“Tham Du, it’s Mom. Is it okay to answer the phone now?”
At that moment, I was lying in a sea-view suite in Pattaya that cost twelve thousand yuan a night.
The curtains were half-open, letting the golden afternoon sunlight spill across the white sheets. The ocean outside was calm, the kind of calm I had dreamed about for years but never had the chance to enjoy.
For the first time in a long time, I was alone.
Not lonely.
Free.
I turned on the speakerphone and placed the phone beside me.
“If there’s something wrong, just say it directly. I’m on vacation abroad.”
The person on the other end didn’t even bother asking how I was.
Her breathing became heavy.
Panicked.
Impatient.
“Vacation? What vacation? Hurry and buy the nearest flight back! Hua Than is hospitalized!”
My fingers froze around the glass of water.
Hua Than.
My ex-husband.
The man whose name had been written next to mine for eight years.
The man who had become a stranger at 9:30 yesterday morning when we signed the divorce papers.
“The same Hua Than who is getting remarried today?” I asked calmly.
“Stop asking useless questions!” his mother snapped. “He can’t get out of bed. Someone needs to take care of him. You have to come back!”
I almost laughed.
Almost.
Because the woman speaking to me sounded exactly like she had the day I married her son.
Not like someone asking for help.
Like someone giving an order.
“Mrs. Liu,” I said slowly, “yesterday we completed our divorce. The assets were divided. The relationship ended. If Hua Than needs someone beside his hospital bed, his new wife can do that.”
“Tham Du!”
I hung up.
The room became silent again.
For a few seconds, I stared at my phone.
Then I smiled bitterly.
Yesterday, I finally escaped a marriage that had already been dead for years. Today, they wanted me to return and play the role of a wife again.
I was about to put on a face mask when the doorbell rang.
Three long rings.
Two short rings.
My expression changed.
That was not a normal hotel guest.
I walked toward the door and looked through the peephole.
My entire body stiffened.
Three people stood outside.
A hotel manager.
And two police officers.
I opened the door halfway.
“May I ask who you are looking for?”
The older officer stepped forward.
“Ms. Tham Du?”
“Yes.”
He showed me his identification.
“We are from the criminal investigation department. We need to ask you some questions.”
My heart sank slightly.
“What happened?”
“We received a report. We need to verify some information.”
I let them enter.
My first thought was the company merger I had handled before leaving my job.
Twenty million yuan.
A complicated acquisition.
But every document had been reviewed and signed.
There was no reason for trouble.
The officers sat across from me.
The older one opened his notebook.
“Do you know someone named Hua Than?”
My hand stopped.
“Yes.”
“How do you know him?”
I looked at him.
“Yesterday morning, he became my ex-husband.”
The younger officer looked up immediately.
“Ex-husband?”
“Yes. We completed our divorce yesterday.”
The older officer wrote something down.
“Did you know he was getting married today?”
“Yes.”
“Where was the wedding held?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who was he marrying?”
“I don’t know.”
The officer studied my face.
“You divorced him one day before his wedding?”
“Yes.”
“And you have no contact with him afterward?”
“No.”
A few seconds of silence passed.
Then he said:
“Ms. Tham, Hua Than is missing.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“His wedding was supposed to happen today. Thirty-five tables were prepared. The bride arrived. The guests arrived.”
He paused.
“But the groom never appeared.”
My mind instantly returned to the phone call.
Hospitalized.
Unable to get out of bed.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
“Officer,” I said carefully, “his mother called me ten minutes before you arrived.”
Both officers looked at me.
“What did she say?”
“She said Hua Than was hospitalized. She demanded that I return and take care of him.”
The room became completely silent.
The older officer leaned forward.
“Did she tell you which hospital?”
“No.”
“Did she mention why he was hospitalized?”
“No.”
The officer exchanged a glance with his partner.
Something about that exchange made my skin crawl.
“What is happening?” I asked.
The older officer closed his notebook.
“That is what we are trying to find out.”
The police car moved through the highway toward the airport.
I sat in the back seat, watching the city disappear outside the window.
Yesterday, I thought my biggest problem was leaving behind a failed marriage.
I was wrong.
The real story had only just begun.
“Officer,” I finally asked, “who reported him missing?”
The younger officer driving didn’t answer.
The older officer turned slightly.
“His mother.”
My eyebrows tightened.
“His mother?”
“Yes.”
I laughed quietly.
A cold laugh.
“Interesting.”
The officer looked at me.
“Why?”
“Because ten minutes before you came to my room, she told me he was lying in a hospital bed.”
The officer’s expression changed.
“And you are certain?”
“Absolutely.”
I looked out the window.
Someone was lying. The only question was whether they were lying to me, or whether they were hiding something much bigger.
When I returned to the city, I did not go home.
That house was no longer mine.
The divorce agreement had already transferred my share.
The life I built with Hua Than for eight years was finished.
Instead, the police took me directly to the station.
