---- Chapter 6 Adler Irwin POV: Juliana was still dabbing at the red mark on her leg, her lower lip trembling. | felt a surge of irritation. Her pain was an unwelcome distraction, a buzzing noise in the periphery of the roaring silence Harper had left behind. My thumb hovered over Harper's contact, pressing dial again and again, a useless, repetitive motion. Each time, the call went to the void. The void where Harper now was. "Where is she?" | roared, slamming my fist on the desk, the sound echoing in the cavernous office. The question was directed at no one and everyone. A small whimper came from Juliana. | turned to see her swaying on her feet, her face pale. Then, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she crumpled to the floor in a dead faint. At that exact moment, my mother swept into the office, her face a mask of fury. "Adler! What is the meaning of this?" she demanded, gesturing to the unconscious Juliana. "She is carrying your child! The future of the Irwin name! You will take her to the hospital this instant!" ---- "The butler can take her," | said, my eyes still glued to my silent phone. Harper. Harper. Where was Harper? "Are you insane?" my mother shrieked. "That woman you married was barren! Juliana is giving you an heir! And you treat her like this? Where is that useless wife of yours anyway? Tell her to come clean this mess up and serve Juliana some soup!" "Don't talk about her like that!" The words exploded out of me, raw and violent. | was on my feet, glaring at my mother with a ferocity that made her take a step back, her mouth falling open in shock. "And don't you ever," | said, my voice dropping toa dangerous whisper, "make Harper do servant's work again. That's what the maids are for." My mother, for the first time in my life, was speechless. Her face purpled with rage. With a scream of frustration, she swept her arm across my desk, sending a blizzard of papers flying through the air. One document fluttered down and landed at her feet. The divorce decree. "Divorce?" she screeched, snatching it up. "You're divorcing that worthless creature for a woman? After all I've done to build this family's reputation?" Her words were static in my ears. All | could think about was Harper. Her quiet presence in our home, the way she would organize my desk just so, the scent of her shampoo on the ---- pillows. Her disappearance wasn't a tantrum. It was an amputation. A vital part of my world had been cut away, and | was only now beginning to feel the phantom limb pain. An image of her, smiling shyly as she adjusted my tie, flashed in my mind. Then another, of her face, pale and strained, as she quietly cleared away my plate after |' d criticized her cooking. Her smiles had become rarer lately, her movements more silent, more ghost-like. | hadn' t noticed. Or | hadn' t cared. The realization hit me with the force of a physical blow. She was really gone. | bolted from the office, leaving behind my mother's furious shrieks and the distant wail of an approaching ambulance for Juliana. | didn't care. | drove like a madman to the city marriage registration office, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs. It had to be a bluff. A scare tactic. "Check again," | demanded, leaning over the counter, my voice shaking. "Adler Irwin and Harper Griffin. We are married." The clerk, a bored-looking woman with tired eyes, sighed and tapped a few keys. She slid a small, green booklet across the counter toward me. A divorce certificate. Dated that very morning. The air rushed out of my lungs. It felt like my heart had been ---- physically scooped out of my chest, leaving a cold, gaping hole. "Where... where did she go?" | managed to choke out, my voice barely a whisper. The clerk looked at her screen again. "The records show that after finalizing her divorce, Ms. Griffin also registered a new marriage today." She looked up at me, a flicker of pity in her eyes. "Congratulations to the new couple, | suppose." New... marriage? The world tilted on its axis, the floor dropping out from under me. Harper... my Harper... was now someone else's wife.