---- Chapter 15 A full year passed. A year of dead ends and false leads. Ethan's obsession deepened, carving out the man he used to be and leaving a hollow, haunted shell. He spent his days at the veterinary clinic, sitting in the small room he had built for her, waiting. The cat, Snowball, would curl up on his lap, a warm, living link to the woman who had disappeared. His friends tried to intervene. They took him out for drinks, trying to distract him. "Let her go, man," one of them said, his voice laced with concern. "She's not coming back. You have Olivia's kid to think about." They still didn't know about the miscarriage. Ethan had guarded that secret fiercely. "Don't talk about Olivia," Ethan warned, his voice low. "Why not?" his friend pressed, "She's a great girl. Beautiful, from a good family. Not like... well, you know." The implication was clear. Sarah wasn't one of them. She was from a different world. Ethan slammed his fist on the table, the glasses rattling. "Don't you ever," he snarled, his face a mask of cold fury, ---- "speak about Sarah that way again. You are not worthy to say her name." His friends stared at him, shocked into silence. They had never seen him so emotional, so raw. "My God," one of them whispered. "You're in love with her." "l am not," Ethan snapped, the denial automatic. He didn't do love. Love was a weakness, a vulnerability he couldn't afford. The Vances didn't love; they possessed. "She is my wife. She belongs to me. And she abandoned me. That is an insult | will not tolerate." He was furious at her for leaving, for having the audacity to choose a life without him. He would find her, and he would make her pay for that insult. One afternoon, as he was leaving the clinic, his assistant ran up to him, holding a crisp white envelope. "This just arrived for you, sir. By courier." Ethan took the envelope. There was no return address. He tore it open Inside was a single document. A certificate of divorce. It was dated a week after she disappeared. It bore his signature, a perfect, undeniable forgery. He stared at it, his mind reeling. It wasn't possible. He had never signed any divorce papers. ---- "This is a fake," he said, his voice shaking with rage. "| checked, sir," the assistant said timidly. "It's been officially filed with the court. It's legal." Ethan drove like a madman to the county records office, storming up to the counter. "| need to see the divorce filing for Ethan Vance and Sarah Miller," he demanded. The clerk, a mousy woman who was clearly intimidated, scurried away and returned with a file. "Everything seems to be in order, sir. Both parties signed the petition." He snatched the papers from her hand. There it was, his signature, looking just as it should. How? "She forged it," he muttered, a new, dark suspicion forming in his mind. "But who filed it? Who was her lawyer?" He realized with a jolt that there had to be a mole. Someone on the inside had helped her. Someone had betrayed him. He stormed back to his office, his mind racing. "Get me a list of every employee who had access to my private documents in the last year," he barked at his assistant. "| want them all in the conference room in ten minutes. No one leaves until | find out who helped her." He would tear his company apart, piece by piece if he had to. He would find the traitor. And he would make them tell him where she was. This was no longer just about bringing her back. This was about revenge. She had declared war, and he ---- was going to make sure she regretted it.