Chapter 3

Lyra's POV

I stood behind the tree, my heart pounding so hard it felt like it might burst from my chest. The scattered food still steamed on the ground, the thermal container lid thrown far away.

I could keep hiding, pretend it wasn't me, sneak away quietly.

But I didn't want to anymore.

I stepped over the scattered venison and honey cake, slowly emerging from behind the tree.

Moonlight fell on me, illuminating my tear-filled eyes.

The moment Damon saw me, his face went deathly pale. He scrambled away from Scarlett, frantically straightening his clothes.

"Lyra... what are you doing here?"

His voice was trembling.

I looked at him, this man I'd loved for two years. In his eyes now wasn't love or guilt, but the panic of being caught.

"So this is your 'border patrol'?" My voice was calm, so calm it surprised even me.

Scarlett got up from the ground, completely unruffled. She smoothed her hair and sneered at me.

"Oh, it's our failure of an Omega." She said. "What, bringing dinner?"

She saw the food on the ground and laughed even louder.

"Look at this, such a devoted wife. Too bad Damon doesn't need a maid."

My hand gripped the bag strap tightly. The pregnancy report was inside, right within reach. I just had to take it out, tell them I was pregnant, and everything would change.

Damon would be shocked, apologize, say he was wrong. Scarlett would be jealous, angry, would know I wasn't a failure.

My hand was already in the bag, touching the envelope tied with pink ribbon.

But...

Would what I got back this way still be love?

At that thought, I hesitated.

"Lyra, let me explain..." Damon began.

"Explain what?" I cut him off. "Explain why you called me a failure? Explain why you said I was a burden? Or explain why you're waiting for an excuse to abandon me?"

His face grew even paler.

"You heard everything?"

"I heard everything," I said. "Every single word."

Scarlett laughed: "Since you heard it all, that makes things easier. Damon, you don't have to pretend anymore."

She walked to Damon's side and linked her arm through his.

"We truly love each other, unlike some people who only know how to do housework." She looked at me with mockery in her eyes. "Damon needs a woman who can give him heirs, not an infertile decoration."

My heart felt like someone had stabbed it with a knife.

Infertile.

She called me infertile.

My hand touched the pregnancy report, that thin piece of paper now more important than anything.

I could take it out. I could tell them I was pregnant, that I could have children, that I wasn't infertile.

But...

Did I really want to use a child to beg for love from someone who didn't love me at all?

"Lyra," Damon looked at me with disgust I'd never seen before, "Two years, and you've given me nothing. Do you expect me to endure you forever?"

Endure.

He said endure me.

I thought of every day these past two years. Getting up early to make his breakfast, waiting for him to come home for dinner. Washing his clothes, cleaning his room. Being careful not to anger him, desperately trying to please him.

Turns out in his eyes, all of this was a burden. My very existence was pain he had to endure.

My fingers traced the edge of the pregnancy report.

"Yes," I said. "Two years."

"Then let's break up," Scarlett said. "Since everyone knows now, there's no need to keep acting."

She looked at me with triumphant satisfaction.

"Admit it, you're a failed Omega. You don't even have basic reproductive function."

Reproductive function.

They kept talking about this. As if a woman's only value was bearing children. As if I was just a breeding tool, not a person.

"I don't need to prove anything to anyone."

The words came out of my mouth, surprising even myself.

Scarlett paused, then laughed even louder.

"What did you say? You don't need to prove anything? Then what gives you the right to stay with Damon?"

"Just because you're a useless waste?" she continued. "Just because you couldn't produce a single child in two years?"

"Just because all you can do is cook and clean?"

Each word cut like a knife into my heart.

But strangely, I no longer felt pain.

I felt anger.

"You think you're so great?" I looked at her. "You think stealing a man who doesn't love me is something to be proud of?"

Scarlett's smile froze slightly.

"Damon loves me," she said.

"He loves your reproductive ability," I said. "Just like he loved my housekeeping skills. You think what you have is true love?"

I looked at Damon: "Tell her, if someday she couldn't have children either, would you still want her?"

Damon's expression changed.

"Lyra, that's enough," he said.

"I've had enough?" I laughed. "Have I had enough, or are you feeling guilty?"

Scarlett shrieked: "You bitch! You're just jealous that I'm prettier than you, more useful than you!"

"Jealous?" I looked at her. "I'm jealous of a homewrecker who steals other people's boyfriends?"

Her face instantly flushed red.

"I'm not a homewrecker! You're the waste who doesn't deserve Damon!"

"Don't deserve him?" My voice began to tremble, not from fear, but from rage. "And you do? A woman who only knows how to seduce men with her body?"

"What did you say?!" Scarlett lunged at me.

But I was faster.

Two years of suppressed anger, two years of grievance, two years of pain—it all exploded in that moment.

I felt something awaken inside me. My fingernails suddenly grew long and sharp, transforming into razor-sharp claws.

I swiped at her.

Three deep bloody gashes instantly appeared on Scarlett's face, running from her eye to the corner of her mouth.

She screamed and fell to the ground, clutching her face as blood seeped through her fingers.

"Ah—my face! My face!"

Damon stared at me in shock, looking at my claws, at Scarlett on the ground.

"You're insane!" Damon rushed to help her up. "How dare you hurt her!"