Chapter 4

I avoided his hand. “Three days. I’m giving you three days. Three days from now, I will return with a lawyer to discuss splitting the ownership of this house. Furthermore, the exclusive licensing for Eagle-Eye—the AI tracking system that my tech company provided to the city police department will be fully revoked.”

Shawn’s expression instantly sank.

“Lea, do you even know what you’re saying? The state review board is evaluating our smart policing initiative next month. This project is my ticket to the deputy chief promotion. If you terminate the licensing, the entire system will shut down. Are you trying to destroy my future?”

“That is my patent. It was a stepping stone I gave you for free, and I’m taking it back now.”

I pushed open the front door and walked out without looking back.

The stairwell was deathly quiet. I leaned against the freezing wall, gasping heavily for breath. The pain in my right leg was so intense that it had almost gone numb.

Inside that apartment were the curtains I had personally picked out, the renovation blueprints I had drawn up line by line, and a seven-year promise made by a boy whose eyes used to be filled with no one else but me.

Now, all that remained of him was a man who weighed his pros and cons.

What that raging fire burned away was not just the bone in my leg but the very last hope I had in this relationship. However, my mind was clearer than it had ever been before.

…

I didn’t book myself into a hotel. Dragging a leg bound in a plaster cast made staying at a hotel far too inconvenient. Instead, I sat on a bench outside the entrance of the residential compound and called Joanna Ford.

Joanna was my college roommate, and she was currently the only person I could trust without reservation.

The call went through after just two rings.

“Lea? You finally turned your phone back on! I’ve been looking for you like crazy for the past half month! I knocked on your apartment door, and no one answered. Where on earth did you disappear to?”

“Jo, I was in a car accident. I was just discharged from the hospital.”

Joanna’s voice went up an octave. “Where are you? Send me your location. Stand still and don’t move; I’m coming over right now!”

Half an hour later, Joanna’s SUV pulled up at the neighbourhood entrance. She rushed down, and the moment she saw me leaning on crutches with a suitcase sitting by my feet, her eyes instantly welled up with tears.

“Where is Shawn? Your leg is broken, and he let you leave the house with your luggage?”

“He’s currently busy upstairs taking care of his traumatized female intern.”

I related the entire sequence of events to her, exactly as it happened.

“So, he locked you inside a leaking car to go save a bitch who only suffered a few scratches? And after you got discharged, not only did he not pick you up, but he even brought her back to your home?”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck him!” Joanna slammed her hand hard against the steering wheel as she said, “Lea, you sit right there. I’m going up with a knife to hack that bastard couple to pieces!”

I quickly grabbed her arm. “Jo, don’t go. Going to jail for people like them isn’t worth it. Don’t worry. I won’t let them have an easy time.”

Joanna had known me for seven years, and she knew I was usually easygoing and somewhat soft-tempered. Yet, this time, she saw in my eyes that I had truly given up on hope.

She sat back down in the driver’s seat. “Alright. We’re going to my place. I’m renting a two-bedroom apartment, and one room is empty. You can stay there.”

Joanna’s apartment was in an older residential district downtown, and it was kept very clean.

After helping me settle in, she went back downstairs to get me some anti-inflammatory medication and nursing supplies.

That evening, I sat on the sofa with my leg propped up on a soft cushion, applying an ice pack.

Walking over holding a glass of water, Joanna asked, “What do you plan to do? The house issue is easy to handle. That can be settled by filing a lawsuit. But the fact that he left you in the car on the day of the accident—do you plan to just let it go?”

“Of course not. The traffic police have ruled it as an accidental rear-end collision, with the car behind holding full liability. Even though Shawn, the driver, fled the scene after the accident, he did save someone. Legally speaking, it will be very difficult to define whether he deliberately left someone to die.”