There, I saw something unexpected.
A woman sitting in the waiting room.
Beautiful.
Elegant.
Wearing a wedding dress.
Hua Than’s bride.
Her name was Lin Xia.
She looked nothing like a devastated woman who had just lost her future husband.
Her face was pale.
But her eyes were sharp.
The moment she saw me, she stood.
“You.”
Her voice carried anger.
“You divorced him yesterday.”
“Yes.”
“And today he disappeared.”
I stared at her.
“What are you implying?”
She stepped closer.
“You were his wife for eight years. You knew everything about him.”
“And you were about to become his wife today.”
Her face changed.
Only slightly.
But I noticed.
“You should know more than me.”
The police officer interrupted.
“Enough. Everyone will answer questions separately.”
During my interview, they showed me Hua Than’s recent financial records.
My eyes narrowed.
Because I recognized something.
A transfer.
A very large transfer.
“Where did this money come from?” I asked.
The officer looked surprised.
“You know?”
I pointed at the document.
“This account belonged to Hua Than’s private investment fund.”
The officer nodded.
“And?”
“He withdrew almost everything three days ago.”
“How much?”
I looked at the number.
My heart sank.
“Fifty million yuan.”
The room became quiet.
“Did you know about this?”
“No.”
“Could he have hidden money during your divorce?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
The officer frowned.
“Why are you so certain?”
Because I knew Hua Than.
At least, I thought I did.
“He was arrogant. Careless. He loved showing people how successful he was.”
I paused.
“He would never secretly move money without wanting someone to notice.”
The officer wrote that down.
Then he asked:
“Who would benefit if Hua Than disappeared?”
I didn’t answer immediately.
Because one name appeared in my mind.
Lin Xia.
But I refused to say it.
Not without proof.
That night, I received an unknown message.
Only one sentence.
“If you want to know why your husband disappeared, go to the old apartment.”
The old apartment.
The place where Hua Than and I lived during the first five years of marriage.
The place I had not returned to since the divorce.
I should have ignored it.
A reasonable person would.
But something inside me knew.
This was not random.
I went there with the police.
The apartment was empty.
Dust covered the furniture.
Everything looked abandoned.
Then I found something hidden behind an old photo frame.
A small black box.
Inside was a USB drive.
And a handwritten note.
My hands trembled as I opened it.
The handwriting was Hua Than’s.
“Tham Du, if you are reading this, then I failed.”
I froze.
Failed?
The video file opened.
Hua Than appeared on the screen.
He looked exhausted.
Nothing like the confident man I knew.
“I know you hate me,” he said.
I almost turned it off.
But I continued watching.
“I deserve it.”
My eyes burned.
Because I had waited years to hear those words.
“I know you think I betrayed you.”
He lowered his head.
“But the truth is worse.”
The video continued.
Hua Than explained everything.
The remarriage.
The money.
The sudden disappearance.
It was all part of a plan.
He had discovered that someone inside his company had been stealing money for years.
Someone close.
Someone he trusted.
And the person behind it…
Was not Lin Xia.
It was his own mother.
Liu Phan.
My breath stopped.
“She forced me to marry Lin Xia because she wanted access to my shares,” Hua Than said.
“She knew if I transferred my assets after marriage, she could control everything through her.”
I stared at the screen.
The woman who demanded I return to take care of her son.
The woman who treated me like an unpaid servant.
“She knew you were divorcing me. She knew I would lose my protection.”
Hua Than looked directly into the camera.
“Tham Du, I am sorry.”
For the first time in years, I heard sincerity in his voice.
“I hurt you because I was weak.”
The video ended.
Three days later, the truth shocked everyone.
The police discovered that Hua Than had not been kidnapped.
He had gone into hiding with their help.
The missing person report was a trap.
A trap designed to expose who truly cared about finding him.
And the person who panicked first was Liu Phan.
Because she believed Hua Than was gone forever.
The evidence proved everything.
The stolen funds.
The fake accounts.
The manipulation.
The woman who spent years controlling everyone around her finally lost control.
When Hua Than appeared in court, he looked older.
Tired.
Broken.
He looked at me.
“I know I have no right to ask for forgiveness.”
I said nothing.
“I destroyed the best thing in my life.”
I looked at him.
“You didn’t lose me because of one mistake, Hua Than.”
My voice was calm.
“You lost me because every day, you chose someone else over me.”
His eyes lowered.
I walked away.
Because forgiveness did not mean returning.
Some doors were meant to close.
Six months later, I sat by the ocean again.
Same city.
Different person.
This time, I was not running away.
I was celebrating myself.
The divorce had not destroyed my life.
It had given it back.
My phone rang.
A message from an old friend.
“Are you happy?”
I looked at the waves.
And smiled.
“Yes.”
Because happiness was not about someone choosing you.
It was about finally choosing yourself.
The woman who left her marriage with nothing but a suitcase returned with something far more valuable: her freedom.
