Chapter 3

Elara's POV

Alistair’s head whipped to the side, and a red mark quickly blossomed across his pale cheek.

For a split second, a flash of hostility crossed his eyes—so fast it almost felt like an illusion. But I saw it clearly; it wasn't the docile expression I was used to.

He turned his head back, his voice low. "Liora, you should leave."

Liora bit her lip, her eyes instantly welling with tears. She looked at him, then at me, portraying the picture of immense victimhood, but she showed absolutely no fear.

"Ali, I know you were just overwhelmed and needed comfort," she said softly.

The look she gave me was naïve yet fiercely stubborn, as if the person standing in front of her wasn't a pregnant wife, but a villain standing in the way of true love.

"I’ll wait for you," she declared to Alistair, straightening her spine before turning and walking out.

I didn't stop her.

Once she was gone, it was just the two of us left in the office. The baby inside me suddenly became restless, kicking my lower abdomen again and again, as if warning me to stop letting this man deceive me.

Alistair reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked exhausted, like he’d aged ten years overnight.

"Bennett came looking for me again."

I didn’t say anything.

"He insisted I go to the care facility to see my mother." He closed his eyes. "Rosalind doesn't even know who I am anymore. She just sits there, like a living corpse. Every time I see her, I feel like I'm going to end up just like that."

"So that’s why you had to sleep with Liora?"

"It’s not what you think."

"Then what is it?"

His Adam’s apple bobbed, his voice dropping lower. "I've been on edge lately. My father forced me to see her, forced me to confront everything. I’m terrified she’s going to just die one day. I’m terrified of having to stand in front of them all, terrified that I really did inherit her illness and that I'll end up crazy too."

"You were the one who pulled me out of the darkness. But every time I look at you, I remember those three suicide attempts. I remember lying on that gurney. I remember how miserable my past was. Lately, every time I see you, I feel like I can’t breathe."

My fingertips slowly turned ice-cold.

"And Liora?"

"Around her, I'm just a respected professor at Thornbury University," he explained desperately. "She doesn't know about my family. She doesn't know how broken I was. She doesn’t look at me through that lens. She idolizes me, purely idolizes me. I just... needed an outlet."

"An outlet?" I let out a dry laugh. "You call cheating an outlet?"

"I never wanted to hurt you."

"But you already have."

He reached out to touch me, but I turned my body to avoid him.

"You said I was your only light, your anchor. You said I was the only person who made you want to live." I stared at him, finding those past vows sickeningly absurd. "Now I'm your painful memory, and she’s your pure outlet. Alistair, was a single promise you ever made me actually true?"

"I love you."

"You only love yourself."

His face went pale. "Elara, don’t do this."

"I went to therapy with you. I ran interference with Bennett for you. I handled all your never-ending family drama. I am carrying your child, stuck at home on bed rest because I almost miscarried, yet I still cooked for you every day, listened to your misery, and calmed you down every time you broke down." My voice started to shake. "I helped pull you out of the rubble, and you turned around and discarded me—and now you're telling me it’s because looking at me reminds you of the rubble?"

"I didn't discard you!"

"Then what the hell is Liora?"

He had no answer.

A sharp cramp seized my abdomen. I bent over, clutching my stomach tightly. The baby's distress pierced my heart like a needle, and all the grievances I had suppressed finally detonated.

"You only care about your own pain! You’re scared of your mother, scared of your father, scared of going crazy—so you push me and our baby aside!" I glared up at him. "Did you ever think that maybe I’m scared too? I’m scared of losing the baby, scared you’ll hurt yourself again, scared this family is going to shatter right in front of me! But when have you ever considered me?"

"You're completely out of control right now." His voice turned icy. "You’re in here acting like a lunatic!"

That word was the final string snapping.

I lunged forward, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him hard against the edge of the desk.

"Say that again."

Alistair’s eyes changed completely. He grabbed my wrists, his fury breaking through every last bit of his facade.

"Let me go, Elara! Are you crazy?"

Right as we were locked in that standoff, the office door was suddenly forced open.