Part 4 — On the Night of the Wedding, I Overheard My Husband’s Conversation with My Best Friend, but When I Smiled at Them, Felix’s Face Changed

At six in the morning I was standing by the old harbor warehouse. The sea wind struck my face, while the white towel Cormac had wrapped around my hand was already stained with blood.

Cormac was standing beside me.

“I promised to come alone,” I said.

“I would have stayed in the car if I wanted to lose your trust.”

The warehouse door was half open. Inside there was the smell of salt, wood, and old oil.

A small wooden box lay on the table.

On top of it, in my mother’s handwriting, was written: “For Lydia. Only when the choice belongs to her.”

In the box I found a memory card, three contracts, and my mother’s second letter.

“Did your mother leave this too?” Cormac asked.

“It seems she calculated everything before her death.”

There was one video on the memory card. Cormac played it on the laptop.

My mother appeared on the screen. Her face was pale, but her voice was firm.

“If you are watching this recording, Lydia, it means Felix is already trying to sell the coast. Know this: Daisy knew about his plan from the beginning. However, Felix is not acting alone.”

In the video, Mother named several people. Among them were the Davenports’ chief lawyer, the bank director, and Felix’s father, whom everyone thought had fled the country.

Cormac lowered his head.

“Father is alive.”

“And he is behind the deal.”

“For seven years I believed that testifying against him would save the family.”

“You knew about only one part.”

Then my mother said:

“Cormac may help you, but do not trust him completely. He also has a secret that he will try to tell you when there is no other way left.”

The video went off.

I looked at Cormac.

“What secret?”

He did not answer for a long time.

“Father arranged my sister Elena’s death. I found evidence of it, but I could not put it into the case. That is why I testified about corruption—I knew that it would estrange Father from me forever, although I could not prove Elena’s murder.”

“And my mother knew?”

“Yes. She knew that Father would return if Felix concluded the deal.”

At that same moment my phone rang.

Felix was calling.

“Where are you?” he asked when I answered.

“Where my mother told me to go.”

Silence fell.

“Lydia, listen to me carefully. Daisy knows everything. If you do not come with her, Cormac will be accused of what happened seven years ago.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I am warning you.”

“Then listen to me too. I have an audio recording, an audit, contracts, and my mother’s video.”

His breathing changed.

“You do not know what you are doing.”

“For the first time, I know exactly.”

I ended the call.

Cormac immediately called a lawyer. In half an hour, the files were sent to the prosecutor’s office, the bank regulator, and every member of the vote.

Felix tried to regain control.

He called the bank.

The bank froze the account.

He called the family lawyer.

The lawyer told him that he would no longer be his representative.

“You cannot sacrifice me,” Felix shouted into the phone.

“I am no longer going to defend you,” the lawyer answered. “Especially after I heard in your own voice how you threaten your wife.”

That evening the police arrested Felix in a hotel parking lot. Daisy went to the investigative service herself, but statements from her funds were already waiting there.

I was standing in the room where, several hours earlier, I had been wearing my wedding dress.

Felix was sitting in front of me. A recorder lay on the table.

Cormac turned on the recording.

“She will not understand anything,” Felix’s voice could be heard saying.

“Thirty days will be enough,” Daisy answered.

“If she resists us, we will cast doubt on her mental state.”

When Felix heard his own voice, he raised his head.

“This is taken out of context.”

“No,” I said. “This is you.”

For the first time he saw what he was doing to another person. His own words stood before him, clear and merciless.

“Lydia, I wanted to protect you.”

“You needed my name.”

“I loved you.”

“Maybe. But you loved the woman Daisy drew for you. And I am no longer that woman.”

The trial lasted several months. The deal was canceled. The land and resorts were transferred to an independent Davenport foundation, whose charter included one condition that I wrote: the coast could never be sold to a private group.

Felix partially admitted guilt and received a sentence. Daisy reached an agreement with the investigation and began returning the money. This did not make me happy.

I was simply not trying to survive the consequences of their actions for the first time.

The hardest thing, nevertheless, was inspecting the house.

Felix’s office was empty. Only rectangles of dust remained on the shelves. Beside the bed, I found a wedding photograph—I and Felix were smiling as if we were looking at the future.

I did not take the photograph.

In the corridor, I found one silver clasp from my wedding shoes. On the night when the glass broke, it had probably come loose from my dress and hidden under the carpet.

I picked it up.

It was a small, cold object, but an entire old life fit inside it.

Three months later I moved to a small seaside town. In the morning I went to the foundation’s office, where I managed a housing program for the employees’ families. In the evening I spoke to children about the ecology of the coast.

My niece, Nora, visited me every week.

One day she drew a woman on paper. The woman had long hair, an enormous smile, and held a small silver object in her hand.

“This is you,” Nora told me.

“Why am I holding this?”

“Because now you decide what to do with it.”

I laughed. This time the smile was mine.

The first snow came at the end of November. From the office window I watched the white flakes cover the old wooden posts of the harbor. On the table lay my mother’s letters, Cormac’s watch, and the silver clasp.

Cormac was now the foundation’s lawyer. Love had not begun between us. Not yet. However, trust was being rebuilt every day, through small actions.

I received Felix’s last letter in December.

“Lydia, I know that I have lost everything. I deserve at least one meeting. Without you I cannot understand who I am.”

I looked at the paper for a long time.

Then I wrote a short reply:

“Finding out who you are is your responsibility now. I can no longer do it instead of you.”

I sent the letter and turned off my phone.

In the evening Nora picked up the silver clasp.

“You do not wear this anymore?”

“No.”

“Then why do you keep it?”

I went to the window. Outside, snow was falling silently on the sea.

“Because once I thought it belonged to me.”

Nora placed the clasp in my palm.

“Who does it belong to now?”

I closed her fingers.

“To the one who chooses her own path.”

I placed the clasp on the windowsill. In the morning light it no longer glittered like a wedding jewel. It was a small metal sign that even pain can return a path to you.

Outside, the sea was breathing.

I was no longer waiting for anyone.