Chapter 117: My Own Life

ASTRID’S POV

"Ethan, before you say anything, I was framed," I said to him.

He didn’t even answer me. He just walked inside the room. I was scared. What could this mean? His silence was already killing me.

I followed him in, stood right in front of him, and still got nothing.

"Ethan! Answer me. I know you’ve seen what’s on the news, please say something. You’re giving me hypertension," I said to him.

He unlocked his phone and played the video without a word.

He showed me. There was no sound, just the footage. I felt ashamed of myself. I was about to be married at that time. It had only been a biological thing ... no chemistry, there had never been any chemistry between us. But I still had to lie to him.

"That’s not me in the video," I said.

"It was quite a sight, watching my own wife fuck another man on a live webcam," Ethan said, his voice low and cold. "Now the whole world has seen it."

"I promise you, Ethan, someone is trying to frame me. Let me show you..." I reached for his phone and he handed me a dirty slap across the face.

That was the first time Ethan had ever raised his hand to me.

"Ethan, you slapped me?" I said, staring at him in disbelief.

He slapped me again.

I burst into tears. "They don’t want us to be together. Your wife is part of this ... she confronted me and told me she’d tear me apart. I thought I could handle it myself, that’s why I didn’t tell you," I said through my sobs.

"Then I guess she’s succeeded, because I don’t want this relationship anymore," he said.

"No. Thalia can’t win. She’s trying to get back at you too for divorcing her. You can’t let her have this. That video is fake, Ethan."

"This video is real. You can’t fake a webcam." He wasn’t buying it.

"And I asked you who that man was and you lied. Then I found out he was your mate ... and now you’ve fucked him." He grabbed his head with both hands.

He was frustrated, completely unravelling, and I was the only one who could pull him back from the edge.

I stepped forward and hugged him. "Please, you have to see reason in what I’m saying."

He shoved me off and slapped me again.

That one ignited something in me. I slapped him back.

His face turned red, fury blazing in his eyes. He lunged at me and I ran. I bolted through the house with him right behind me, ducked into the next room, and he followed. I threw a punch that knocked him off balance and bought myself a few seconds. I was scanning the room, looking for anything to use, when he pounced.

He pinned me to the bed and wrapped his hands around my neck.

This couldn’t be love, no matter what I had done. It just couldn’t be.

He pressed harder. He was trying to strangle me. I was gasping, clawing at his hands, but he didn’t even flinch ... he just kept pressing.

With the very last strength I had, I drove my knee straight into his groin. He let out a howl and collapsed onto the floor.

I ran.

I flew out of that house barely breathing, barely standing. I couldn’t afford to die here. Thalia wanted to destroy me ... now I understood exactly what she’d meant by every single word she’d ever said to me. Look at the wolf she’d left behind. He had rage locked inside him that I never knew about, and he’d just tried to use it to end me.

I snatched the car keys on my way out.

Ethan was already recovering, already coming after me.

"Astrid! Come here!" he shouted.

He rushed outside, almost reaching me, but I was already in the car. I turned on the ignition and floored it. The car clipped him on the way out.

I drove straight to a hotel. I needed somewhere to collapse. I used the emergency money I kept tucked away to pay for the room.

Inside the bathroom, I ran the warm water and let it wash over my wounds. I rolled up my sleeve and tended to them slowly, methodically.

Ethan was a violent man. I wasn’t sure I was ever going back to that house.

My phone rang. It was Ivy. She wanted to know how I was doing ... sweet woman.

"Hope you’re okay, ma’am?" she asked.

I gave her what she needed to hear. There was nothing she could do for me right now and I knew it.

"Yes, I’m fine. Doing well, actually. And you?" She answered me warmly.

She told me to take care of myself before she hung up.

I was so glad she’d reached out. Such a genuinely kind person. I made a promise to myself ... when all this was over, I was going to appreciate her properly.

I opened my laptop and pulled up everything I had on Jace. I was searching in anger and desperation, and then I found it ... another number. One that looked like a personal line, not his office contact. Something he used for business he didn’t want traced back to his desk.

I started tracking it. Tracking the person who had posted my sex tape online. I couldn’t quite nail him down through that number alone. I wasn’t a tech guru, but I was no dummy either.

I went back to the original video. I looked at the poster. Anonymous identity.

Of course it was. He wouldn’t want anyone knowing it was him ... but the people at the office would put it together. He’d posted the video and resigned the same day. There was no doubt in my mind it was him. Traitor.

I pulled the IP address from the original upload and pinpointed the exact location. Relief flooded through me. I finally had what I needed.

I grabbed my keys, checked the gun I kept in the car ... fully loaded ... and drove.

I knew my mission by heart. There wasn’t going to be any mercy here. I was going to end him, and then it would be done.

The location was a waterlogged area. I wondered if it was somewhere connected to his family, some hideout he thought no one would find. I parked exactly where the coordinates put him and waited.

It was night, but I could still see clearly enough. I knew his build, the shape of his head. If he stepped outside, I’d know him.

Then he came out.

I stepped out of the car, slid the gun into my pocket, and called his name.

"Jace."

I closed the distance between us quickly. One clean shot from where I was standing and it was over. Running wouldn’t save him.

He tried anyway, and I pulled out the gun.

"You’ll die for nothing. Stay still," I said.

He raised both hands slowly. "My bargain was high and I counted my cost. Uploading that video was going to make me a lot of money."

I kept walking toward him. "You’re a stupid man. You quit your job for a payout. No one will ever trust you again because you ran ... but I’m going to walk away from all of this."

"I wish you could see my neck right now, so you could see what my husband did to me because of you and Thalia." I cocked the gun. "Your end is here."

"Fuck you, Astrid. It’s over for you. There’s nothing you can do. Even if you kill me, it’s still over," he spat.

I cocked the hammer and he hurled the phone in his hand straight at me before I could fire.

It knocked the gun clean out of my grip. He bolted.

I went after him.

I caught his collar and drove a punch into his back. He struggled, spun around, and got me across the face ... but I held on. I wasn’t letting go. We wrestled each other toward the edge, toward the dark water below us, and then we went in.

After that, I didn’t know what happened to him. All I knew was the cold water pulling me under and the desperate, animal fight to save my own life.