Chapter 503 A New Life in Los Angeles

Chapter 503: Chapter 503 A New Life in Los Angeles

Rose’s heart was still pounding.

She had never imagined she’d one day go to such extreme lengths to help someone escape a marriage.

Diana wasn’t dead.

The entire thing had been a carefully staged deception.

Diana understood Liam’s obsessive attachment and dark side better than anyone. Even if he admitted he was wrong, there was no chance he’d willingly let her go.

He regarded her as an inseparable part of himself. If she tried to leave him, he would fight her every step of the way, refusing to accept that their relationship was over.

But Diana didn’t want to keep living that way.

She wanted out.

And she believed there was only one way to escape the life that had become a prison.

She had to make Liam believe he’d lost her forever.

Diana had never felt truly connected to the Robinson family. Her parents had treated her more like an inconvenience than a daughter, and their reaction to her supposed death had only confirmed what she’d always known.

They were strangers to her in everything but name.

Why should she continue carrying the burden of a family that had never offered her a place to belong?

She wanted to spread her wings, leave the past behind, and finally live for herself.

A normal divorce wouldn’t be enough to free her from Liam quickly. She knew he would fight it, drag out the proceedings, and use every resource available to keep her within reach.

Rose had offered to help.

“If you want a divorce, Ryan can take care of the legal side,” she’d told Diana.

But Diana had shaken her head, giving Rose a bitter smile.

“You don’t understand Liam. If he thinks there’s still a chance of keeping me, he’ll do whatever it takes. He won’t let me walk away peacefully.”

She had looked at Rose earnestly.

“This is between Liam and me. I don’t want you dragged into the middle of it. He’s a member of the Mercer family, and Ryan has his own relationships and business interests to consider. If Ryan openly goes against Liam to help me, it could create unnecessary trouble between their families. I won’t put you in that position.”

On the surface, Liam appeared gentle, refined, and reasonable.

But the boyhood he’d spent being rejected and mistreated had left deep scars. His need to hold on to the people he loved could turn into an obsession, and when he felt threatened, he wasn’t always capable of letting go.

Diana had seen that side of him.

She didn’t want Rose caught in the crossfire.

If she wanted to end the nightmare completely, she needed Liam to believe there was no longer any possibility of getting her back.

And she had decided that only the most drastic solution would accomplish that.

As for the means she’d chosen, Rose had used her knowledge of pharmacology and the compounds she’d worked with over the years to help Diana create the appearance of death.

It was an extremely risky deception, not something that could be maintained indefinitely. The effects of the compound were brief, lasting no more than an hour before the danger of serious complications became too great.

That was why Rose had insisted on moving Diana immediately.

There had been no time to hesitate.

If Liam had continued hovering over Diana or demanded further examinations, he might have noticed something was wrong. They had needed to get her out of his reach before his suspicions could take hold.

Rose remembered Diana’s words.

“I wanted to escape him. And yes, I wanted him to experience the pain of being deceived, just as I had. But I never wanted him to die because he believed I was dead.”

Diana had paused, her expression bleak.

“Liam is capable of doing something like that. He could give me everything in the world, but he still chose to betray me. He broke the one thing I thought I could trust.”

She hated him.

She hated what he’d done to her, the lies he’d told, and the way he’d made her question everything she’d once believed about their marriage.

But she didn’t want him to die for her.

That was why she’d deliberately left instructions forbidding him from searching for her.

She wanted him to keep living.

She wanted him to endure the consequences of his choices rather than follow her into death.

And Liam’s belief in Diana’s final wishes was powerful enough to keep him from doing what he might otherwise have done.

Rose looked down at the message on her phone.

It was from an unfamiliar number.

Diana had already arrived in Los Angeles.

She had a new identity, a new environment, and the chance to begin again.

This time, she intended to build a life that belonged entirely to her.

She would decide where to live, what work to pursue, and whom to allow into her world. She would no longer have to shape every decision around Liam’s expectations or worry about the consequences of displeasing him.

She could finally live for herself.

Rose’s eyes stung, and tears welled up before she could stop them.

She couldn’t help feeling heartbroken for Diana.

If only she’d had parents who loved her unconditionally, people she could turn to when life became unbearable, perhaps she wouldn’t have needed to resort to such an extreme plan.

When she’d felt she had nowhere left to go, she’d been forced to find a way out on her own.

And even the people who should have mourned her supposed death had been more concerned about their family’s reputation than their daughter.

What reason did she have to keep clinging to the past?

“Why are you crying?”

Ryan walked over and bent down beside her. He gently brushed the tears from her cheeks with his fingertips, his brow furrowing as he took in her expression.

Then he lowered his head and kissed the corner of her eye.

“Trust me. I’ll make sure she’s safe. When the time is right, I’ll take you to see her.”

With Ryan handling the arrangements and keeping the details secure, Liam wouldn’t have an easy trail to follow.

Diana would have to endure the consequences of the deception for a while, but at least she would finally have the distance she’d needed.

Rose wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand and looked up at him.

“I know he deserves to face the consequences of what he did, but doesn’t this feel a little too cruel?”

She understood why Diana had made her decision.

She didn’t blame her, either.

