The Ninth Time I Took Off My Wedding Ring Chapter 05
“Goodbye, Clifford,” I cut him off.
One second pause.
“No–farewell, stranger.”
Then I hung up.
It was over. I closed my eyes. This time, it was really over.
Clifford’s POV
The dial tone buzzed in my ear.
I gripped my phone, staring at the call duration displayed on the
screen: thirty–seven seconds.
No, she wouldn’t really leave.
I turned to face Flora, who was leaning against the living room doorframe, arms crossed, watching me with cold eyes.
“Where is she?” My voice came out rougher than I expected.
Flora didn’t answer immediately. She slowly walked to the sofa
and sat down gracefully, as if my question wasn’t worthy of her immediate response.
“Where did she go?” I repeated in a lower voice.
“She’s gone,” Flora finally spoke, her tone casual.
“What do you mean, gone?” I took a step forward. “We agreed to resume the arrangement today.”
Flora let out a soft laugh. “Agreed? Clifford, are you sure you two were agreeing to the same thing?”
My fingers instinctively clenched into fists. “Flora, I don’t have time for your games.”
“Games?” She raised an eyebrow. “Alright, I’ll be direct. Claire is
gone. Really gone this time. Not staying at a friend’s place, not storming off to cool down–gone.”
My blood ran cold. “What do you mean?”
Flora stood up and walked to the study. “See for yourself.”
She brought out a stack of documents and placed them gently
on the coffee table.
I looked down, my pupils contracting instantly.
Bank account closure notice, permanent termination of nine agreements, and a torn plane ticket stub with the destination ripped off.
“Do you understand now?” Flora’s voice carried a certain coldness that was almost sympathetic. “She’s severed all ties with you. Bank accounts, legal documents–she won’t even let you know where she’s going.”
I bent down to examine the documents more closely, but my hands were trembling slightly.
“She can’t…” I started, then suddenly realized how desperate my voice sounded. “We had an agreement, to resume the
arrangement today…”
“Resume the arrangement?” Flora’s voice suddenly turned
sharp. “Clifford, what do you think those nine ‘suspensions‘ over five years were? A coffee shop punch card? Get nine punches
and earn a free wife?”
The words hit like a needle, precisely targeting the thought I
least wanted to acknowledge.
“You don’t understand-”
“I don’t understand?” Flora interrupted. “Clifford, I see it
perfectly clear. You’ve treated her like a switch you can turn on and off at will. Turn her on when you need her, turn her off
when you don’t.”
I jerked my head up to look at her. “She agreed to it! She signed
every separation agreement!”
“Agreed?” Flora gave a cold laugh. “Do you think a woman who loves you deeply would really ‘agree‘ to watch you live with other women? She didn’t sign those papers because she agreed- she signed them because she knew if she didn’t, you’d abandon
her completely.”
I suddenly felt dizzy.
“Tell me where she is,” I tried to make my voice sound normal. ”
Now.”
“I don’t know.” Flora walked toward the door. “She didn’t tell
me where she was going.”
I followed her to the door. “Flora, you’re her best friend. You can’t possibly not know–”
“I know one thing.” Flora suddenly turned around, with an anger in her eyes I’d never seen before. “Last night, she sent me one final message. Just four words: ‘Thank
you all.‘
She paused. “Then she went completely dark. Clifford, do you
understand what that means? She gave up contact even with me,
her friend, just to disappear completely from My knees felt weak.
“Where would she go…” I murmured.
your world.”
“I don’t know.” Flora opened the door. “But I know she’s truly
done with you this time.”
I turned and left, my mind racing through the documents I’d just seen.
Torn ticket stub with missing destination. Bank closure.
Permanent termination agreement.
If she really wanted to disappear completely…
The airport.
I rushed to my car, flooring the accelerator.
On the way, I kept dialing Claire’s number, but each time I got ‘ The number you have dialed is out of service.”
At the airport, I went straight to the counter, my voice low but threatening. “Check all private flights departing from New
Orleans this morning. Now.”
The staff member looked at my ID and became respectful. “Mr. Montgomery, what specific information do need?”
you
“Claire Hayes, or any female passenger with a name starting with C!”
A few minutes later, the staff member shook her head. “I’m sorry, sir. There were indeed several private flights this
morning, but passenger information is confidential unless there‘ s a court order…”
I pulled out my phone and called my assistant. “Use every connection we have. Track Claire’s movements today! Bank records, credit card usage, call logs–everything you can check!”
“Boss, I already tried.” My assistant’s voice was trembling. “Ms. Claire’s records after midnight today are completely blank. It’s like… like she just evaporated from this world.”
The phone slipped from my hands.
Evaporated.
I remembered five years ago, when we first got married, Claire
had jokingly said, “If I ever leave you, I’ll make myself disappear
like vapor. You’ll never find me.”
I had held her and laughed then. “Could you bear to do that?”
Now I knew the answer.
She could.
At two in the afternoon, I mechanically drove back to the estate.
The moment I pushed open the front door, a familiar fragrance hit me.
It was Claire’s usual perfume–bitter orange and cedar, cool yet lingering.
My heart leaped, adrenaline shooting through me.
“Claire?” My voice trembled. “You came back? I knew it… I
Chapter 5
knew you’d come back…”