After He killed my Child, I took off the Good-Wife Mask.

Drake Hallwood had his hands strapped to the chair, while Sandra knelt between his legs.

Her eyes were wide as they stared into his. Her hair was tied in a bun, and her little hands gripped the girth of his cock.

He smiled in satisfaction and pleasure as she lowered her mouth over his cock. The wetness and warmth of her mouth clinched every nerve cells in him.

He tightened his toes as Sandra's head bobbed up and down his length. He wanted so hard to grab her hair and shove her down the more.

Sandra murmured sweet nonsense as she sucked him. He was shaking with pleasure as his first love worked on him.

But the moment his thoughts landed on Elena, he began to go limp.

Sandra looked up, disappointment and confusion written on her face.

"You good?"

He didn't answer. It had just struck 12 midnight. Something didn't feel right anymore.

"Wasn't I supposed to release Elena today?" he asked.

Sandra's face tightened. She let go of his cock and crossed her arms over her breasts.

He snapped the zips off his wrists and grabbed his phone. Just then, a call came in.

The voice was jittery. "Sir, Ms Elena is no longer here in prison."

Drake sprang up. "What the hell does that mean?"

"She escaped."

The air in the room went stale. Drake's heart began to pound uncontrollably. Sandra stood, her eyes full of horror and disgust.

"Give me fucking details!" Drake snapped at the cop. "What do you mean, escaped?"

Nothing made sense anymore. He rushed into his pants, while holding the phone in his neck crook.

"I'm coming there right away!" he barked. "Since you senseless bastards can't keep a helpless girl in chains."

It was only when he was in his car that the caller whispered, "The sheriff is dead. Several other men who had a hand in her detention were shot instantly."

Drake's hands tightened around the steering wheel. How on earth did Elena, a nobody, pull that off?

Sandra kept babbling beside him. "Elena cannot escape! She's got nothing to escape with! She is a hopeless, useless girl who should be condemned forever. She just cannot leave like that."

But in her heart she knew who Elena really was. But all that was gone! Her father despised her, her brother was dead. Nobody cared about Elena in this world.

Drake couldn't hold back his curses as they zoomed through the traffic.

There were police tapes around the prison yard when they arrived. Drake brushed through them and when he saw the lifeless bodies, he froze.

He searched with his eyes for Elena, just a bit of her. Anything.

Nothing.

He ran through the gates straight to her cell.

Or this time, former cell.

There was no Elena there. Her scent had long disappeared.

Something snapped in him. He buckled and leaned on the wall. The very wall he had called disgusting and had shielded Sandra's eyes for.

His mind was running on steroids. What could have happened? Where was Elena?

He reached for his phone and couldn't find it.

"It's in the car," Sandra whispered.

"And you fucking left it there?" His voice came so loud and furious that Sandra jumped.

"Get the fucking phone and call your sister!" Drake said, his fists trembling.

Her eyes were glazed up but she ran for the phone.

He began to pace the stinking hall and to punch walls at intervals.

He couldn't explain this drowning void he felt. He couldn't get his head around the empty feeling Elena's absence gave him.

He didn't see it coming.

He thought he would never feel that. He believed he didn't care a dime about this woman.

But now she was no longer here, he was breaking apart.

When Sandra arrived, he stiffened; he would never show his anxiety. Elena was a nobody.

But his fingers didn't stop trembling when her phone didn't ring. It directed him to voicemail.

"This has never happened before." He leaned forward. "Elena has always prioritized my phone calls!"

He tried again with several different phones. The ones that rang were ignored.

Drake's throat ran dry, his teeth gritted against each other. A cold sweat broke out of his lungs and his voice became hoarse.

He sent numerous texts in seconds.

He then realized that the only times he texted Elena was to lash out rude orders or angry replies.

He found numerous messages where she complained of being sad and lonely and needed them to talk things out.

Even when her daughter was killed, she still reached out to him but he had ignored all of it.

"Call her yourself!" he suddenly shouted at Sandra as they walked back outside.

Sandra, who was getting heavier with pregnancy, was shocked to the bones. Why was he suddenly aggressive to her?

She scrolled through her contacts, trying to remember what he saved Elena's number as.

When she found it, it rang forever. Soon it went into voicemail.

Drake immediately gathered the other cops and started shouting at their incompetence and stupidity.

"How can she leave? Y'all are going to go down for this! You have made an enemy out of me."

"What about our dead men?" a bold one of them asked.

"Fuck your dead men!" was the instant reply. "I only want to see Elena."

"You never cared about her, sir. You wanted so badly to see her rot in jail."

He leaned back, as these words hit him.

"She didn't beg for food or water, she just wanted you to come around and get her out of that prison. For weeks. And now you suddenly care? Is it really love or it's about your ego?"

"She got what she deserved," Sandra offered to help. "She was in prison because she committed a murder. It's that simple."

The other cops snorted and shook their heads. The mutual silence was enough reply.

Even Drake had detached himself. It dawned on him that Elena was really gone.

But he turned to the others and laughed.

"She wouldn't go far. The Elena I know would find her way back to me in a matter of hours. Tops, days. She cannot do without me, her husband."

Just then, a black car arrived and an elegant man stepped out holding a sealed red envelope. His heels slammed against the concrete as he approached.

"I am Ms Elena's chief attorney and this is for you, Mr Hallwood."

Drake didn't take it. He couldn't understand how and when Elena had an attorney.

"What's in that?" he asked.

"Divorce papers. Sign it. She already signed."

As he stared at the bold red ink of Elena's signature, he felt a huge, life-giving part of him melting away.