Still, knowing that Liam would spend his days believing the woman he loved was dead made the whole situation difficult to bear.

Ryan slipped an arm behind her back and lifted her gently from the sofa, settling her against his chest.

He knew Rose hadn’t been able to relax since everything had happened. Diana had reached a breaking point, and the emotional upheaval of leaving her entire life behind was immense. Even if the plan succeeded, the road ahead wouldn’t be easy for her.

Rose had spent the entire night tossing and turning, unable to stop worrying.

Ryan had noticed every restless movement.

“When Liam crossed that line, he knew what he was doing,” he said quietly. “He was counting on Diana’s love for him. He believed they were bound together for life, so he thought he could make a mistake, apologize, and still expect her to stay.”

His hand moved slowly over her back.

“He never believed he would actually lose her. I am not making him suffer for the sake of cruelty, Rose. I’m making sure he understands that his choices have consequences.”

Liam had never been completely unaware of what his betrayal might do to Diana.

He’d simply assumed that she would be heartbroken, that she might cry or become angry, but that she’d eventually forgive him.

He had believed their history, their marriage, and her love for him would always be enough to bring her back.

That confidence had allowed him to cross boundaries he should never have crossed.

Only when he’d lost the future he’d taken for granted could he begin to understand the consequences of his actions.

Rose studied Ryan’s calm profile.

“You make a very convincing argument,” she murmured. “Listening to you, I’m starting to think I went far too easy on you back then.”

Ryan’s eyebrows lifted slightly.

His dark eyes drifted toward her lips.

“Are you seriously comparing me to Liam?”

Rose blinked at him.

Then she gave a small, incredulous laugh.

“Comparing you? What, are we ranking men now?”

“I’m nothing like him.”

Ryan caught a loose strand of her hair between his fingers and toyed with it.

Rose raised an eyebrow.

“And how, exactly, are you different?”

Ryan leaned closer, his lips brushing the shell of her ear as he murmured, “From the inside out, body and soul, I’ve always belonged to you alone. I’m a much more faithful man than he is.”

Rose fell silent.

He’d actually used the word faithful to describe himself with that much confidence.

The audacity.

And yet, she couldn’t argue with him.

Ryan had never betrayed her in that way.

Some people became careless when they felt secure in a relationship. The more certain they were that the person they loved would never leave, the less carefully they treated that person’s heart.

Love could change a person.

It could also blind them to the damage they were causing.

Liam had taken Diana’s devotion for granted until he’d destroyed the very happiness he’d been so desperate to hold on to.

That was no one’s fault but his own.

Gradually, the tension in Rose’s body began to ease.

She nestled closer against Ryan’s chest.

“Be careful what you take for granted,” she murmured. “You might lose it.”

Ryan lowered his gaze and continued stroking her back in slow, reassuring movements.

His eyes were calm, reflecting a depth of feeling he rarely put into words.

The difference between him and Liam was that Ryan had always understood what he wanted—and how much care it took to protect it.

He knew how easily happiness could slip away.

His own life had never been simple. He had spent years navigating uncertainty, and the moments of peace he’d managed to find had often seemed painfully fragile.

That was why he cherished Rose so deeply.

He wanted to protect what they had, not because he believed she could never leave him, but because he knew her love was something he could never afford to take for granted.

He had seen what happened when a man forgot that.

Liam was living proof.

Ryan’s arms tightened slightly around Rose’s waist.

Then he spoke again.

“Rose, think about something for me.”

“Hmm?”

He lowered his head and kissed the top of her hair.

“I’m not Liam.”

Rose went still.

“I’m not going to betray you or make you question whether you’re enough for me. I’ll stay by your side, and I’ll keep choosing you for the rest of my life.”

His voice was quiet but unwavering.

“You won’t have to live in fear that I’ll do something like this to you. I promise.”

Rose’s heart gave a painful little squeeze.

It wasn’t an unpleasant pain.

Warmth spread through her chest, flowing outward until her cheeks grew hot.

She hadn’t expected Ryan to understand what had been troubling her so completely.

But he did.

He knew that watching Diana’s marriage fall apart had inevitably made Rose think about her own relationship, about how fragile happiness could be, and about how easily the person she trusted most could hurt her.

He hadn’t waited for her to voice those fears.

He’d simply reassured her, as though he wanted to stop those thoughts before they had the chance to take root.

Rose buried her face against his deep-blue cashmere sweater and wrapped her arms around him.

“Okay,” she whispered.

For the moment, that was enough.

*****

Rose heard little about Liam’s condition directly.

Ryan had handled the arrangements surrounding Diana’s disappearance with such care that no obvious trail led back to them.

Still, Rose eventually learned that Liam had been hospitalized twice.

The first time was after a period of heavy drinking.

The second was more serious, following a medical emergency involving alcohol and sleeping pills.

The once-celebrated rising star of the business world no longer seemed like the man everyone had admired.

His reputation, his confidence, and the composure he’d once worn so effortlessly had all begun to crumble.

Time and again, he tried to contact Rose.

He begged her to meet him, set aside his pride, and pleaded with her to tell him where Diana had been laid to rest.

But Rose never gave him the answer he wanted.