Cold Husband Burning Regret: The Divorce He Couldn't Handle novel Chapter 459

When Charlotte opened her eyes again, she was in a hospital room. Wesley was sitting by her bedside.

“Lottie, you’re awake,” he said, his face etched with worry. “Are you feeling okay? Does anything hurt?”

“Wesley…” Charlotte’s voice was hoarse. “Where am I?”

“You’re in the hospital,” he said, taking her hand. “You were unconscious. The rescue team got to you just in time.”

A memory slammed into her, and she shot upright. “Evander? Where’s Evander?”

Wesley hesitated, his gaze shifting away from hers. That flicker of silence was all the answer she needed. A suffocating tightness gripped her chest. “He… he’s really gone?”

“In an explosion that size, survival is… unlikely.”

Charlotte clutched her chest, gasping for air. “Wesley, was it my fault? If I hadn’t suggested we find the jammer, we would have had enough time to escape. If he hadn’t pushed me away, he could have gotten out. I never wanted him to die, Wesley. I really didn’t…”

Seeing her break down, Wesley pulled her into his arms. “This isn’t your fault, Lottie.”

Charlotte buried her face in his chest and sobbed, her body wracked with grief. She couldn’t accept this. She couldn’t accept that Evander was just… gone. Wiped from her world completely.

Judd, who had been standing outside the door, heard her words. The hand he had raised to knock fell to his side, and he turned and walked away.

…

Three days later, the yacht explosion was the top story on every news outlet. Of the hundreds of passengers, six had died, twenty-five were injured, and the rest had been rescued. Evander’s name was on the list of fatalities.

The news of his death sent shockwaves through the city, and the landscape of power in the Capital seemed to shift overnight. Because he had died in the blast, the police couldn’t even find a complete body. For the Howard family, the agony was immeasurable.

The mastermind, Neely Vinterberg, was taken into custody, but with a solid alibi and evidence that the video message had been digitally altered with AI, police couldn’t formally arrest him. His legal team swiftly buried any evidence that pointed to his guilt.

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