd brushed past his life without leaving so much as a feather behind.

"Why...?"

The velvet box in his suit pocket dug into his ribs. Inside lay the pink diamond he'd fought for at auction, meant for tonight's anniversary celebration.

Dusk settled over the city as lights flickered on in windows.

Every glow marked someone's homecoming.

Except his Annabelle.