Year Five The Perfect Goodbye Plan novel Chapter 156

“Silvia.”

Kent called her name quietly as he watched her from behind, his voice detached and cold. “Did you get everything sorted out?”

Silvia didn’t turn around. “Amy called me. She admitted Vianne put her up to it. Amy’s brother is in a complicated situation—so even if she’d gone through with it, it would have been tough to actually pin a crime on her.”

She answered Kent’s question, her eyes lowered, a flicker of something unreadable crossing her delicate features.

This time, it looked like Vianne’s plan to use Amy had hit a dead end. But who knew who she would try next, or what she’d do to keep targeting Silvia?

“Alright,” Kent replied, a low sound rumbling from his throat. He studied Silvia for a moment, noticing the cool distance in her expression, the way she seemed to keep him at arm’s length. His own face grew guarded as he turned away and headed to the kitchen. “You haven’t eaten yet, have you?”

Silvia didn’t answer. Kent took her silence as confirmation.

He busied himself in the kitchen, moving quietly and efficiently, while Silvia settled onto the sofa. She watched the broad line of Kent’s back, her gaze narrowing, a silent sigh filling her chest.

For the first time, she realized she had no idea how to navigate this marriage anymore.

Nannie had become a splinter lodged deep in her heart—something that had to be removed before she could heal.

But this was a marriage of convenience. Kent and Nannie had a close bond, and Silvia knew she had no real right to interfere.

Not that she wanted to, anyway.

She’d exhausted herself trying to protect her last relationship. She had nothing left to give.

When Kent finally finished and set dinner on the table, they ate in silence, each lost in their own thoughts, as if they were strangers sharing a meal in someone else’s home.

“Silvia, your department head—she’s totally into me!” Finn grabbed a water bottle off the desk and took several gulps, looking as if he’d just seen a ghost. “I thought you’d be in the design department, so I went to look for you. Next thing I know, she’s coming out with her stuff, and the first thing out of her mouth is a confession!”

He still looked mortified, as if he’d wanted to disappear on the spot.

“I mean, look, I get it—I’m charming, handsome, a bit of a heartbreaker. But she’s just not my type.”

Finn flopped into a chair, flipping his phone camera on with a mock-serious pout, his usual irreverence back in full force.

Silvia, meanwhile, had always known Amy liked Finn. Now, piecing together small details from before, she finally understood why Amy had started acting cold toward her.

Maybe it was because Silvia had always declined Amy’s offers to carpool. It was never intentional—timing was simply never right—but perhaps, to Amy, it had felt like rejection.

“She resigned?” Silvia picked up on Finn’s mention of Amy carrying her things. Her eyes narrowed, thoughtful. “You’re not about to ask me to take over as head of the design department, are you?”