Delete My Billionaire Husband

Chapter 9

The plane roared into the sky, and Annabelle Whitmore gazed out the window at the shrinking cityscape below, her fingers tightening around the temporary ID in her hand. She had finally escaped her suffocating marriage.

Meanwhile, in a luxury apartment in the city...

"Sebastian, you're already at my door. Won't you come in?" Lillian Grayson leaned against the doorframe, her fingertips brushing lightly against his tie. "I just bought a new bottle of red wine..."

Sebastian Kingsley glanced at his watch—the hour hand had already passed ten. The memory of Annabelle's hopeful eyes before he left home sent a sudden pang of unease through him.

"Another time," he said, stepping back. "Annabelle is waiting for me."

Lillian threw herself into his arms, her lips grazing his ear. "Are you really going back to that boring woman?"

Frowning, Sebastian pushed her away and turned toward the elevator. But just as the doors closed, his phone buzzed with a message from Lillian: "I found those photos you wanted to see."

His finger hovered over the screen for three seconds before he pressed the button to reopen the doors.

At two in the morning, Sebastian stood at the entrance of his empty mansion, the lingering scent of unfamiliar perfume clinging to his suit.

"Annabelle?"

Only silence answered him.

On the coffee table sat a box of melted mochi—Annabelle's favorite dessert. He remembered how she had playfully insisted they share it that evening before he left.

"Stop joking around. Come out." His voice trembled.

Half the clothes were missing from the bedroom closet. The vanity was stripped bare of all her skincare products. Staggering into the study, he found the safe wide open—completely empty.

"Sir!" The butler rushed in, panicked. "The backyard—"

Sebastian sprinted outside, his pupils contracting sharply at the sight before him. The cherry tree he had planted for Annabelle was gone, leaving only freshly turned soil.

"Madam had it dug up three days ago," the gardener stammered. "She said... she was going to burn it."

Sebastian slammed his fist into the wall, his knuckles splitting open. Then, as if struck by sudden realization, he frantically dialed Annabelle's number.

"The number you have dialed is currently unavailable..."

His phone slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground. Kneeling in the barren dirt, Sebastian finally understood—

He had lost his little cherry blossom.