Welcome To Hell, Dear Wife-Chapter 45: The call

Chapter 45: The call
"How could you pull such a stunt right in front of me?"
Mira didn’t flinch. With the time she’d been with Lucas, she’d learned that showing fear only fed his need for control, he would in fact take it as victory.
So instead, she crossed her arms and leaned back into the polished seat. She then let her eyes fall to a level of half closure with a practiced and bored calm that Lucas himself was known to always use.
"I’m so confused right now? Why are you so hot about this?" She started in a smooth and almost lazy voice.
"Do I owe you an explanation for whatever I do? The same way you don’t owe me one, remember?"
That seemed to shut Lucas up because, for a second, he didn’t say anything.
Only for him to turn his head away from her and towards the window. His jaw ticked but he still didn’t reply to her, yet to Mira, his silence felt louder than any insult he could have thrown at her.
The rest of the ride passed like they were trowed together in a coffin. Mira could only survive by staring so hard at the back of the driver’s head while counting her breaths just to keep herself steady.
The city continued to blur past them through the tiny windows until they finally pulled up at a courthouse’s steps.
The moment they stopped, it was as if they’d known whose car it was because ers immediately swarmed their car like bees who had just found the most amazing flowers.
Even though this had happened to Mira more than thrice now, she still could not get used to it no matter what.
The cameras flashed so fast that Mira could not help but suddenly wonder how celebrities haven’t gone blind from being exposed to all those lights a lot of their lives.
Voices shouted over each other in a usual mess of questions and accusations.
Lucas stepped out first and as soon as he was out, he extended his hand to help her out.
One would have thought they had been talking lovey-dovey before arriving here and not stuck in a silence that felt like death.
Mira took his hand even though it instantly felt like iron around her fingers and soon they were inside the courthouse itself.
In there, everything felt different, all sterile and cold with white walls and fluorescent lights and low murmurs of people whispering behind their hands.
Mira felt her chest tighten as soon as the clerk started to read the charges out aloud. Each one felt like a heavy chain linking to Lorena’s life.
The session felt both endless yet over in seconds because the next thing Mira knew, she was hearing the judge’s voice as she announced that one of the most serious allegations, the one where they linked Lorena to Alie’s death, was struck down.
"
Lack of evidence and just speculations
," she had said, even adding that they were wasting her time.
One of the lawyers Lucas had hired, one Mira hadn’t met until this very day, leaned over and whispered in Mira’s ear, "This is progress. A small one but still progress."
Mira simply nodded as she tried to keep her face as neutral as possible. She knew that there were cameras everywhere and they were all waiting for a crack from her no matter how tiny.
But under the table, her hands were trembling. She hadn’t been in such a position before after all.
Still inside her, a tiny tight knot had begun to loosen. She felt like one chain, at least one, had broken.
She was going to be able to walk freely soon enough.
When the court adjourned, Lucas stood beside her like a marble stone. He looked unmoved and unbothered as they both exited through the courthouse doors.
And as soon as they were out, the ers were already shoving microphones and cameras towards their faces again.
"Lucas, do you support your wife’s actions?"
"Is this marriage just a PR stunt?"
"Lorena, do you really know nothing about Alie’s death?" One threw and that got Mira’s attention even though she didn’t stop.
She committed suicide, how on earth should she know about her death?
Lucas didn’t even allow her to wait nor did he as well, as his arm remained around her shoulders and he pushed her through the crowd like she was a cargo he was determined to deliver safely.
They were shoved into the waiting car and the door slammed shut behind them. Even though the muffled chaos continued outside, the silence inside was more than that.
She pressed herself against the window as she stared at her own reflection in the tinted glass. Her lips looked pale and bloodless while her fingers were trembling against her phone.
She didn’t understand why the court process scared her so much.
She curled her hands into fists to hide the shaking, she didn’t want Lucas seeing any weakness in her.
But then her phone buzzed.
A vibration rattled through her palm like an electric shock and it caused her to jerk so suddenly that she nearly dropped the device.
The screen lit up with an incoming call and the name that glowed on it made her feel like she was caught doing something wrong.
It was Damian.
She sneaked a glance at Lucas, his body was turned slightly away from her with his eyes locked on the cityscape outside the tinted window.
She swiped to answer the call after angling her body toward her own side of the window as if trying to shield herself.
"Hello?"
"Lori!" Damian’s voice came in urgent. It even sounded like he was also whispering too. "I found it, Lori! What you said you hid away, you converted them to bullion, I found them. We need to find a way to meet. And it has to be today."
Mira felt her pulse slam against her ribs so hard that she thought anyone in the car might hear it. She gripped the phone tighter not minding the way her nails were biting into her palm.
Her mind had jumbled up immediately.
Could this be real? Had Damian really found
the money Lorena
hid away before her attempted suicide?
Her throat went dry as she glanced at Lucas again.
"I—" she started to whisper back but suddenly stopped.
She couldn’t risk letting Lucas know about this, who knew what he would do.
"I have to go," she whispered into the phone instead and cut Damian off mid-sentence. She hung up and her hands moved quickly to shove the phone deep into her purse as if it were evidence of some crime.
But inwardly, her thoughts were spinning like a tornado.
Mira stared down at her lap as the leather seats looked like they swallowed her.
Finally
. She thought to herself.
Finally, I can run from all of this and start a new life far, far away from here. It is time.