No Mercy, No Forgiveness

The phone alarm rang. Geoffrey glanced at the time, clocked out right on schedule, leaving Sean alone in the office.

The office was empty.

Sean clenched the Heirloom Pendant in his hand until blood seeped from his palm before finally releasing it.

Stepping outside, he spotted Stuart lying barely breathing on the roadside. “Take him back,” he coldly ordered.

Pearl.

An eerie silence filled the rooms. In the corner of the living room sat a glaringly bright red case, jarringly out of place.

Geoffrey returned home precisely on time and settled onto the sofa Maureen used to favor.

Everything felt the same, yet utterly different.

He didn’t know how long he’d sat there when his gaze drifted to that case.

Sean had sent it over–Maureen’s belongings. He hadn’t opened it until now.

Approaching the case, Geoffrey bent down and lifted the lid.

The passcode was painfully simple: his birthday.

He knew because Maureen had used his birthday for every lock in this villa.

Inside lay everyday items and clothes, sparse for a woman’s belongings.

Geoffrey couldn’t bring himself to sift through them. He shut the case again.

Without eating, he retreated to the bedroom they once shared.

The moment he entered, Maureen’s cremation urn and her black–and–white photo stared back at him.

Skeletal remains couldn’t yield DNA after cremation, but Geoffrey remained certain–Maureen wasn’t dead…

She absolutely wouldn’t die!

She wouldn’t dare die!

How could someone as pain–averse as Maureen dare to die?

She was just deceiving herself to be with Gareth.

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investigated–perpetually single, Maureen’s prince

eluded him all

unusually early

washing up, his assistant delivered

seemed unchanged–until subtle shifts

bowl at

more photograph in

nagging texts

welcoming light upon returning

leaving work earlier.

company witnessed his

deliberately worked past midnight

exchanged

Sutton despise that deaf

he

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were an accomplished man like Mr. Sutton, I’d never fancy some deaf woman with no sense

only I were as pretty as her, I’d make sure to

overheard their conversation

but he was better

but work, having people look for Maureen, and crushing

Wayne, this behavior wasn’t just because Geoffrey hated

Geoffrey never gave

New Year’s Eve, snow

the past, Maureen would always accompany Geoffrey back to the old estate for New Year’s

this year was different. Geoffrey went back

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Chapter31

288 Vouchers

and talkative man he was when Maureen first left, now Geoffrey mostly sat alone, hardly speak- ing, radiating a chilling cold that kept everyone at

in a hurry and left in a hurry for

Pearl, the snow lay white

some reason, it felt

floor–to–ceiling window, lighting one

not let

door behind him

see his mother, Heather, dressed

wrong with

like you’ve become a different person