His Perfect Wife Strikes Back

154 Wars Between Brothers

"Don't answer!" Frade's finger pressed the red "No" button on my phone's screen, then took my phone and turned it off.

"Frade." I protested.

"You don't want to take any calls at this time." Frade rolled over and stared at me. "I'm telling the truth. I don't want anyone to get in your head, especially Daley."

"He can't influence me." I've made my choice, and I know I can't go back to Daley.

"Today I'm going to meet with the head of security," Frade said sternly, "Soon there will be an end to me and Daley. There is no doubt that I will win. In the meantime, I need you to stay here. Can you do that?"

"Yes."

"When this is all over, I swear I will take you to Switzerland. We can go skiing together and see the most beautiful scenery in the Alps," he said, and kissed my forehead. "Just the two of us."

The Alps, where I used to fantasize about going on vacation with him. I wanted to get away from the city and live in peace in a beautiful place, with someone I loved. So that's what he thought.

Frade took a look at the time on his phone and said to me, "I'm afraid I won't be able to make you breakfast. I have to go to Security with Mark in 15 minutes. I'll be back tonight."

"I'll miss you," I said and kissed him.

He got dressed and left the house with Mark. Liv and I were home alone for the rest of the day, making a simple breakfast and cleaning the room in our spare time. Sometimes we sit down for tea and chat, and when I'm alone in bed, I can't help but turn on my cell phone.

Daley sent me at least 10 messages, but I didn't even click on them. I deleted all of his messages. This time I had to end our relationship.

At night, when Frade and Mark returned, Liv and I made them a nice dinner. At the dinner table, Frade told us that security officials had organized a background check on Daley as soon as they received his criminal information.

"The security guys are taking this very seriously," Frade said. "It looks like they're going after Daley pretty quickly."

"That sounds like good news." Mark put a piece of beef on his fork and put it in his mouth. "We'll get everything back soon."

"In a few days, I will convince the family elders and I can get their support. Daley will soon be done," Frade said cheerfully.

I listened to their conversation in silence as Liv asked, "So will Daley go to jail?"

"There's no doubt about it," Mark replied.

Mark's answer was quickly confirmed on TV, and after about a month, Liv and I were watching TV at home. Daley's capture was shown on the news, and I couldn't believe how quickly security was working. The police escorted Daley from the company building into the police car. Daley's face was as calm as ever, but his golden eyes revealed an imperceptible sense of panic and unease.

When the camera cut to him sitting in the police car, he turned to look out the window. I saw the look in his eyes turn cold. Even though it was just across the TV screen, it made me uneasy. It wasn't the sharpness of a hunter's gaze, but the coldness of mutually assured destruction.

Was he still planning something?

When I told Liv about my doubts, she thought I was overthinking it. Daley's arrest had become a fact and this time the men who had arrested him were members of the Ministry of State Security and no one could bail him out. That means he will remain in jail until the trial is over. At the end of the trial, he would spend his life in prison.

"He can't hurt you, Eva," Liv comforted me. "A beast in a cage can't hurt anyone."

Yes, his hands were handcuffed. He couldn't hurt anyone. But I was always uneasy, and sometimes I couldn't even eat. Is my stomach sick from stress?

When I sleep next to Frade at night, that kind of inexplicable uneasiness will always unconsciously invade my brain. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep because when I close my eyes, I think of Daley's dead eyes.

A week later, Frade told me that Daley had been put on trial and was facing up to 50 years in prison. His private property had been seized and his drug-dealing factory, which he had run privately, had been destroyed by the police. Now the Logan heir was no doubt Frade.

Soon after we left Liv's house, Frade decided the alarm was off and we didn't need to hide. So he took me back to his hotel apartment.

As Frade re-accepted into the Logan family, many business matters required his attention. He would come home at night, but I would wait for him no matter how busy he was. I can only sleep at night with him in my arms.

When I mentioned Vickie to him by chance one day, he told me that Vickie had returned to the manor from the hospital and that he had assigned a nurse to take care of Vickie.

The next day, my bodyguards took me to Vickie's house for the first time since I left. Frade replaced all the servants in the manor, and even Vickie's favourite footman was sacked.

A female nurse in a white uniform led me to Vickie's bedroom, where she lay pale on a bed. To my surprise, she was sicker than the last time I saw her. She didn't even know me. The nurse told me that Vickie's organs were failing, that her vision had become blurry and she was not conscious. Sometimes she remembers things from the past, but most of the time she is in a daze. The nurse said that most old people would look like her at the end of their lives.

This cheerful old lady once saw me as family, and I liked her very much. Now the disease was eating away at her, and I felt sad at the thought that her life was coming to an end.

After the visit, the driver drove me back to my hotel apartment. As we were on our way, my cell phone rang. It was Frade.

"Eva, where are you?" His voice was hurried and worried.

"I'm on my way home from visiting Vickie."

"Listen, I want you to go back to the hotel and don't go anywhere until I get back."

"Did something happen?" I asked.

"The police were involved in an accident while transporting Daley, and the car was found abandoned on the side of the road. Daley is gone," Frade said in a low voice. "I suspect he planned it all."

I gasped. The beast that had escaped from the cage would have killed the hunter. He was dangerous.

The car suddenly collided with something and made a loud noise. Before I could react, the car rolled over. I spun around in the air and fell to the ground.

Then there was a loud gunshot. I was in pain. In a blur, a sound came from my ear.

"Hello, my little Rose!"