I reached out to a tech-savvy contact to hunt for more footage.
Victoria finding me wasn't surprising.I'd introduced her to all my close friends.
I stayed at one of Tyler's properties.

Heading to a hospital checkup, I saw her waiting.
Her eyes flashed with excitement and irritation."Ethan Caldwell, ignoring my calls? Thought you were dead!"
I sidestepped her, but her sharp nails dug into my arm.
"Enough! I said no divorce. What do you want? Can't stand Ryan that much?"
"Fine, I'll get him a new place, make him move out. Happy? Stop this tantrum!"
I hadn't expected my firm divorce demand to still look like jealousy to her.

I shook her off." Victoria, you're mistaken."
"I want a divorce because you're tainted, not because I'm jealous."
Her face twisted."Say that again!"
I met her eyes, enunciating," I said, you're tainted."

She didn't know the psychological scars those three years left.
If she'd paid attention, she'd see I was trembling just facing her.
Those words—"Ethan, do you still hate him?"—echoed like nails hammered into my skull, branding my mind.
Hate?
How could I not hate them?
Tyler found my parents'burial site, but I'd never see them again.
"Ethan, stay strong. You've got too much left to do," he said, clapping my shoulder.
I stared at the overgrown plot, rage and helplessness churning.
Ryan had scattered their ashes near his hometown, by a septic field, reeking of decay.
Where exactly, I'd never know.
"Dig. Whatever it takes, find them," I sobbed, eyes bloodshot.
I'd never let Ryan go.
He thought Victoria's protection made him untouchable.
He didn't know her success wasn't just her" strong woman" persona.
I pushed myself into rehab, my leg slowly improving.
I slipped into the company, retrieving a file.
Victoria never suspected I'd kept that document with her name.
I hadn't saved it on purpose—a tidy secretary mistook it for routine paperwork, filing it away.
Three years ago, I found it the day before Victoria lured me home.
I meant to shred it the next day, but fate preserved it.
Carrying the file, I left, only to run into Ryan.
I froze.
Now Victoria's VP, he radiated smug confidence.
"Thought I was seeing things," he said."Ethan Caldwell, here for Vicky?"